Gentlemen Rovers

Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander), 1879-1957Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 287K words
Chapters: 29

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.Gentlemen Rovers by E. Alexander PowellAuthor: Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander), 1879-1957,Language: English, Class: E151: History: America: United States, Release Date: Oct 20, 2011

Editor's review

Written by American author and travel journalist E. Alexander Powell, Gentlemen Rovers is a narrative work of American history, classified under American history in Project Gutenberg. Powell's works often recount historical figures and adventures in a lively style, and the title's "rovers" signals that the book focuses on figures who left their mark through adventure, travel, or pioneering enterprise. Readers should attend to how the author organizes these personal stories and embeds historical background in the narrative, rather than treating the book as systematic academic history. As a public-domain English eBook, it suits readers interested in American history, adventure narrative, and popular history writing, and also serves as practice reading for English nonfiction. Because it was written long ago, its language and narrative perspective bear the marks of its time, and readers should read with a critical eye. It is advisable to skim the contents and chapter titles first, choose a figure or event of interest, and then return to the overall structure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in American history and adventure narrative
Learners who wish to practice reading English nonfiction through popular history texts
Writers and teachers seeking source material on early American figures and stories

Not a good fit for

Researchers requiring rigorous academic historiography and extensive annotation
Readers who read only Chinese translations and are uncomfortable with English originals
Readers expecting modern critical historical analysis

Reading tips

Read the contents first, choose chapters by figure or event, then review the book's overall structure instead of forcing a cover-to-cover read.
Take notes on figures, places, and dates as you read to help clarify the historical background of the narrative.
Flag passages that reflect the prejudices of the era, and review the author's narrative stance after finishing.

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

Is this book a rigorous academic work of American history?

No. It is closer to popular historical narrative: Powell presents figures and adventures by telling stories rather than building a complete historical argument. It works as an introduction to the relevant figures and the atmosphere of their era; for academic research, consult professional historical works and primary sources.

How difficult is the English?

It is nonfiction English from an earlier period, with sentence structures and vocabulary characteristic of its time, somewhat harder than modern journalistic English. Readers with intermediate English can finish it with a dictionary, while beginners may need to look up additional background on the figures and history.

What historical background should I know before reading?

It helps to know the general background of early American pioneering and adventure narrative and the era in which the book's figures lived. For each chapter, check the title and opening paragraphs to identify the figures and regions involved, then decide whether to consult further background material.

Comments

Find this book

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

Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander), 1879-1957 Author

E. Alexander Powell (Edward Alexander Powell, 1879–1957) was an author best known for his firsthand accounts of war and travel. Public information about him is limited, and few details of his life are firmly documented; nevertheless, the six works held in this collection show that his writing centered on early twentieth-century war reporting and travel to remote regions. Italy at War and the Allies in the West and Fighting in Flanders focus on the Italian front and the Allied armies on the Western Front during the First World War, while The Last Frontier deals with colonial warfare in Africa and the so-called "war for civilisation." Where the Strange Trails Go Down, Gentlemen Rovers, and The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the Ægean further reflect his interest in foreign journeys, adventurous figures, and the shifting geopolitics of the region from the Alps to the Aegean. His prose, often marked by on-the-spot observation and a traveler's perspective, is both reportorial and readable, offering contemporary readers vivid and accessible accounts of distant battlefields and unfamiliar lands.