The Galloping Ghost

Snell, Roy J. (Roy Judson), 1878-1959Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 271K 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 Galloping Ghost by Roy J. SnellAuthor: Snell, Roy J. (Roy Judson), 1878-1959,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Sep 30, 2013

Editor's review

The Galloping Ghost is a juvenile work by Roy J. Snell, available as a public-domain eBook. Snell was a prolific author of young people's fiction in the first half of the twentieth century, and his books often center on adventure, mystery, and coming of age. This novel follows its young protagonist through a series of adventures built around the clue of the "galloping ghost," with a brisk pace and suspense tailored to young readers. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it works well as an entry point for reading in the original English: moderate in length, modest in difficulty, and direct in plot. It also offers a usable sample text for readers studying early American juvenile literature or the children's adventure novel. Read it for narrative pacing and character handling rather than for deep literary value. Overall, it is a lightweight, entertaining public-domain title suited to short reading sessions or English-language study.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate English learners who want to practice reading with a short adventure story in the original English
Readers interested in early twentieth-century American juvenile literature
Young readers who enjoy mystery and adventure and want light, easy reading
Teachers who need free public-domain English texts as classroom supplements

Not a good fit for

Mature literary readers looking for deep literary analysis or complex character development
Readers at a beginner level who cannot yet read long English sentences on their own
Contemporary readers put off by the narrative style of early juvenile fiction

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide between close reading and light reading so you don't give up midway.
Jot down new words and colloquial expressions as you read, guess meanings from context, and build up everyday English.
After each chapter, try retelling the plot in your own words to check how well you followed the story.
For classroom use, pick the more suspenseful chapters for read-alouds or group discussion.

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 suitable for English beginners to read directly?

Not really for learners starting from zero or at beginner level. Although it is a juvenile book, it is still narrative prose in original English with long sentences and requires some vocabulary and grammar. Aim for at least intermediate reading level, or read with a dictionary and other aids.

Is this book related to the film of the same name or other adaptations?

Based on the available information, it can only be confirmed as a public-domain novel by Roy J. Snell published by Project Gutenberg. No film or other adaptation is mentioned, so readers should not assume a connection to any work of the same name.

Why is this book marked 2019 on Project Gutenberg?

The year usually refers to when the electronic text was posted or updated on Project Gutenberg, not when the work was originally published. Snell was active in the first half of the twentieth century, so the original text predates 2019 by far; the exact first-edition year requires other bibliographic sources.

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About the author

Snell, Roy J. (Roy Judson), 1878-1959 Author

Roy Judson Snell (1878–1959) was an American writer of adventure fiction for children and young adults, though public information about his life is limited, and his exact birth and death dates and nationality are not fully confirmed in our records. The library holds forty of his works, spanning aviation adventure, mystery and detection, and adventure stories for girls. Representative titles include The Crimson Flash, White Fire, Riddle of the Storm, The Crimson Thread: An Adventure Story for Girls, Red Dynamite, The Galloping Ghost, Curlie Carson Listens In, and Lost in the Air. His writing is known for its brisk pacing and tightly woven plots, often placing young readers in tense settings such as flight, storms, and mysterious events, using suspense to drive the story while emphasizing courage, quick thinking, and teamwork. Some works were explicitly aimed at girl readers, giving him a modest place in early juvenile genre fiction.