Dick Leslie's Luck: A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure

Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
659K words
Chapters
66

Tags

English Originals OceanShipwreck SurvivalAdventure JourneyFriendshipTurning PointIsland AdventureLuck and FortuneSea Journal19th Century AdventureBoy's Self-Reliance

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 Leslie's Luck: A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure by Harry CollingwoodAuthor: Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jan 27, 2009

Editor's review

Dick Leslie's Luck is a boys' adventure novel by Harry Collingwood, available as a free public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg. The story revolves around shipwreck and adventure, continuing the tradition of maritime narrative common in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British juvenile fiction: the protagonist is forced to grow up amid sudden disaster, relying on courage and resourcefulness to face an unknown environment. Collingwood himself was familiar with nautical subjects, and his depictions of life aboard ship and perils at sea are generally solid, so beyond the plot, readers can also sense the tone and rhythm of maritime literature of that era. As a public-domain eBook, it is easy to obtain on various reading devices, making it a lightweight choice for reading in the original English, and suitable for readers interested in sea adventure stories and old-fashioned boys' fiction to dip into at leisure. There is no need to expect modern-style tight plotting; instead, pay attention to the narrative voice, character dialogue, and nautical vocabulary—these are precisely where the pleasure of such works lies.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read closely or extensively
  2. Don't look up every nautical term; follow the main plot first
  3. Listen along with an audiobook or text-to-speech software to reduce reading pressure
  4. After finishing, briefly note the key choices the protagonist makes each time he escapes danger

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

Is this book suitable for English beginners? Not really for zero-basis or elementary readers. This is the original English edition, with long sentences and nautical terms typical of old-fashioned adventure fiction, requiring some vocabulary and reading stamina. If you are at intermediate level, try the first two chapters before deciding.
What kind of work is this book? It is a boys' adventure novel centered on survival and adventure after a shipwreck. The plot revolves around the protagonist's experiences in hardship, with a distinctly old-fashioned juvenile fiction style that emphasizes courage, resourcefulness, and luck.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition? Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain eBooks; this book is its English electronic edition, easy to download and read across devices. The edition itself has no modern annotations, so readers must handle unfamiliar words and old-fashioned expressions on their own.
Do I need nautical knowledge to read this book? No prior study is necessary. The story introduces relevant background as the plot unfolds; readers need only follow the characters' actions. If you are interested in shipboard roles or terms, you can look them up as you read without affecting overall understanding.

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

Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922 Author

Harry Collingwood (1851-1922) was a British writer of maritime adventure fiction. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life remain unknown. The library holds 34 of his works, mainly nautical and military adventure stories, commonly classified as inspirational coming-of-age reading. Representative titles include Across the Spanish Main, The Cruise of the Esmeralda, The Rover's Secret, Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun, The Voyage of the Aurora, Turned Adrift, A Pirate of the Caribbees, and A Middy of the King. Set largely at sea, these novels involve pirates, warships, and distant waters, with tightly plotted stories that focus on young protagonists maturing through danger. Some draw on historical warfare, such as the Russo-Japanese War. His style is popular adventure writing that emphasizes courage, discipline, and responsibility, and is suited to young readers.