A Citizen of Calais E-Book

Marie Belloc Lowndes

• Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

In "A Citizen of Calais," Marie Belloc Lowndes crafts a compelling narrative that intertwines themes of identity, societal expectation, and the quest for freedom in the tumultuous backdrop of the French Revolution. The novel employs a vivid literary style, weaving intricate characterizations and immersive settings that draw the reader into the complexities of life during a period marked by upheaval and transformation. The story centers around the lives of individuals caught in the throes of historic change, providing a poignant exploration of personal agency against a backdrop of collective turmoil, evocative of the works of contemporaries who sought to address the human condition through historical fiction. Marie Belloc Lowndes, an eloquent storyteller and perceptive social commentator, was profoundly influenced by her experiences in England and her interest in French society, which can be traced to her lineage. Her background likely instilled in her a keen awareness of the cultural and political shifts she explores in this novel. Belloc Lowndes was celebrated for her ability to delve into the psychological dimensions of her characters, particularly in times of crisis, illuminating the struggles of ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances. "A Citizen of Calais" is not merely a tale of history; it is an invitation to reflect on the resilience of the human spirit. Readers with an interest in historical literature or the interplay between personal choice and societal forces will find this work particularly rewarding. Belloc Lowndes' ability to intertwine human emotion with historical events makes this novel a significant contribution to the genre and a must-read for those seeking depth and authenticity in literature. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

Leseprobe

Marie Belloc Lowndes

A Citizen of Calais

Enriched edition. Redemption and Loyalty in 19th-Century Calais

In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience.

Introduction, Studies and Commentaries by Collin Booth

Edited and published by Good Press, 2022

[email protected]

EAN 4064066310660

Table of Contents

Introduction

Synopsis

Historical Context

A Citizen of Calais

Analysis

Reflection

Memorable Quotes

Notes

Introduction

Table of Contents

When the fragile bond between belonging and conscience is strained by fear, rumor, and the demands of public life, a single citizen learns how identity is forged where private duty meets the gaze of the crowd, in a place defined as much by thresholds and crossings as by the weight of its own history, and discovers that honor is not a banner to raise but a burden to carry through the ordinary rooms where choices are made and remembered, as love, fear, and reputation press from every side.

A Citizen of Calais is a work by Marie Belloc Lowndes, an Anglo‑French novelist renowned for psychologically acute fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Best known for The Lodger, Lowndes built her reputation on intimate studies of moral pressure and social scrutiny. The title evokes Calais, the channel port whose long historical visibility makes it a suggestive emblem of borders, passage, and civic identity. Readers approaching this book can expect Lowndes’s characteristic attention to atmosphere and motive, with an interest in how public narratives intersect with private motives and in how communities observe, judge, and are changed by their members.

Without disclosing events, it is enough to note that the narrative focuses on the human texture of belonging: how a person’s status, safety, and self‑respect can hinge on what neighbors believe and what they need to believe. Lowndes’s fiction typically moves with measured confidence, privileging close observation over display and psychological inquiry over overt sensationalism. The result is a reading experience that feels intimate but unsettling, attentive to small gestures, silences, and the social rituals that either protect or expose an individual. The mood is one of quiet tension, sustained by ethical ambiguity and by the slow clarifying of what people owe to one another.

Several themes stand out. Citizenship is treated not merely as a legal condition but as a lived, daily practice shaped by memory, obligation, and mutual surveillance. Truth and rumor contend for authority, revealing how narratives create reality inside a community. Pride, shame, and duty form an unstable triangle, with compassion complicating every tidy moral reckoning. And the border implied by the title—between nations, classes, or simply the public and the private—becomes a metaphor for the liminal places where choices are most difficult and most consequential. Lowndes’s restrained approach invites readers to weigh motives rather than rush to judgment.

Such concerns have obvious contemporary resonance. Questions about who belongs, who speaks for a community, and how fear distorts judgment are not confined to any one time or place. Readers today may find in this book a clear mirror for debates about borders and migration, about civic courage and social conformity, and about the ethics of witnessing others’ peril. The story’s emphasis on perception—what can be known, what is guessed, and what is willed into belief—anticipates modern anxieties about misinformation while keeping the focus squarely on individual responsibility amid collective pressure.

Lowndes’s craft amplifies these ideas. Her prose, typically lucid and steady, favors the gradual accumulation of detail; rooms, streets, and faces matter because they reveal character under quiet stress. She tends to stage moral conflict in everyday settings, where the ordinary carries unusual weight, and she builds suspense by narrowing the gap between what readers can infer and what characters can admit. That method keeps the reader close to the stakes without resorting to spectacle. The effect is not only engrossing but intellectually clarifying, asking us to consider how dignity is sustained—or surrendered—when reputation, safety, and principle converge.

Approached in this spirit, A Citizen of Calais offers a reflective, suspense‑tinged meditation on the costs and consolations of belonging. It is a book for readers who appreciate moral complexity, social nuance, and the kind of tension that arises when private decency meets public scrutiny. Rather than promising easy catharsis, it invites careful attention—listening for what characters cannot say as much as for what they proclaim. That invitation rewards patience with insight, leaving us to ponder how a life becomes exemplary—or cautionary—under the watchful eyes of others, and how the meaning of citizenship is made real in acts both visible and unseen.