The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires; or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail

Laura Dent CraneProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.3
Word count
300K words
Chapters
31

Tags

English Originals Mystery and SuspenseChildren's Literature Suspense ThrillerCampus LifeMotoring TourGirls' AdventureGhost MysteryYouth 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.The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires; Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail by CraneAuthor: Crane, Laura Dent,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 16, 2008

Editor's review

This is one of Laura Dent Crane's "Automobile Girls" series, falling under the category of juvenile belles lettres. It tells of the girls driving to the Berkshires and becoming entangled in the mystery of "The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail." From the available information, Project Gutenberg released the original English edition for free, and it has the typical features of early twentieth-century girls' adventure fiction: plot driven by travel, mystery-solving, and companionship, with light and brisk suspense, suited to easy reading. Its value lies in showing what adolescent genre fiction of that era looked like—the automobile enters the story as a novelty, and the girls take the initiative to travel and solve problems independently, carrying a certain progressive tint for its time. Readers can treat it as extensive English reading material and observe the conventions and pleasures of early girls' adventure narrative; it can also serve as a supplementary text for studying the evolution of adolescent literature genres. Note that it is not a work of deep suspense; the reading pleasure comes mainly from the travel atmosphere and the pace of puzzle-solving, so expectations should not be set too high.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the first chapter to understand the character relationships and the starting point of the journey, then decide on your reading pace.
  2. Treat the "ghost" puzzle as a thread; note suspicious details as you read to increase engagement.
  3. Compare with other works in the same series to observe changes in character setup and adventure patterns.
  4. For extensive English reading, don't look up every word; prioritize following the plot and the tone of dialogue.

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

FAQ

What genre is this book? According to the available information, it belongs to the category of juvenile belles lettres and is one installment of the "Automobile Girls" series. It revolves around the girls' road trip and their encounter with the mystery of "The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail," with elements of adventure and light suspense.
Do I need to read it in series order? The available information does not specify the dependencies among books in the series. By genre convention, such series novels are usually readable as standalone volumes, but reading in publication order makes it easier to follow the continuity of character relationships.
Is there a Chinese edition of this book? The available information only shows the English electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg and does not mention a Chinese translation. Chinese readers who wish to read it will need some English proficiency or can use translation tools for assistance.

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About the author

Laura Dent Crane Author · American

Laura Dent Crane was an American author of girls' series fiction. Public information about her life is limited, and neither her birth nor death date can be verified. She is known for The Automobile Girls series, which comprises six volumes published around 1910 to 1913, including titles set in Newport, the Berkshires, Washington, along the Hudson, in Chicago, and at Palm Beach. The books follow several girls on motoring adventures, combining early automobile travel with mystery plots. They are representative of early twentieth-century American girls' literature and reflect changes in young women's lifestyles and reading tastes of the period.