Elder Conklin

Harris, Frank, 1856-1931Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 108K words
Chapters: 11

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.Elder Conklin by Frank HarrisAuthor: Harris, Frank, 1856-1931,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 12, 2007

Editor's review

Elder Conklin is an English-language novel by Frank Harris, released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg and classified under English language and literature. The work is driven by character, and the title figure is itself the central point of interest: readers can observe how the author builds character and advances conflict through everyday scenes and through what people say and do. As a public-domain eBook, its main value lies in offering low-threshold access to the narrative manner of English fiction from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century; its length is moderate, making it suitable for general literary reading or as English reading material. While reading, pay attention to how relationships are set out and to shifts of tone in dialogue—these details convey the period feel more than plot alone. The electronic edition is easy to open and read at any time, but layout and paragraphing may vary by version; focus on understanding the characters and situations rather than on minor details.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who want to encounter English literary classics in a relatively short form
Readers interested in characterisation and narrative built from everyday scenes
English learners who need a medium-length English novel for extensive reading
Readers accustomed to light reading with public-domain eBooks

Not a good fit for

Readers looking for strong plot or suspenseful twists
Beginners who need line-by-line notes and a systematic introduction
Readers who prefer contemporary urban subjects and fast-paced narrative

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to sort out the relationships, then proceed chapter by chapter, and avoid setting the book aside for too long.
Jot down passages of the title character's speech and action as you read, then look back at how his image changes after finishing.
English learners can read aloud one passage of dialogue per chapter to feel how tone relates to a character's status.
If the eBook layout is inconvenient, enlarge the font or read in segments, and keep a fixed daily amount of reading.

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

What kind of work is Elder Conklin?

According to the source material, it is an English-language novel by Frank Harris, classified under English language and literature and released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. The work centres on character-driven narrative; readers must explore the specific plot themselves, as the source material provides no more detailed synopsis.

Is this book long, and how long does it take to finish?

The source material gives no word count or page count, but by genre it is a medium-length novel. It is advisable to divide the reading by chapters, one or two a day, which keeps the relationships coherent without causing fatigue from long reading sessions.

Do I need to know the author's background to read this book?

There is no need to study the author's life beforehand. The work can be read as an independent novel; simply focus first on the characters and plot. If, after finishing, you become interested in the author's other works, learning about his background then will make for a more natural reading experience and will be less likely to distract you with outside information.

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About the author

Harris, Frank, 1856-1931 Author

Frank Harris (1856-1931) was an English-language author whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources; accounts of his nationality and early life vary, so no firm claim is made here. Eleven of his works are held in this collection, mainly biographies and fiction. He is best known for Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions (in two volumes), written from personal acquaintance and observation. Subjective and dramatic in tone, it is one of the more controversial early sources on Wilde. The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story follows a similar biographical approach, inferring character and experience from the works. His fiction, including Elder Conklin and Other Stories, Gulmore, the Boss, and The Sheriff and His Partner, is often set in the American West or in local communities, with rugged characters, tight plots, and direct language that make for readable popular narrative. Overall, Harris's writing foregrounds personality and private experience, with strong views that frequently provoked controversy.