The Efficiency Expert

Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 274K words
Chapters: 28

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 Efficiency Expert by Edgar Rice BurroughsAuthor: Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 1, 2002

Editor's review

The Efficiency Expert is a work by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs, released free of charge through Project Gutenberg. Burroughs is best known for adventure novels such as Tarzan, and this book shares the readability of popular storytelling, building its plot around the professional identity of an "efficiency expert" with a light, lively flavor of workplace and business life. As a public-domain eBook, its strengths lie in zero-barrier access and moderate length, making it suitable as leisure reading in the original English and a convenient way to understand early twentieth-century American popular literature. While reading, note how the idea of "efficiency" is woven into characters' situations and conflicts; this is both a topic of the era and the driving force of the story. Bear in mind that the Gutenberg edition is mainly plain text, with no notes or introduction; the book is in the original English at moderate difficulty, so Chinese readers with limited English may find the experience affected. Overall, it suits readers who want to enjoy an English story lightly rather than researchers seeking in-depth literary analysis.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like Burroughs and want to explore his non-Tarzan works
Readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular literature
Readers looking for a moderately long English original story to practice reading
Casual readers curious about workplace and business fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for original novels
Readers expecting deep social critique or complex literary structure
Students who need a Chinese translation or a classroom-annotated edition

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to grasp the characters' identities and core conflict, then decide your reading pace.
Pay attention to what "efficiency" specifically refers to in the plot and take brief notes.
You can compare this book with Burroughs's adventure novels to observe the difference in subject matter.
When using it as extensive reading material, there is no need to look up every word; just follow the dialogue and the progression of events.

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 stylistically the same as Tarzan?

Not entirely. Burroughs is known for adventure novels, while this book revolves around an "efficiency expert" and has the flavor of popular storytelling set in workplace and business contexts. Both value readability, but the subject matter and settings differ clearly.

Is the Gutenberg edition the complete novel?

Project Gutenberg releases electronic texts of public-domain works, usually the main text of the work. This edition generally contains no publisher's note, annotations, or introduction, so readers should focus on the main text and look up background information separately.

How difficult is the English?

It is the language of popular fiction, moderately difficult overall, but the book was written early, so some expressions are distant from contemporary English. Readers with a college-level English foundation or who can read with a dictionary can usually finish it smoothly.

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About the author

Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950 Author

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) was an American author best known for his science fiction and adventure novels. The library holds 33 of his works, including Tarzan of the Apes, The Gods of Mars, At the Earth's Core, The Land That Time Forgot, Pellucidar, and The Moon Maid. His writing is boldly imaginative and briskly paced, often combining unfamiliar settings—alien worlds, the Earth's interior, and the jungle—with tense adventure. His Tarzan figure has had a lasting influence, and his Mars and Pellucidar series are also important early works of science fiction adventure. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so this introduction focuses on his creative output.