What's-His-Name

McCutcheon, George Barr, 1866-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
253K words
Chapters
26

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Social ObservationPortrait GalleryTurning PointLove EntanglementsMistaken IdentityUrban RomanceComic ToneDaily ReflectionsLight ReadingHumor Relief

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.What's-His-Name by George Barr McCutcheonAuthor: McCutcheon, George Barr, 1866-1928,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 6, 2009

Editor's review

What's-His-Name is an English novel by George Barr McCutcheon, now available as a free public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg. McCutcheon was known for light, humorous popular fiction; this book falls under American literature and suits readers curious about early twentieth-century American popular narrative. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies in being free, searchable, and portable—a handy introductory sample of the era's popular fiction. Readers should not expect deep social critique; it is better enjoyed as light entertainment with a playful title and character names. For those studying popular literature or McCutcheon's work, this ebook offers a convenient original text; for readers used only to modern genre fiction, its pacing may feel dated.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read a few pages first to get a feel for the rhythm, then decide whether to read straight through or selectively.
  2. Treat it as light reading—a chapter or two a day, without rushing.
  3. Compare with other McCutcheon works to understand his humorous popular style.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26

FAQ

Does the title have any special meaning? The title What's-His-Name is itself playful and light, hinting at amusing ambiguity in a character's name or identity; the specifics emerge in reading, so the title alone should not be taken as a summary of the book's themes.
Is McCutcheon's fiction a good introduction to American literature? His works are mostly popular humorous fiction with relatively plain language and brisk plots—an easy entry into early twentieth-century American popular literature, though not representative of the highest or deepest achievements of American letters.
Does this ebook include notes or an introduction? Project Gutenberg editions typically provide only the public-domain original electronic text, without modern notes, introductions, or translations; readers wanting background should consult literary histories or studies of the author.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

McCutcheon, George Barr, 1866-1928 Author

George Barr McCutcheon (1866–1928) was an American novelist, though public information about his life and education is limited. The library holds 35 of his works, including Brewster's Millions, The Rose in the Ring, From the Housetops, Mr. Bingle, Her Weight in Gold, The City of Masks, The Flyers, and The Prince of Graustark. He is known for light, humorous popular fiction with clever plots and lively dialogue, often dealing with themes of wealth, identity, and romance. Brewster's Millions, famous for its premise of having to spend a fortune in order to inherit one, has been adapted for film and television many times and remains influential; the Graustark novels display his romantic imagination in the invented-kingdom genre. Overall, he was a widely read American popular novelist of the early twentieth century, valued for his entertaining and accessible storytelling.