The Haunted Ship

Tucker, Kate Marion, 1890-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.2

Word count: 220K words
Chapters: 23

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 Haunted Ship by Kate Marion TuckerAuthor: Tucker, Kate Marion, 1890-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Dec 30, 2015

Editor's review

The Haunted Ship is a work of juvenile literature in the Project Gutenberg collection, classified under language and literature as a boys' story. Judging from its title and category, it is a nautical-themed boys' book with an element of suspense, suited in length and language difficulty to young readers or English learners. The strength of such public-domain boys' novels lies in their plot-driven, relatively plain language: they read easily and are well suited to building the habit of reading in English and accumulating vocabulary for nautical and everyday settings. Note that it is a work from a century ago, so its narrative pacing and word choices differ from contemporary boys' fiction, and some passages may feel slow. Treat it as light English extensive-reading material; there is no need to dwell on literary technique—the point is to read it through smoothly and enjoy the flavor of an old-fashioned boys' adventure story. The e-book is free to obtain, so trying it costs little.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Middle-school and early university students who want to build a reading habit through extensive reading in English
Readers who enjoy nautical and suspense-themed boys' stories
English learners looking for simple public-domain novels to read
Parents and teachers choosing free English reading material for children

Not a good fit for

Adult readers seeking complex characterization and literary depth
Readers who prefer fast-paced contemporary narrative and have little patience for old-fashioned style
Beginners with weak English who cannot yet read a whole English novel on their own

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters to gauge the language difficulty; if there are too many unfamiliar words, read alongside a dictionary or a graded reader.
Read extensively chapter by chapter, skipping unfamiliar words that do not hinder comprehension to keep up the reading rhythm.
After finishing, retell the main plot in a few sentences to check comprehension and reinforce newly learned vocabulary.

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

What English level is this book roughly suited to?

It is an old-fashioned boys' novel: the language is plain but the word choices carry the marks of its era, so it is roughly suited to learners who can read ordinary English books for young readers. If you need to look up words frequently on a single page, start with an easier graded reader as a bridge and come back to it later.

Is the story a horror type, and is it suitable for children?

By category it is a nautical suspense story within boys' literature; the "haunted" in the title is more a device of plot suspense than horror fiction in the modern sense. The overall tone is suitable for young readers, but parents may want to flip through it first to confirm it suits their child's sensitivities.

Why is this book recommended for extensive reading in English?

Because it is free and easy to obtain, moderate in length, and plot-driven, so readers are carried along by the story and are less likely to give up halfway. The point of extensive reading is volume and fluency, and this kind of public-domain boys' novel is well suited to building reading volume and getting familiar with old-fashioned English expression.

Comments

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About the author

Tucker, Kate Marion, 1890- Author

Kate Marion Tucker (1890– ) is an author represented in our catalogue by a single work, The Haunted Ship. Public information about her nationality, education, professional career, and dates of birth and death is very limited, and apart from her name, year of birth, and this one title, little further record is available, so a full outline of her life cannot be drawn. Judging from the surviving work, her writing shows a clear narrative drive and a strong sense of atmosphere; the title The Haunted Ship suggests a story connected with the sea, ghost lore, or suspenseful adventure, and readers may sense the thrills and imaginative appeal common to early popular English-language fiction. With so few works extant, her place in literary history is difficult to assess, yet this title offers a useful sample for studying maritime supernatural themes in early twentieth-century popular fiction.