FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   >>   >|  
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Deerbrook, by Harriet Martineau This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Deerbrook Author: Harriet Martineau Release Date: January 7, 2008 [EBook #24210] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEERBROOK *** Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Deerbrook, by Harriet Martineau. ________________________________________________________________________ Harriet Martineau was the daughter of a Norwich textile manufacturer of Huguenot descent--hence the name and trade. In 1829 the bank in which she, her mother and her sisters, had placed their money, failed and she was forced to earn a living through writing, at which she was very talented, particularly on political issues, such as the poverty facing a family on the death of the wage-earner. In 1839, after her travels in America, she wrote two long novels, of which Deerbrook was one, and a book about Toussaint L'Ouverture the other. This book, therefore gives great insight into the lives of upper middle class families of the mid nineteenth century. No one in families these days talks to the rest of the family in the polite, perhaps over-polite, terms used in this book. For this reason, though it was not meant to be taken as such, this book is a true social document. ________________________________________________________________________ DEERBROOK, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. CHAPTER ONE. AN EVENT. Every town-bred person who travels in a rich country region, knows what it is to see a neat white house planted in a pretty situation,--in a shrubbery, or commanding a sunny common, or nestling between two hills,--and to say to himself, as the carriage sweeps past its gate, "I should like to live there,"--"I could be very happy in that pretty place." Transient visions pass before his mind's eye of dewy summer mornings, when the shadows are long on the grass, and of bright autumn afternoons, when it would be luxury to saunter in the neighbouring lanes; and of frosty winter days, when the sun shines in over the laurustinus at the window, while the fire burns with a different light from that which it gives in the dull parlours of a city.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Martineau

 
Harriet
 

Deerbrook

 

pretty

 

DEERBROOK

 
families
 
family
 
travels
 

polite

 

Gutenberg


Project

 
planted
 

country

 
region
 

shrubbery

 
nestling
 

common

 

commanding

 

situation

 

social


reason

 
document
 

carriage

 
person
 

HARRIET

 

MARTINEAU

 
CHAPTER
 
neighbouring
 

frosty

 

winter


saunter

 

luxury

 
bright
 

autumn

 

afternoons

 
shines
 

laurustinus

 

parlours

 

window

 
Transient

visions

 

summer

 

mornings

 

shadows

 

sweeps

 

Huguenot

 
manufacturer
 

descent

 
textile
 

Norwich