Clutterbuck's Treasure

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 385K words
Chapters: 39

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.Clutterbuck's Treasure by Frederick WhishawAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 13, 2014

Editor's review

This is a public-domain English novel from Project Gutenberg, by Frederick Wickshaw. As part of the pioneering ebook project, its value lies first in open access: readers can read a Victorian-style English narrative at no cost, making it an entry point to late nineteenth-century popular English fiction. The title points to a story built around "treasure," typically involving treasure hunting, inheritance, and adventure, with the plot driven by suspense and turns of fortune. It is best read in the context of "public-domain literature": it may not be a famous work of literary history, but it offers plain narrative pleasure and a convenient way to observe the language habits and structural conventions of popular English reading of the period. As an English original catalogued under PR (English literature), it requires some English reading ability; the electronic edition is mainly plain text, suited to fragmented reading on phones and e-readers and to extensive reading by English learners. It is better approached as a relaxed exercise in reading original English than as a classic.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with basic English reading ability who want to try original English fiction
General readers who enjoy traditional treasure-hunting, adventure, and inheritance narratives
English learners needing free public-domain English material for extensive reading
Those interested in the language style of late nineteenth-century popular English fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting classics of literary history; this is not an established classic
Beginners not yet proficient in English who need Chinese support
Readers who prefer modern fast-paced narrative and lack patience for old-fashioned prose

Reading tips

Read a few pages first to judge the language difficulty, then decide between intensive and extensive reading to avoid abandoning it midway.
Proceed chapter by chapter; after each chapter, summarize the plot in one or two sentences to keep track of the threads.
Guess unfamiliar words from context first; look up only those essential to the main thread.
Read alongside other public-domain adventure novels to observe the narrative conventions of the genre.

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? How difficult is it?

It is an English original, catalogued under PR (English literature). The language is late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century English narrative prose, with sentence patterns and vocabulary somewhat older than modern English. Readers with college-level English or a long habit of reading English will find it accessible; beginners may need a dictionary.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project offering free ebooks, and this book is its public-domain electronic text, freely available. The edition is mainly plain text with plain formatting and no modern publisher's notes or introduction; it is suited to direct reading on electronic devices and easy to copy and search.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

It can be used as extensive reading material but not as a systematic textbook. Its value lies in providing an authentic long-form English narrative context that helps familiarize readers with older expressions and narrative rhythm. Focus on understanding the plot rather than analyzing every sentence; for study, alternate it with modern English reading materials.

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About the author

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Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.