Special Messenger

Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William), 1865-1933Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 267K words
Chapters: 27

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.Special Messenger by Robert W. ChambersAuthor: Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William), 1865-1933,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Dec 29, 2007

Editor's review

Special Messenger is an English novel by Robert W. Chambers, now available as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg. Chambers was active from the late 19th to the early 20th century, and his works often carry a flavor of adventure and romance. This book is short and serves as an accessible introduction to the author's popular narrative style. The value of the Gutenberg edition lies in zero-barrier access to the text, readable directly on electronic devices, especially for readers who want to encounter an English-language novel in the original at low cost. Read it as a popular story bearing the marks of its era, paying attention to plot development and dialogue, rather than judging it by the standards of modern literary classics. As a public-domain ebook, the formatting and annotations are plain; readers may pair it with a dictionary or bilingual resources. Overall, it is a lightweight work suited to fragmented reading time and to expanding one's English reading volume.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want low-cost access to English-language novels in the original
Readers interested in late 19th- to early 20th-century American popular literature
Learners who want to use fragmented time for extensive English reading
Readers seeking free public-domain ebook resources

Not a good fit for

Serious researchers expecting in-depth literary analysis and canonical texts
Beginners whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for unaided original novels
Readers who prefer modern narrative pacing and contemporary subject matter

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide between intensive and extensive reading.
Note unfamiliar words and questions about the period as you read, and look them up afterward.
Read alongside other works by the author to see how his narrative style continues.
Use the ebook's search function to revisit character threads and avoid confusing the plot.

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?

According to the metadata, the book's language is English; it is an original English-language work. Project Gutenberg provides a free electronic text, so readers need some English reading ability or a dictionary or translation tool for support.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg was the first project to provide free ebooks, and this book is a public-domain electronic text in its collection. The edition prioritizes text accessibility, with plain formatting and generally no modern annotations; it is suitable for direct reading or for use with supplementary resources.

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

Not necessarily. The metadata only shows that the author is Robert W. Chambers and his birth and death years, with no further biographical details. Readers can start directly with the text and look up background separately if interested in the popular literature of the author's era.

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About the author

Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William), 1865-1933 Author

Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) was an American novelist active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His birth and death years and nationality are relatively clear in public sources, though detailed biographical information and educational background remain limited. He was a prolific writer, with 38 works held in the collection. He is best known for the short-story collection The King in Yellow, which blends weird, horror, and supernatural elements and became an important early work of weird fiction, exerting a certain influence on later horror and fantasy writing. Beyond weird fiction, his works also span romance, historical, and popular fiction, including Athalie, The Mystery of Choice, The Hidden Children, The Common Law, The Dark Star, In Search of the Unknown, and The Slayer of Souls, demonstrating a diversity of subjects and styles. Overall, his writing is notable for atmospheric construction and narrative tension, securing him a place in popular literature and the weird tradition.