Dick Hamilton's Fortune Or, The Stirring Doings of a Millionaire's Son

Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
334K words
Chapters
34

Tags

English Originals Young Adult Fiction Suspense ThrillerFate and FortuneHeroismClass MobilityGrowing UpLight ReadingWealth StoriesAmerican BoysYouth 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.Dick Hamilton's Fortune; Or, The Stirring Doings of a Millionaire's Son by GarisAuthor: Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 15, 2010

Editor's review

This is an English public-domain adventure novel for young readers, part of the free Project Gutenberg eBook series. The story follows the experiences of a millionaire's son; "Fortune" in the title can mean both wealth and fate or opportunity, making the book an accessible introduction to early twentieth-century American boys' adventure fiction. The language is relatively plain and the plot strongly driven, so the reading threshold is low; it suits English extensive reading or parent-child shared reading. As a public-domain eBook, it is freely available on many devices, and readers can read it chapter by chapter rather than all at once. Note that the book was written long ago, and its characterizations and values bear the marks of their era; readers may wish to examine critically its treatment of wealth, class, and boyhood growth. Overall, it works better as English reading material or a literary-historical browse than as a contemporary guide to growing up.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the first chapter to gauge language difficulty, then decide whether to proceed chapter by chapter or read only selected chapters.
  2. Read in chapters, one or two at a time, and summarize the plot in one English sentence afterward.
  3. Guess unfamiliar words from context first and look them up only after finishing the chapter, to keep reading fluid.
  4. For shared reading, discuss the book's portrayal of wealth and growing up and compare it with contemporary views.

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

FAQ

What English level is this book roughly suitable for? From the available information, it is a boys' adventure novel with mostly plot-driven narration and not overly complex sentences, roughly suitable for intermediate learners who can read ordinary English stories. It is still best to try the first chapter and judge by how often you need a dictionary.
Is this the complete work or an excerpt? This is a public-domain eBook released by Project Gutenberg; the title does not indicate an abridgment or excerpt, so by convention it should be treated as the complete text. You can read it in the original chapter order without seeking a companion version.
What should I watch for when reading a public-domain eBook? Public-domain books are free, but typesetting and proofreading quality vary by version. Download from the official Project Gutenberg page, watch for abnormal paragraphing and punctuation, and switch formats or versions if you find obvious errors.
Do the outdated attitudes in the book affect reading? The book was written long ago, so its characterizations and values inevitably bear the marks of their era. For English extensive reading this usually does not hinder plot comprehension; for shared reading with young people, parents or teachers should guide discussion and place depictions of wealth and class in historical context.

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

Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962 Author

Howard Roger Garis (1873–1962) was an American author of children's literature. Little is publicly documented about his life, and reliable biographical information remains limited. The library holds 39 of his works, mainly animal stories and adventure novels for young readers. He is best known for the Uncle Wiggily series, including Uncle Wiggily's Adventures, Uncle Wiggily in the Woods, Uncle Wiggily's Travels, Uncle Wiggily's Auto Sled, and Uncle Wiggily's Squirt Gun, which feature an anthropomorphic rabbit and are marked by light, humorous plots suited to younger children. Other works, such as Dick Hamilton's Touring Car, tell lively stories of a young millionaire's motoring adventures. His sizable output gave him a modest place in early twentieth-century American children's publishing.