Roger Willoughby: A Story of the Times of Benbow

William Henry Giles KingstonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
516K words
Chapters
52

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Historical ContextMilitary StrategySea VoyageBoy HeroSea AdventureNaval LegendHeroismLoyalty and CourageGrowing UpSeventeenth Century

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 Willoughby: A Story of the Times of Benbow by William Henry Giles KingstonAuthor: Kingston, William Henry Giles, 1814-1880,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 15, 2007

Editor's review

This boys' adventure novel is set in the era when the English admiral Benbow was active, using the experiences of young Roger Willoughby to link life at sea, the discipline of training and the choices of growing up. Kingston wrote juvenile sea stories for years; his narrative pace is brisk and he emphasizes action and character-building, with storms and dangers as well as comradeship and a sense of duty. As a public-domain e-book, it is best treated as a sample of nineteenth-century English boys' adventure fiction: direct plotting and clear values, easy to enter in a relaxed reading state. Readers practicing long-form English reading can use it as a bridge book; those studying children's literature or maritime writing can see the common narrative formulas of the genre. Note that the language and ideas bear clear marks of their time and should be read with a discerning eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First read through the chapter titles to grasp the main adventure line, then read the dialogue chapter by chapter.
  2. Do not look up every nautical term; infer from context first and organize them after finishing.
  3. Add brief notes on the naval background of Benbow's era to help understand the story's setting.
  4. After reading, note each key choice the protagonist makes and observe how the author builds the theme of character.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with average English proficiency? It can be attempted, but requires patience. It is a nineteenth-century English boys' novel with long sentences, dense narration and many nautical terms. Try a short chapter first, using a dictionary and chapter summaries to move forward; if the going is hard, read a simplified version or Chinese background material first and come back.
What is the connection between the story and the age of Benbow? The title states that the story takes place in the era when the admiral Benbow was active. The author uses this historical background to set out sea adventures and a boy's growth, but the novel focuses on plot and moral education rather than strict historical accuracy. Read it as an adventure story set in the atmosphere of the age.
Is this book suitable for shared classroom reading? It can be used as selected reading material, especially for discussions of adventure narrative, character growth and period ideas. Teachers should explain the old-fashioned expression and values in advance and design critical questions so that the book's ideas are not taken directly as modern standards.

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About the author

William Henry Giles Kingston Author · British · 1814–1880

William Henry Giles Kingston (1814–1880) was a British author of adventure stories for young readers. Born in London, he spent part of his youth with his father in Porto, Portugal. He rose to fame in 1851 with Peter the Whaler and thereafter devoted himself to tales of the sea and exploration, writing more than a hundred books over his lifetime and also translating works by Jules Verne. His notable works include The Three Midshipmen, Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries, and Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley, most of them drawing on seafaring, exotic adventure, and the deeds of the British Navy. He excelled at linking the adventures of young protagonists with informative and moral content, in briskly paced stories rich in maritime atmosphere that were widely popular with young readers in the Victorian era. The collection here contains 133 of his works. Public information on his early education and specific experiences is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.