Thoughts on G. A. Henty books

[Luanne]

Have any of you read these and/or used them with your children?

[Mostlyamom]

Cat of Bubastes read by Jim Weiss is great!

[KarenNC]

We tried listening to Weiss' recording of "Cat of Bubastes" but could not continue with it. Didn't work for us at all.

[Shelly in IL]

We, however, do like them. My husband and son both found "For the Temple" a wonderful, exciting book. (I haven't read that one, yet). I read "Knight of the White Cross" and found that a very good read.

 

They are hard to get into at first. Old fashioned language is hard to read. However, once you get through the first 3 chapters, your brain is up to speed and the story comes through. I feel smarter for having had to rise to the challenge of decoding these books. I think my 6th grade son benefits from this "brain stretching" and his vocabulary and reading skills soar!

 

So, you may not like them. It depends on what you wish to get from them. The stories are very good, in my opinion.

 

Oh, yeah, "In the Reign of Terror" was another good book of his.

[Shelly in IL]

A steady diet of any reading style will get monotonous. So, if you're interested, sprinkle them through your literature selections. It is very neat, to me, that they match up with the timeline!

[KarenNC]

They are hard to get into at first. Old fashioned language is hard to read. However, once you get through the first 3 chapters, your brain is up to speed and the story comes through. I feel smarter for having had to rise to the challenge of decoding these books. I think my 6th grade son benefits from this "brain stretching" and his vocabulary and reading skills soar!

 

For us it was not the language but the worldview that was a challenge. We read/listen to many books that have similarly dense language (including Shakespeare in the original, Dickens, Jules Verne, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc), so the language presented no issues at all.

 

What I found was a lot of the things I really disliked about some Victorian writers without enough of the things I do like about them to balance that out. I agree that using books with complex language, including that which is outside of one's day to day experience, is a worthy goal. Reading good literature that has a different worldview can also be very enriching and a good teaching tool. I just didn't find Henty to be the kind of writer that gave enough value to our experience to be worth the time that would be required to use his books in that manner, frankly. There are other authors and other texts that I feel do the same things in a more effective and enjoyable manner.

 

As has been said, you may find your experience to be different. Take a look at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Henty%2C%20G.%20A.%20(George%20Alfred)%2C%201832-1902 and you will be better able to judge for yourself without having to buy them. If you like them and like audiobooks (which I find saves my voice), Jim Weiss has recorded a number of them http://www.fun-books.com/books/Jim_Weiss_Henty_Recordings.htm.

[monk17]

We read one, I can't remember the title but it was about the civil war. It was based on a plantation in Virginia and there point of view before, during and after the war of northern aggression. I would say it was a good example of post war southern propaganda. I think I remember reading that Henty had never visited Virginia but I could be wrong. His other books might be fine but we stopped after that experience.

 

[Sue G in PA]

Cat of Bubastes read by Jim Weiss is great!

 

:iagree: Some of the language might be too difficult for younger dc to read on their own, but it is certainly a story worth listening to! My dd11 and ds9 really got into it. I will warn you...it is slow going in the beginning. For the first several chapters at least, you are wondering what the significance of the title is and wondering when the story will "pick up". Once it does, it is a great story of adventure. I probably enjoyed it more than my dc! We also have the book version and when dd gets to Ancients in hs I will probably have her read it for herself.

[OnEaglesWings]

LOVED Cat of Bubastes !!! We listened to it on CD (Jim Weiss). Awesome!

 

Kim

[Linda in NE]

We've read a number of Henty's books along with our history studies. My boys, 11 and 13, really like the stories. The vocabulary is challenging, and the story lines are fairly true to "history." That's not to say that Henty doesn't have a personal viewpoint, or worldview. He was a Victorian. England usually comes off looking pretty good in his books, even in those dealing with the English conquest in India and elsewhere. As for his American Civil War book, With Lee in Virginia, I think it was pretty true to the "English" viewpoint on the War. Many English were rooting for the South to win its independence and, in the process, giving those revolutionary "colonists" in the North their come uppance.

[monk17]

That's not to say that Henty doesn't have a personal viewpoint, or worldview. He was a Victorian. As for his American Civil War book, With Lee in Virginia, I think it was pretty true to the "English" viewpoint on the War. Many English were rooting for the South to win its independence and, in the process, giving those revolutionary "colonists" in the North their come uppance.

 

Well maybe, but England had long abolished slavery and most folks in England were pretty much against it. A number of other depictions in the book are pretty inaccurate as I recall. The conditions in the northern prison, the ship battle and a few others are fabricated.

When I see some major historical inaccuracies it makes me question the rest of his body of work. Great adventure yarns but I wouldn't go to the bank on the historical accuracy.

 

[Nestof3]

My oldest son just loves them. He's enjoyed them for many years. My 8 year old has listened to one of them, and enjoyed it as well.