Secret Service or, Recollections of a City Detective

Forrester, AndrewProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
468K words
Chapters
47

Tags

English Originals Mystery and Suspense Urban CrimeSuspense ThrillerSocial ObservationPortrait GalleryJustice PursuitSecret InvestigationCriminal PsychologyDetective StoriesMemoir StyleVictorian Era

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.Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective by Andrew ForresterAuthor: Forrester, Andrew,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 6, 2014

Editor's review

Secret Service or, Recollections of a City Detective is an old English work written by Andrew Forrester in the form of a city detective's recollections; it is a free e-book from Project Gutenberg, classified under English literature. Its value lies not in thrilling plot excitement but in presenting the shape of early detective narrative: first-person recollections string together cases, focusing on the dark side of the city, observation of characters, and the process of investigation, allowing readers to see a transitional form preceding the mature detective novel. As a public-domain electronic text, it is convenient for searching, citation, and comparative reading, and is suitable for observing how nineteenth-century city life, policing, and the image of the professional detective were written. Readers need not expect a rigorous chain of reasoning; it is better treated as supporting material for literary and genre history, or as a light selection for extended English reading. For researchers, it can be read alongside contemporary detective memoirs; for general readers, it is best to pick passages and read at leisure, savoring the narrative voice and the atmosphere of the era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First read the table of contents and the opening chapters, then decide whether to read straight through or selectively based on the narrative pace.
  2. After finishing each case-like passage, note in two or three English sentences the basis for the detective's judgments.
  3. Read alongside contemporary detective fiction and note the differences between the memoir form and fictional narrative.
  4. Mark unfamiliar old-fashioned expressions first, then look them up together after finishing a chapter.

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

FAQ

Is this book a fictional novel or a genuine memoir? The materials indicate it is classified under English literature and written in the form of a city detective's recollections. It is a literary narrative and should not be used directly as historical source material; when reading, focus on its narrative techniques and period imagery rather than verifying the truth of each case.
How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for beginners? As a nineteenth-century English text, its sentence structures and old-fashioned vocabulary pose a certain threshold for beginners. It is more suitable for readers with intermediate English reading ability who are willing to look up words; those with weaker foundations can start with short chapters or use annotations and a translation for comparison.
Why is reading the public-domain electronic edition recommended? Project Gutenberg provides a free electronic text, making it easy to search names, places, and keywords on a computer or e-reader, and convenient for excerpting and comparison. For readers who need to consult it repeatedly, the search advantages of the electronic edition are more obvious than those of paper.
Do I need to know the author's biography before reading? Not necessarily. The materials provide only the author's name and text information, with no detailed biography. It is fine to go directly into the text; if you wish to dig deeper, you can look up the author's background afterward and then return to judge the marks of the era in the narrative.

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About the author

Forrester, Andrew Author

Andrew Forrester is an English-language author about whom limited public information is available; the only confirmed work is Secret Service or, Recollections of a City Detective. Judging from the title, the book is framed as the recollections of a city detective, placing it in the vein of detective memoirs or detective fiction, with first-person narration and remembered cases—a mode fairly common in English popular literature of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Reliable records of his birth and death dates, nationality, and writing background have not been found, so no fuller account of his life can be given, nor can his specific place in literary history be determined. The available material indicates only that at least one work on secret detective work survives under his name, which may help readers understand his writing orientation; further details may be added if new sources emerge.