Dual Control cover

Dual Control

Rating 3.6
Word count
20K words
Chapters
3

Tags

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.Dual Control by W. W. JacobsAuthor: Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

Dual Control is a short work by W. W. Jacobs, published by Project Gutenberg as an English ebook. Jacobs excelled at arranging misunderstandings, dialogue, and unexpected turns within ordinary situations. This piece is short and well suited to observing how he moves the narrative forward with a light structure. As a public-domain electronic text, it is easy to search, compare, and reread, making it especially suitable for English learners as close-reading material for a short story, and for literary readers to experience the humor tradition of early British short fiction. Reading can focus on changes in the characters' relationships and the way the ending is brought together.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Intermediate to advanced English learners who want close reading of short stories
  • Readers who enjoy British humor and short stories about everyday life
  • Teachers who need public-domain English texts as teaching material

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer reading in Chinese and do not want to deal with the English original
  • Readers looking for strong plots or long-form narratives

Reading tips

  1. Read it through continuously the first time, then on the second pass mark sentences in the dialogue that reveal the characters' relationships.
  2. Pull out the ending twist and analyze the clues planted earlier.
  3. Read it alongside other Jacobs short stories to observe his recurring narrative techniques.

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

FAQ

Is this work suitable for English beginners?
The material does not provide a difficulty level. As an early British short story, the language may contain period expressions; beginners can first read through with a dictionary and then gradually do close reading of the dialogue.
Does the ebook include additional annotations?
According to the information, this is an English electronic text published by Project Gutenberg, and no annotations or introduction are mentioned, so readers may need to look up background vocabulary themselves.
How can I read it to better appreciate Jacobs's style?
Pay attention to misunderstandings and characters' tones in the dialogue, and after reading, look back at how the ending ties together earlier clues; this makes it easier to appreciate his humorous twist writing.

Comments

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About the author

William Wymark Jacobs Author · British · 1863–1943

William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) was a British short-story writer, born in London in 1863 and died there in 1943. In his early years he lived around the Thames docks and was familiar with the lives of sailors and dockworkers, which led him to write a great many humorous sea stories, often in a light and witty tone. His best-known work, The Monkey's Paw, is a classic horror short story included in The Lady of the Barge (1902); noted for its tight suspense and sudden twists, it is still widely anthologized in horror collections. The library holds 109 of his works, including The Lady of the Barge and Others, Ship's Company, A Tiger's Skin, Captains All, and Night Watches; his common category is inspirational growth. Public information is limited and details of his life are largely unavailable, yet his fiction is distinctive in subject, blending humor with horror, and has had a lasting influence on later short-story writing.

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