The Dynamiter cover

The Dynamiter

Rating 3.4
Word count
423K words
Chapters
43

Tags

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 Dynamiter by Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson and Robert Louis StevensonAuthor: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 1996

Editor's review

Written jointly by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, The Dynamiter is a novel built from linked stories, centering on bombers and conspiratorial adventures, with a clear taste for popular narrative and a satirical edge. It uses a story-within-a-story structure: the individual tales stand relatively independent yet echo one another, making for a brisk pace that carries on the adventurous spirit of Stevenson's Treasure Island while also showing the shift in perspective that collaborative writing brings. This edition is the English electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg, convenient for searching and reading in sections. It works well as supplementary reading for understanding Stevenson's range as a novelist, and for readers who enjoy short stories strung together. Because the book dates from an early period, some plot devices bear the marks of their time; readers may find it rewarding to approach them as a piece of popular literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy Stevenson's adventurous popular narrative style
  • Short fiction lovers interested in story-within-a-story structures
  • Readers curious about late nineteenth-century English popular literature
  • Learners with some English who want to broaden their reading

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting serious literary depth and complex psychological portrayal
  • Beginners with weak English who need extensive annotation
  • Readers uninterested in old-fashioned adventure plots and period settings

Reading tips

  1. Read in chapter order and watch for the echoes between stories and the links between characters.
  2. You can read each story as a standalone short piece, then look back at its place in the whole.
  3. When a period detail is unclear, read on first; it is often easier to understand on returning after finishing the book.
  4. Read it alongside Stevenson's other adventure works and compare their narrative methods.

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

FAQ

Did Stevenson write this book alone?
No. According to the edition information, it was written jointly by Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson and Robert Louis Stevenson. As you read, watch for subtle differences in narrative voice and in how subjects are handled; this is one of the book's interesting aspects.
Is the book a long continuous story or a collection of short pieces?
It uses a story-within-a-story structure: the individual tales are relatively independent yet interconnected, and overall it remains a novel. You can read it straight through or enjoy each piece as a short story, but reading in order makes the echoes easier to appreciate.
How difficult is the English, and what level is it suitable for?
This is the original English electronic text, without annotation. The language is generally popular narrative, but because the book dates from an early period, some wording and sentence patterns carry period features. College-level English reading ability is recommended; beginners may use a dictionary or choose an annotated edition.
Do I need to know the historical background first?
Not necessarily. The stories can be read on their own, but a little familiarity with the period atmosphere and popular adventure conventions makes the satire and humor easier to grasp. Brief background material on late nineteenth-century British society can help before or after reading.

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About the author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a nineteenth-century British writer known for adventure fiction and poetry. His representative work Treasure Island established a classic model for treasure-hunt adventure stories and has circulated widely in many translations; the library also holds the Spanish version La isla del tesoro and the German version Die Schatzinsel: Roman. Another representative work, A Child's Garden of Verses, writes from a child's perspective about play, imagination, and everyday feelings, with fresh language and natural rhythm, and is a common reader in English children's poetry. The library holds as many as 101 of his works, showing the variety of his subjects and forms. Public information is limited, so details of his life and education are not elaborated here; overall, his writing combines thrilling narrative with a lyrical tone, being strongly story-driven yet readable aloud, and has had a lasting influence on later adventure literature and children's literature.

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