When Life Was Young

C. A. StephensProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 715K words
Chapters: 72

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.When Life Was Young by C. A. StephensAuthor: Stephens, C. A. (Charles Asbury), 1844-1931,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Oct 22, 2008

Editor's review

When Life Was Young is a juvenile-life work by Charles Asbury Stephens, classified as juvenile literature. The author long wrote stories drawn from rural childhood and growing-up experience, in a gentle tone that values everyday detail and the plain emotions between characters. The book's strength lies not in strong plot conflict but in its laying out of life fragments from a boy's perspective: family, countryside, companions, and small events of growing up form the narrative body, giving a sense of nostalgia and documentary realism. For Chinese readers it can serve as an introductory text to the landscape of English-language juvenile literature from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century; the language is moderately difficult and the length suits reading in installments. Readers need not seek dramatic turns but should notice how the narrator observes childhood experience and how the work presents growth in plain strokes. Suitable as extensive English reading material or as a discussion text for parent-child reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate learners who want extensive English reading
Readers interested in youth growth and rural life
Parents or teachers seeking material for parent-child discussion

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced narrative
Research-oriented readers needing highly difficult academic texts

Reading tips

Proceed chapter by chapter; after each, briefly summarize the main events from the boy's perspective.
English learners can mark everyday expressions and dialogue to build narrative vocabulary.
For parent-child reading, hold short discussions on growth and family topics.

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.

FAQ

How difficult is the English in this book?

Overall it is moderately easy narrative English, with short sentences and many everyday words, though it carries late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century expression habits. Readers with intermediate reading ability can get through it with a dictionary, and it works well as extensive reading material.

Is this book suitable as children's reading?

The book belongs to juvenile literature, centered on boyhood life and growing-up experience, with a gentle tone. Whether it suits children of a specific age depends on the child's English level and reading habits; for children in a Chinese-language environment, a parent or teacher should read alongside and provide background explanation.

Comments

Find this book

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

C. A. Stephens Author · American · 1844–1931

C. A. Stephens (1844–1931) was an American writer born in Norway, Maine. For nearly sixty years he wrote almost exclusively for the magazine The Youth's Companion, producing some three thousand short stories, most of them set in the rural adventures of New England and collected in volumes such as A Busy Year at the Old Squire's. His work often centers on young people's lives and explorations in the countryside, and his representative books also include When Life Was Young and Left on Labrador. He received an M.D. from Boston University in 1887. Public information is limited; his style is plain and natural, drawing adventure and coming-of-age stories from everyday rural experience, and he holds a place in American juvenile periodical literature.