Lad: A Dog

Albert Payson TerhuneProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 454K words
Chapters: 46

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.Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson TerhuneAuthor: Terhune, Albert Payson, 1872-1942,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Feb 6, 2012

Editor's review

Lad: A Dog is an animal novel by the American writer Albert Payson Terhune, centered on a collie named Lad and telling of his life with his master's family and the various events he goes through. The work focuses on the dog's perspective and feelings, portraying Lad's loyalty, courage, and intelligence while presenting the deep emotional bond between humans and dogs. Terhune bred and wrote about dogs for many years, and his canine characters are vividly concrete; the stories move briskly and carry the warmth and adventure of early animal fiction. This is the English original, plainly written, suited to readers who wish to read a classic animal story in the original and also usable as graded reading for English learners. While reading, note the narrator's imaginative depiction of canine psychology and the way human-animal relations are presented, which helps in understanding the tastes of early twentieth-century animal literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Young and adult readers who enjoy animal stories, especially about dogs
English learners who wish to read classic English animal fiction in the original
Parents and teachers seeking gentle adventure stories for children
Readers interested in early twentieth-century British and American animal literature

Not a good fit for

Serious literary readers who prefer complex experimentation and deep psychological description
Readers with no interest in animal themes or gentle adventure stories
Beginners whose English is too weak to read long English texts independently

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to gauge the language difficulty and narrative pace, then decide whether to read closely or extensively.
English learners can copy out sentences describing the dog's actions and psychology to build up animal-related expressions.
When reading with children, discuss Lad's courage and loyalty and connect them to real-life experience of keeping dogs.
If you are interested in animal literature, read other animal novels of the same period for comparison and observe differences in narrative perspective.

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 age of child is this book suitable for?

The stories are gentle and the language plain, suitable for young readers with some English reading ability; younger children can have it read aloud to them or read it together with a parent. The book involves canine adventure and emotion, so parents can choose the reading method and pace according to the child's level.

Is the story told from the dog's point of view?

The work centers on Lad the collie, and the narration presents a great deal of his feelings, reactions, and behavior, with imaginative description of canine psychology, but it does not adopt a fully first-person dog perspective. The narrator also relates human-dog interaction, so readers can follow Lad through events while also seeing the attitudes and feelings of the master's family.

How difficult is the English original, and is it good for learning English?

The language is generally plain and the sentence structures are not complex, making it a fairly accessible English narrative suitable as extensive reading for intermediate learners. Read through first to grasp the plot, then select passages describing the dog for close reading to build up common animal-related expressions, and avoid looking up every word, which would slow the reading pace.

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About the author

Albert Payson Terhune Author · American · 1872–1942

Albert Payson Terhune (1872–1942), an American novelist and short-story writer, was born in Newark, New Jersey, and died near Pompton Lakes on February 18, 1942. A graduate of Columbia University, he worked as a reporter for the New York Evening World. He rose to fame in 1919 with Lad: A Dog and went on to write more than twenty dog-themed novels, while breeding prize-winning collies at Sunnybank. His works often feature collies as protagonists and also include mystery and popular fiction. Seven of his titles are held in this collection, including Further Adventures of Lad, Buff: A Collie, and Other Dog-Stories, and Black Caesar's Clan: A Florida Mystery Story; they are commonly classified under inspirational growth. His writing draws on firsthand experience with dogs and is sincere in tone, combining storytelling with emotional appeal. Public information on the details of his life is limited.