Roger Ingleton, Minor

Reed, Talbot Baines, 1852-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 497K words
Chapters: 50

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.Roger Ingleton, Minor by Talbot Baines ReedAuthor: Reed, Talbot Baines, 1852-1893,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Apr 12, 2007

Editor's review

This is a boys' school story by the English author Talbot Baines Reed, a public-domain eBook released free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Reed's works are set against boarding-school life and excel at portraying friendship, rivalry and growing up among boys, with brisk plots and vivid characters. This book centres on the protagonist Roger Ingleton, and the "Minor" in the title hints at his secondary status at school or in the family; the story typically concerns how a boy finds his place within the group. For readers curious about the landscape of nineteenth-century British children's literature, this book offers an authentic and entertaining sample; the English original also suits English learners as extensive reading material. Readers should not expect profound social criticism, but should enjoy its plain humour and close observation of everyday school life. The Gutenberg edition is easy to obtain free on electronic devices, suits fragmented reading, and also suits reading in comparison with the author's other school stories.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy nineteenth-century British children's literature and school stories
English learners who wish to do extensive reading with a public-domain English original
Secondary-school students interested in boarding-school themes and narratives of boys growing up
Project Gutenberg users who want free access to classic eBooks

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced plots or strong suspense and conflict
Beginners who need a Chinese translation or bilingual reading
Very young children wholly unfamiliar with Victorian boarding-school life

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to gauge the language difficulty and narrative pace, then decide between intensive and extensive reading.
Keep a vocabulary notebook and record school-life terms and slang that recur.
Read alongside the author's other school stories and compare character setups and plot patterns.
Use fragmented time such as commutes to read chapter by chapter, and briefly retell each chapter afterwards.
After finishing, write a short review in English to practise summarising the plot and evaluating the characters.

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 in Chinese or English?

This is the English original, released by Project Gutenberg. There is no Chinese translation in the book, so it suits readers with some grounding in English. If your English is limited, read with a dictionary or bilingual tools first; absolute beginners are not advised to tackle it directly.

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is an early non-profit project providing free eBooks, launched by Michael Hart in 1971. It digitises public-domain books for readers to download and read free of charge. This book is one of its releases; its copyright status is public domain, so it can be read freely.

Is this book suitable for children?

The story itself is a boys' school tale, but the English original carries nineteenth-century language habits that may be hard for young children. Parents or teachers are advised to read along, or better-prepared secondary-school students may read it on their own. The content is not especially unsuitable, but cultural differences should be kept in mind.

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

You can read it without studying the author's life beforehand. Reed's works focus on school life and their plots are relatively self-contained. To deepen your understanding you may briefly learn about daily life in nineteenth-century British boarding schools, but this is not necessary for following the story.

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

Reed, Talbot Baines, 1852-1893 Author

Talbot Baines Reed (1852–1893) was a nineteenth-century British author known for his school stories and adventure tales for boys. Sixteen of his works are held here, including The Willoughby Captains, The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch, The Cock-House at Fellsgarth, My Friend Smith: A Story of School and City Life, and Boycotted, and Other Stories. Most are set in boarding-school life and portray boys' friendships, rivalries, and coming of age with lively plots and humour, creating vivid youthful characters. Reed also wrote A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, reflecting his interest in and knowledge of printing-type history. Public information is limited and biographical details are hard to verify, but his school stories were popular with young readers of his day and have left a mark on the later tradition of British school fiction.