Break a Leg

James Judson HarmonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 45K words
Chapters: 5

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.Break a Leg by Jim HarmonAuthor: Harmon, Jim, 1933-2010,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 28, 2016

Editor's review

Break a Leg by Jim Harmon is an English-language literary work included in Project Gutenberg and classified under American and Canadian literature. As a novel from an early free eBook project, its value lies more in documentary preservation and as a reading sample than as a contemporary bestseller. Harmon's writing often carries genre coloring, and the title itself echoes the theatrical good-luck phrase; readers may look for possible performance, stage, or entertainment-industry settings and get a feel for English popular narrative of the mid-to-late twentieth century. It need not be judged by the standards of a classic in structure; it can be treated as a window onto the popular literary ecology of its time, suitable for reading chapter by chapter in fragmented moments such as commuting or before sleep. Since the available material provides only bibliographic information, readers are advised to read the opening chapters first to judge whether the narrative pace matches their taste, then decide whether to read closely or skim. For readers studying Project Gutenberg's selections or the threads of American genre fiction, this book can also serve as lightweight supplementary material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in twentieth-century English popular fiction
Readers studying Project Gutenberg selections and early eBooks
Readers who enjoy stories with stage and entertainment-industry settings
Learners seeking light English-language extensive reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the strong plotting and fast pace of contemporary bestsellers
Readers needing systematic literary-history textbooks or authoritative annotated editions
Readers with limited stamina for reading English originals who rely on sentence-by-sentence translation

Reading tips

Read the first three chapters as a trial to confirm whether the narrative style and subject suit your taste before continuing.
Use it as English extensive reading material, reading one or two chapters a day and noting new words.
Watch for details of stage and entertainment settings and appreciate the period context.
After finishing, look up other works by Harmon for comparison.

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 in Chinese or English?

According to the bibliographic data, the book is in English and classified under American and Canadian literature, so a certain level of English reading ability is required. If your English is weak, you can read with a dictionary or bilingual reference tools.

Why is Project Gutenberg mentioned repeatedly in the recommendations?

Because the book is released by Project Gutenberg, a project known for free eBooks. Understanding this background helps readers grasp how the book is accessed and its documentary status: it is a public digital resource, not a commercial publication in today's new-book market.

There is no content summary, so how do I judge whether it is worth reading?

Read the opening chapters first to get a feel for the style and subject, then decide in light of your own interest in English popular fiction. If you prefer strong plots or classics, you may find it plain; if you enjoy exploring older popular literature, it is worth a try.

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

James Judson Harmon Author · American · 1933–2010

Jim Harmon (Harmon, Jim, 1933–2010), born James Judson Harmon in Mount Carmel, Illinois, was an American short-story writer and historian of popular culture. In the 1950s and 1960s he contributed dozens of short stories to science fiction magazines such as Galaxy and If, writing with a light, ingenious touch and finding fantasy in everyday situations; his representative pieces were collected in Harmon's Galaxy. Other titles in the collection, including Confidence Game, Break a Leg, Measure for a Loner, No Substitutions, Name Your Symptom, Charity Case, The Air of Castor Oil and Always a Qurono, show the variety of his short fiction. He is also known for his studies of the golden age of American radio, notably The Great Radio Heroes, which earned him the nickname "Mr. Nostalgia." Public information on the details of his life is limited, and existing accounts center on his science fiction shorts and his writing on nostalgia and popular culture.