Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
654K words
Chapters
66

Tags

English Originals War and Military Fiction Military AdventureHistorical ReappraisalMilitary StrategyRusso-Japanese WarBoy HeroPatriotismDocumentary NarrativeTurbulent EraForeign BattlefieldSocial Observation

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.Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War by Herbert StrangAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 21, 2013

Editor's review

This is a boys' adventure novel by Herbert Strang set against the Russo-Japanese War, centered on the experiences of the protagonist Brown around Mukden (present-day Shenyang), combining historical atmosphere with adventure narrative. The work is public-domain juvenile literature in English, moderate in length, with brisk plotting; it lets readers experience, through a boy's perspective, the tense environment and personal choices around the battlefield in early twentieth-century Northeast China. Its value lies not in rigorous military history but in presenting, in story form, courage, friendship, and growth under the shadow of war. It is suitable as an entry-level English original for reading practice and as further reading for those interested in literature of the Russo-Japanese War period. Read it as a product of its time and note the narrative biases of a Western author of that era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Learn the basic background of the Russo-Japanese War and the Battle of Mukden first; the characters' situations will then be easier to follow.
  2. Proceed chapter by chapter and summarize the plot in one or two English sentences after each chapter, combining reading practice with comprehension.
  3. Mark unfamiliar place names and personal names and look them up together afterward, so as not to interrupt the reading rhythm.
  4. After reading, compare with historical writing on the same subject to distinguish fictional narrative from historical fact.

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
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66

FAQ

What English level is this book suitable for? The text is an early boys' adventure novel. Sentence structure is generally clear, but it contains many period expressions and military and place-name vocabulary. It suits readers with intermediate English who can finish an ordinary English novel with a dictionary. Beginners can try a few chapters first before deciding whether to read the whole book.
Is the story closely tied to the history of the Russo-Japanese War? The novel uses the Russo-Japanese War as its background and draws on the wartime environment around Mukden to develop the characters' adventures, but its focus is on story and character growth rather than a systematic account of the campaign. It can be read as literature that conveys the atmosphere of the period; for historical facts, consult specialized histories.
Why should I pay attention to the author's narrative perspective while reading? The work dates from the early twentieth century and carries the perspectives and vocabulary habits of a Western author of that time toward war and different peoples. While enjoying the story, readers should stay alert and understand its biased statements in historical context rather than as objective conclusions.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

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