Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City: His Progress and Adventures

Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford), 1860-1914Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 3.2
Word count
653K words
Chapters
66

Tags

Motivation and Growth Portrait GalleryAdventure JourneyFate and FortuneInspirationComplex HumanityComing of AgeGrowing UpHumor ReliefHeartwarming NarrativeUrban Life

Summary

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Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City: His Progress and Adventures by S. R. Crockett

Author: Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford), 1860-1914,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 24, 2015

Editor's review

This is an electronic edition of Crockett's novel Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City, a work of English literature. The title and subtitle indicate that it tells of the growth and adventures of Cleg Kelly, a street boy of the city, and it has the flavour of the urban lower-class narrative common in nineteenth-century British popular fiction. The available information gives no plot details, evaluations or sales figures, so its literary standing should not be assumed. Its value to readers lies mainly in this: it can serve as a sample for understanding late nineteenth-century British urban fiction and popular narrative, and can also be used for reading practice in English narrative texts. Readers should pay attention to character perspective, descriptions of urban space and the organisation of adventure plot, and should note how poverty and vagrant children are handled in the context of the period, avoiding simple judgments by contemporary standards.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to grasp the protagonist's situation and the narrative tone, then decide the reading pace
  2. While reading, note descriptions of urban space and character relationships to better understand the adventure structure
  3. When encountering period expressions, first infer from context, then check them together after finishing

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
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  11. 11
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  31. 31
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  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
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  40. 40
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  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
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  60. 60
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  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
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  66. 66

FAQ

What kind of novel is this book? Judging from the title and subtitle, it is a coming-of-age adventure novel with a city street boy as the protagonist, set in nineteenth-century urban Britain. The available information gives no detailed plot; the specific content must be confirmed by reading the original.
Can it be understood without notes? The original is in English and contains period expressions, with no modern notes. Readers with good English reading ability can finish it with a dictionary; beginners may encounter obstacles in old-fashioned usage and city slang.
Is it suitable for children? It should not be recommended directly as a children's book. It deals with the urban lower classes and vagrant children, and its historical background and values require adult guidance. Parents should look through it first before deciding whether it suits a child of a particular age.

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About the author

Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford), 1860-1914 Author

S. R. Crockett (Samuel Rutherford Crockett, 1860–1914) was a Scottish novelist, though public information about the details of his life is limited. The collection here contains seventeen of his works, known for historical romance and love stories. His representative work The Men of the Moss-Hags draws on Scottish history with vivid narrative, while The Lilac Sunbonnet: A Love Story shows his delicate handling of romance. The Standard Bearer, The Red Axe, and Lochinvar: A Novel continue a style that intertwines adventure and history. He also depicts the turmoil of the 1871 Commune in southern France in A Tatter of Scarlet and recreates the Wars of Religion in The White Plumes of Navarre. His works are often classified as inspirational coming-of-age fiction, frequently portraying characters who hold fast to their convictions through hardship, with brisk plots and a strong sense of local color and period atmosphere.