Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence; or, The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands

Emerson, Alice B.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
237K words
Chapters
24

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Suspense ThrillerFantasy ElementsGirls MysteryIsland AdventureTender SentimentYouth Reading

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.Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence; Or, The Queer Old Man of the Thousand IslandsAuthor: Emerson, Alice B.,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 15, 2008

Editor's review

This book is one volume in the Ruth Fielding series by Alice B. Emerson, a typical early twentieth-century girls' adventure novel. The story follows the protagonist Ruth through experiences along the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands, using the mystery of the "queer old man" as a thread to combine river life, island scenery, and light suspense. The language is brisk, the chapters short, and the plot event-driven; it satisfies young readers' appetite for adventure and puzzle-solving while retaining the moral exhortation and coming-of-age themes characteristic of juvenile literature of its time. As a public-domain eBook, it is best read as a sample for understanding the American popular girls' novel genre: one can observe how early series fiction shaped independent, quick-witted heroines and how it used geographical space to create a sense of adventure. There is no need to demand complex psychological characterization; read it as a pleasant river journey.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Use it as English extensive reading material, reading one or two chapters a day to keep the plot coherent.
  2. While reading, note how Ruth handles sudden situations and observe how early girls' novels shaped their protagonists.
  3. Consult a map of the Thousand Islands geography to enhance your immersion in the story's space.
  4. For genre study, read it alongside other girls' series novels of the same period and take notes.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not really for complete beginners. Although aimed at young readers, it was written in the early twentieth century, and its sentence patterns and some vocabulary bear period marks. Intermediate English readers can use it as extensive reading material; there is no need to look up every new word—grasping the plot's progress is more effective.
Will not having read other books in the series affect comprehension? The effect is limited. Series novels of this kind usually center each volume on an independent event, and the main character relationships are naturally explained in the narrative. Reading this book directly still allows you to follow the story; you will simply know less about Ruth's earlier background, which does not affect the main adventure and the unfolding mystery.
What is the main reading value of this book? Its value lies in its significance as a genre sample and in the pleasant reading experience. It shows how early girls' adventure novels organized chapters, set suspense, and shaped quick-witted heroines, while the descriptions of the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands also provide a vivid sense of travel. It is suitable as an introductory text for popular literature and English extensive reading.

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About the author

Emerson, Alice B. Author

Alice B. Emerson is an author represented in this Chinese-language book database, though public information about her true identity and life is limited, with no clear records of nationality, birth and death dates, or education. The collection currently holds 23 of her works, mainly in the inspirational coming-of-age genre. Her representative books center on the girl Ruth Fielding, including Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch, Ruth Fielding in the Red Cross, Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall, Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island, Ruth Fielding at College, Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures, and Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest. These stories place a young girl's growth in varied settings such as a rural mill, a Western ranch, a school campus, an island, and a film set, using suspense and adventure to drive the plot and highlighting courage, responsibility, and a helping spirit. The language is plain and the pace brisk, making the books suitable for young readers.