Army Boys on the Firing Line or, Holding Back the German Drive

Homer RandallProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4

Word count: 247K words
Chapters: 25

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.Army Boys on the Firing Line; or, Holding Back the German Drive by Homer RandallAuthor: Randall, Homer,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 3, 2007

Editor's review

This is a juvenile military adventure novel by Homer Randall, a type of battlefield story common in early twentieth-century American young adult literature, classified under juvenile belles lettres in Language and Literatures. The story follows a group of boys who go to war, with the core plot centering on holding their ground and checking the German advance, bearing clear marks of its era and an adventurous flavor. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, its value lies mainly in preservation and public-domain reading: readers can observe the narrative patterns, hero construction, and wartime imagination of American juvenile reading matter during World War I, which is especially meaningful for those interested in the history of children's literature, war propaganda, and popular literature. The plot moves briskly with dense action description, making it a suitable sample for understanding juvenile military fiction from a century ago. It should be noted that the work carries the conceptual limitations of its time, and its language and narrative techniques are distant from contemporary works. It is recommended to approach it with a historical reading eye, treating it as a freely available period text rather than a classic pursued for literary depth.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in British and American juvenile adventure fiction of the World War I era
Students and scholars studying the history of children's literature and popular war-themed reading matter
English learners who need free public-domain English reading material for practice
Young readers who enjoy military adventure stories and can accept old-fashioned narration

Not a good fit for

Serious fiction readers expecting profound literary quality and complex character portrayal
Readers sensitive to war depictions or averse to military themes
Learners with weak English reading foundations who would struggle with old-fashioned expression

Reading tips

Begin with the preface or publication information to understand the work's historical background and its positioning as juvenile reading matter.
Read bilingually if possible, noting unfamiliar military vocabulary and old-fashioned expressions separately.
After finishing, consult historical materials on World War I to compare the book's wartime imagination with historical reality.

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

Is this book suitable for English beginners?

Not very suitable for complete beginners. This is an early twentieth-century English juvenile novel whose sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of its era, with many military and nautical terms. It is better suited to readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to look up words; a bilingual edition can also be used to reduce difficulty.

Is this a complete novel or an excerpt?

According to Project Gutenberg's catalog information, this is the complete electronic text of Homer Randall's juvenile military adventure novel and is a free public-domain eBook. The specific chapters and layout depend on the electronic version actually downloaded; readers may check the file's table of contents before reading to confirm its structure.

Do I need prior knowledge of World War I history to read this book?

Systematic prior study is not necessary, but understanding the basic background of the German advance and Allied defense in World War I will make it easier to grasp the plot setup of "holding back the German drive" and the characters' motivations. If you only want to read an adventure story, you can read it directly and supplement the historical background afterward.

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

Homer Randall Author

Homer Randall was an early twentieth-century author of juvenile military adventure fiction. Very little is known about his life: his nationality and dates of birth and death are uncertain, his background remains obscure, and public information about him is limited. He is known for the "Army Boys" series, published in New York by George Sully & Company between 1918 and 1919; four titles from the series are held here, including Army Boys in France or, From Training Camp to Trenches, Army Boys on the Firing Line or, Holding Back the German Drive, Army Boys on German Soil: Our Doughboys Quelling the Mobs, and Army Boys in the French Trenches or, Hand to Hand Fighting with the Enemy. Set during the First World War, the books follow several young Americans from training camp to the trenches of France, combining combat, friendship, and patriotism in fast-paced plots with a strong period propaganda flavor, making them a useful sample of American juvenile military adventure writing of the era.