Athaliah cover

Athaliah

Rating 4.2
Word count
534K words
Chapters
54

Tags

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.Athalie by Robert W. ChambersAuthor: Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William), 1865-1933,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 27, 2008

Editor's review

Robert W. Chambers is known for weird and suspense fiction, and Athalie continues his gift for atmosphere: unease lies beneath a calm surface, and the story is driven by detail and suspense rather than blunt scares. This original English edition is released free by Project Gutenberg, and its length suits a single short reading session. Its value lies in showing how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century popular fiction handled mystery, especially appealing to readers who like Gothic atmosphere and psychological suspense. Note how the narrator's limited information and scene descriptions together create tension, then revisit key passages afterward to see where the author planted his threads.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • English-fiction readers who enjoy Gothic atmosphere and psychological suspense
  • Readers wanting to know Chambers's weird-fiction style
  • Those needing short original English texts for reading practice
  • Readers interested in late nineteenth-century Anglo-American popular literature

Not a good fit for

  • Readers of orthodox detective fiction expecting fair-play puzzles
  • Readers who struggle with English and need a Chinese parallel text
  • Impatient readers who prefer fast pacing and strong plot

Reading tips

  1. Read it in one sitting to keep the suspense continuous; pausing weakens the buildup of atmosphere.
  2. Note scene and weather descriptions, often key to building mood.
  3. After finishing, revisit the opening chapters to check the clues the author planted early.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54

FAQ

Is Athalie a detective novel?
It is closer to popular fiction with mystery and suspense, focused on atmosphere and suspense rather than a rigorous puzzle readers can solve. Expectations of orthodox detective fiction may be disappointed.
Is it related to Racine's tragedy Athalie?
Not directly. This is a novel by Robert W. Chambers; it shares only the title with the French playwright Racine's tragedy, and both content and genre differ.
How difficult is the English?
It is late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century popular English fiction, with generally plain syntax and vocabulary, though some descriptions are dense. Readers with general English ability can finish it with a dictionary.

Comments

Find this book

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

Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) was an American novelist active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His birth and death years and nationality are relatively clear in public sources, though detailed biographical information and educational background remain limited. He was a prolific writer, with 38 works held in the collection. He is best known for the short-story collection The King in Yellow, which blends weird, horror, and supernatural elements and became an important early work of weird fiction, exerting a certain influence on later horror and fantasy writing. Beyond weird fiction, his works also span romance, historical, and popular fiction, including Athalie, The Mystery of Choice, The Hidden Children, The Common Law, The Dark Star, In Search of the Unknown, and The Slayer of Souls, demonstrating a diversity of subjects and styles. Overall, his writing is notable for atmospheric construction and narrative tension, securing him a place in popular literature and the weird tradition.

More by the same author

Top rated in the same category