High Dragon Bump

Thompson, Don, 1935-1994Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 25K words
Chapters: 3

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.High Dragon Bump by Don ThompsonAuthor: Thompson, Don, 1935-1994,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 25, 2009

Editor's review

High Dragon Bump is a small specimen of English-language short fiction left by Don Thompson (1935–1994), digitized by Project Gutenberg and brought back to readers. An English work catalogued under PS (American and Canadian literature), its value lies not in length or fame but in offering a natural sample of mid-to-late twentieth-century English genre writing: direct narration, entertainment first. Its free electronic form makes it especially suitable as a text sample for literary scholars, extensive reading material for English learners, or a collector's item for those interested in Project Gutenberg itself. Readers need not expect a grand structure; focus instead on the rhythm of the language and the way the plot advances, and feel the texture of popular writing of that era. For readers used to contemporary long novels, it is more like a light literary stroll.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students studying twentieth-century American short fiction and genre writing
English learners seeking complete short original texts for extensive reading
Readers interested in Project Gutenberg and public-domain e-books
English teachers needing short texts for classroom or homework use

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting hefty novels or complex narrative structures
Readers with major difficulty reading English originals without aids
Readers interested only in contemporary emerging writers

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then revisit the handling of language and dialogue.
Do a close reading with a dictionary or bilingual tools, noting new words and sentence patterns.
Read alongside contemporary American short stories to compare themes and narrative habits.

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 suitable for English beginners?

The work is in the original English and relatively short, but the language still carries period features and was not written specifically for beginners. Learners with some vocabulary base who can read with a dictionary are better suited; absolute beginners are advised to start with a bilingual or annotated edition before attempting the original.

Why is the Project Gutenberg edition recommended?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project providing free e-books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. This edition is a public-domain e-book, easy to obtain and free of charge, suitable for research, teaching, and personal reading, but it usually contains no notes or introduction from a modern publisher.

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

Not necessarily. The work can be read independently; start with the text itself. For deeper study, you can look up the life of Don Thompson and the period of his writing to understand the context, but lack of background does not affect basic reading.

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About the author

Thompson, Don, 1935-1994 Author · 1935–1994

Don Thompson (Thompson, Don, 1935–1994) is not yet a familiar name in the Chinese-speaking world, and publicly available information about him is limited. According to library records, he left behind two works, High Dragon Bump and The Telenizer. Judging from the titles and their common categorization, his writing tends toward genre fiction, with book titles that carry a clear flavor of fantasy and technology, possibly involving extraordinary settings and media imagination; however, the specific subject matter and style cannot be precisely determined due to insufficient material. He died in 1994 before reaching the age of sixty, produced only a small number of works, and no widespread record of his influence has been found, so any assessment of his literary standing should be made cautiously. Readers who wish to learn about the man and his writing can currently rely only on these two surviving works, drawing on the texts themselves to appreciate his narrative interests and imaginative inclinations; details of his life, his writing career, and contemporary evaluations await further disclosure.