Project Gutenberg 2025-02-07 Public domain in the USA. 174 Holmes, Mary Jane 1825 1907 Holmes, Mary Jane (Hawes) Holmes, Mary J. Paul Ralston : $b A novel $aNew York :$bG. W. Dillingham, $c1896, copyright 1897. Reading ease score: 77.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) "Paul Ralston" by Mary Jane Holmes is a novel written in the late 19th century. The story introduces us to the character of Miss Phebe Hansford, a long-time resident of Oak City, who observes the arrival of summer visitors and reflects on her life and the changing times around her. The novel explores her relationships and the community dynamics, particularly focusing on Paul Ralston, a young man who has returned home after traveling abroad, and his connection with Miss Hansford, highlighting themes of friendship, change, and traditional values. At the start of the novel, we meet Miss Hansford as she anticipates the arrival of summer guests in Oak City, hoping for a profitable season. While she watches the boat come in, her thoughts drift to her past and her family, revealing her nostalgia and strong opinions about the modern changes in her community. She eagerly observes Paul Ralston, a favored friend from her past, who unexpectedly appears, sparking memories and deeper reflections about life, her family, and the changes in society. As conversations unfold, Miss Hansford's character is established—she is practical yet sentimental, with a strong moral compass and a critical view of the evolving fashions and behaviors of the people around her. Their interactions set the stage for the relationships and conflicts that will develop throughout the story, particularly in relation to Paul’s engagement to Clarice Percy and Miss Hansford's opinions about the characters within her world. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008690170 20210115130939holmes 1896 US en American fiction -- 19th century PS Text Browsing: Literature Browsing: Fiction 797589 2025-02-28T21:41:24.008612 text/html 771896 2025-02-07T13:56:40 text/html 531849 2025-02-28T21:41:35.884579 application/epub+zip 528148 2025-02-28T21:41:26.386662 application/epub+zip 445463 2025-02-28T21:41:25.149626 application/epub+zip 765027 2025-02-28T21:41:42.842565 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 714930 2025-02-28T21:41:34.662585 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 718086 2025-02-28T21:41:22.505644 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 698228 2025-02-07T13:56:40 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 13862 2025-02-28T21:41:42.986541 application/rdf+xml 8577 2025-02-28T21:41:25.468607 image/jpeg 1859 2025-02-28T21:41:25.305624 image/jpeg 693390 2025-02-28T21:41:24.083654 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia