In the Grip of the Mullah: A Tale of Adventure in Somaliland

Frederick Sadleir BreretonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
577K words
Chapters
58

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Military OperationLegendary LivesAdventure JourneyBoy HeroHeroismPursuit OperationAfrican AdventureExotic CultureColonial EraSomali Setting

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.In the grip of the Mullah: A tale of adventure in Somaliland by F. S. BreretonAuthor: Brereton, F. S. (Frederick Sadleir), 1872-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 4, 2013

Editor's review

This is a boys' adventure novel by the British author F. S. Brereton, set in Somaliland and revolving around an exotic adventure narrative centered on the Mullah's forces. Brereton was skilled at crafting brisk, vividly staged stories for young readers, and this book continues that tradition: the protagonist is placed in an unfamiliar land, faces trials from both nature and people, and displays courage and resourcefulness in action. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, its value lies in offering a window onto early twentieth-century English boys' adventure literature and onto how Western writers of the time wrote about the Horn of Africa. Readers may note its colonial-era perspective and character conventions, enjoying the plot while also reading it reflectively. It suits those interested in old-fashioned adventure stories, English literary history, or cross-cultural writing, but it is not a reliable source on Somali history and culture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the preface or chapter titles first to grasp the geographical setting and character relationships, then begin the text.
  2. Compare the portrayal of local people with present-day perspectives and make brief marginal notes.
  3. Proceed at three to five chapters a week and summarize each chapter in one sentence after finishing it.
  4. For English study, select action-description passages for close reading and retelling practice.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for beginner English readers? Not very. Brereton's narrative language carries the vocabulary and sentence patterns of early twentieth-century English adventure fiction, with older expressions in description and dialogue, posing a barrier for beginners. It suits readers at intermediate level or above who can accept an old-fashioned style, possibly with a dictionary or annotated edition.
Can the content be used as a Somali history book? No. This is a fictional boys' adventure novel set in Somaliland, but its plot and characters serve an adventure narrative, not historical research. Its regional descriptions and character images carry the perspectives and limits of the author's era; for Somali history, choose specialist historical works.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition? Project Gutenberg provides a free electronic text that is easy to obtain and search on a computer, e-reader, or phone. This is the original English edition, suited to readers who want the original; it lacks modern-publisher introductions, notes, or scholarly appendices, so background knowledge must be sought separately.

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

Frederick Sadleir Brereton Author · United Kingdom · 1872–1957

Frederick Sadleir Brereton (1872–1957) was a British Army medical officer who later became a writer of adventure stories for boys. Born in Surrey in 1872, he served in the Second Boer War and the First World War, rising to honorary lieutenant colonel and receiving the CBE. His works, 18 of which are held in this collection, celebrated heroic deeds of the British Empire and drew on colonial wars and expeditions—titles include Jones of the 64th, How Canada Was Won, On the Road to Bagdad, With Rifle and Bayonet, With Wolseley to Kumasi, A Gallant Grenadier, With the Dyaks of Borneo and With Wellington in Spain. These military adventures are tightly plotted and centre on brave, resolute young heroes, bearing a clear mark of their era; full details of his life and writings remain limited in publicly available sources.