Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia

Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1
Word count
697K words
Chapters
70

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Political OppressionDaring EscapeHeroismGrowing UpStruggle for FreedomFast-Paced NarrativeExotic CultureSocial ObservationSiberiaYouth Reading

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.Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia by G. A. HentyAuthor: Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 19, 2008

Editor's review

This work is a boys' adventure novel by the English author G. A. Henty, built around a Russian Nihilist theme. Its core plot follows the protagonist's condemnation to exile in Siberia and his efforts to escape, combining historical background with taut narrative. Henty was consistently skilled at placing young protagonists within real historical upheavals, letting readers encounter the institutions, geography, and political atmosphere of nineteenth-century Russia while following the escape thread. The book is in English and belongs to juvenile literature; its pace is brisk and its plot advances clearly, making it suitable as an entry point to English-language historical adventure and as light supplementary reading for those interested in the history of Siberian exile or the social conditions on the eve of the Russian Revolution. While reading, note the author's stance and period prejudices: the portrayal of the "Nihilists" carries the slant of contemporary British popular fiction and should not be taken as strict historical source material. Overall, it is better read as a storybook and an entry into historical imagination than as a basis for scholarly research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First read the chapter titles to grasp the escape route, then read the main text straight through, reducing the burden of long English sentences.
  2. Take brief notes on Russian personal and place names to help clarify character relationships and geographical movement.
  3. After finishing, compare the book with basic historical facts about the nineteenth-century Russian exile system, distinguishing fictional imagination from historical record.
  4. If using it for English study, close-read the escape passages to build up expressions for action and psychological description.

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
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FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not very suitable for readers starting from zero. The text is a nineteenth-century English novel with long sentences and period diction; the plot is strong, but vocabulary and syntax present a certain threshold. It is recommended for readers with intermediate English reading ability who can persist through a chapter with the help of a dictionary, or for those who begin with an annotated or simplified edition.
Is the historical background in the book reliable? It is popular adventure fiction, not a historical work. The author borrows the background of Siberian exile and the Russian revolutionary movement to create tension, but the characters and plot are largely fictional, and the portrayal of the "Nihilists" carries period prejudice. Readers may treat it as an entry into the historical atmosphere, but judgments of historical fact should still refer to professional historical works.
Do I need to know Russian history before reading? Systematic knowledge is not necessary, but knowing two points—that nineteenth-century Russia had the penalty of exile to Siberia and that revolutionary group activity was suppressed—will make it easier to enter the setting. The novel's main line is an escape adventure, and historical information is brought out gradually through the narrative, so readers can fill in the background as they go.
How should I pace my reading of this book? You can proceed chapter by chapter; after each chapter, summarize the protagonist's situation and next move in one or two sentences to avoid losing the thread amid long English sentences. The plot is continuous throughout, so reading one chapter a day at a fixed time works well—it keeps the suspense while preventing fatigue from dense information.

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About the author

Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902 Author

George Alfred Henty (1832–1902) was a well-known British writer of historical adventure novels for young readers in the nineteenth century. The collection here contains 107 of his works, most of them drawn from major historical events in Europe and the Americas: By Right of Conquest is set during Cortez's conquest of Mexico, Under Wellington's Command takes the Peninsular War as its background, and For the Temple deals with the fall of Jerusalem. He typically placed a young hero at the centre of real historical scenes, weaving military campaigns and political struggles together with personal adventure. The plots are tightly paced and rich in detail, and they reflect a distinctly British outlook and the moral tastes of the Victorian age. His output was considerable, and his books had a lasting influence on later historical adventure fiction. Public information about his family, education and career is limited, so no speculation is offered here.