Behind the Throne cover

Behind the Throne

Rating 2.9
Word count
507K words
Chapters
51

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.Behind the Throne by William Le QueuxAuthor: Le Queux, William, 1864-1927,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 23, 2012

Editor's review

This is an English novel by William Le Queux, part of the Project Gutenberg free eBook collection. Le Queux was active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century and was known for suspense and intrigue. The book revolves around secrets behind the court and power, with the plot driven by gaps in information and characters maneuvering around one another, giving it the tight pacing of old-fashioned popular fiction. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies first in accessibility: readers can enjoy a complete English novel at no cost, making it a good way to experience the rhythm and language habits of popular storytelling from that era. It is best read as language material and a genre sample rather than as historical research; the book imagines court intrigue more than it documents it, so attention should go to how suspense is built and character motives are laid out. It suits reading in segments on a commute or before bed, and works as an entry point into English-language originals, with length and difficulty reasonably friendly to readers with some vocabulary foundation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • English readers who enjoy old-fashioned suspense and intrigue fiction
  • Learners who want to practice reading a full-length English novel with public-domain eBooks
  • Readers interested in popular literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
  • Readers who need free English reading material to fill spare moments

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting rigorous historical research or real court archives
  • Readers who prefer modern fast-paced storytelling and a concise style
  • Beginners with weak English vocabulary who need annotated support

Reading tips

  1. Read the first two or three chapters to confirm the character relationships, then decide whether to read closely or skim
  2. Keep a simple chart of characters and factions and note clues as you go
  3. Guess unfamiliar words from context first, then look them up together after finishing a chapter
  4. Compare with other works by the same author to observe how his suspense techniques repeat and vary

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

FAQ

Is this book a historical record or a fictional novel?
The materials show it is a literary work by William Le Queux, classified under English literature, so it should be read as fictional narrative and not cited as material for court history.
How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for beginners?
It is an old-fashioned popular novel, with sentence patterns and wording that carry the marks of its time; it reads more smoothly with some vocabulary already in place. Complete beginners are advised to start with a retold or bilingual edition as a bridge.
Why does the publication information say 2019?
That is the release record for the Project Gutenberg electronic version. The original work is much older, and the author died in 1927, so it is a free public-domain eBook.

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About the author

William Le Queux (1864–1927) was a British writer of popular fiction, with 74 of his works held in this collection. He is best known for invasion-scare and spy-adventure stories; The Invasion of 1910, which depicts a German invasion of Britain and the siege of London, drew considerable attention in its day, and The Great War in England in 1897 belongs to the same vein. His other works centre on mystery, intrigue and international espionage, such as The Zeppelin Destroyer, The Secrets of Potsdam, The Closed Book: Concerning the Secret of the Borgias and The Golden Face: A Great ‘Crook’ Romance, all marked by tight plotting and dense suspense. Le Queux often set fictional crises against real places to create a sense of urgency, and his work had some influence on the development of early spy fiction and thrillers. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.

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