Striking Hard

William Wymark JacobsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 23K words
Chapters: 3

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.Striking Hard by W. W. JacobsAuthor: Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

Striking Hard is a short story by W. W. Jacobs, released as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. Jacobs excels at arranging dialogue and mild conflict within ordinary domestic scenes, and this piece likewise advances its plot in a compact span, making for a brisk read. Its value lies in showing how the author builds a scene and sketches characters within limited space, which is instructive for readers interested in the British short humorous tradition. The electronic edition is easy to search and quote, making it suitable as short material for classroom discussion or reading groups. While reading, note the interplay between the title and the plot, and observe how the author lightly resolves the tension at the close. It should be noted that this is not an elaborate long narrative; those expecting intense dramatic conflict may find it slight, but as public-domain short reading practice it is friendly in length and idiomatic in language, well suited to repeated close reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature enthusiasts interested in W. W. Jacobs's short-story style
Teachers and students needing short material for intensive English reading
Casual readers who enjoy light humor in short form
Those researching public-domain texts or organizing ebooks

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking long, deep narratives with complex character arcs
Readers who do not read English originals and only use Chinese translations
Those expecting intense action scenes or suspenseful twists

Reading tips

Read quickly once for plot, then again to note how the title echoes the story's direction and appreciate the author's manner of closure.
Select two or three dialogue passages for close reading and analyze how characters' tones drive shifts in the scene.
Read alongside other Jacobs stories to identify his common humorous devices and techniques for endings.

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

How difficult is this short story to read?

It is a moderately easy English short story: sentences are not long, dialogue makes up a fair share, and a basic vocabulary suffices to read it through. Guess unfamiliar words from context first and look them up after finishing, so as not to interrupt the reading rhythm.

Is it suitable for classroom or reading-group use?

Yes. It is short and clearly structured, easy to finish and discuss in a single session; topics can be designed around character dialogue, humorous devices, and the handling of the ending, and it lends itself to comparative reading with other short stories.

What are the advantages of reading the electronic edition?

The electronic text from Project Gutenberg allows full-text keyword searches, quotation copying, and font-size adjustment; it is convenient for marking dialogue passages during close reading and for comparing with paper or other editions.

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About the author

William Wymark Jacobs Author · British · 1863–1943

William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) was a British short-story writer, born in London in 1863 and died there in 1943. In his early years he lived around the Thames docks and was familiar with the lives of sailors and dockworkers, which led him to write a great many humorous sea stories, often in a light and witty tone. His best-known work, The Monkey's Paw, is a classic horror short story included in The Lady of the Barge (1902); noted for its tight suspense and sudden twists, it is still widely anthologized in horror collections. The library holds 109 of his works, including The Lady of the Barge and Others, Ship's Company, A Tiger's Skin, Captains All, and Night Watches; his common category is inspirational growth. Public information is limited and details of his life are largely unavailable, yet his fiction is distinctive in subject, blending humor with horror, and has had a lasting influence on later short-story writing.