The Miracle Man

Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius), 1877-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 378K words
Chapters: 38

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 Miracle Man by Frank L. PackardAuthor: Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius), 1877-1942,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 7, 2005

Editor's review

This English novel by Frank L. Packard belongs to the American and Canadian literature category of Project Gutenberg's free eBook library. Judging from the author's consistent style of popular storytelling, the book suits plot-driven reading: brisk pacing and clear character relationships make it easy to read in installments on a commute or before bed. Its value lies not in heavy literary experimentation but in offering a convenient entry point into early twentieth-century English popular fiction, through which readers can experience the narrative pleasures and language habits of the time. As a public-domain electronic text, it is easy to obtain and convenient for selecting passages for classroom or book-club discussion. Readers are advised to treat it as extensive reading material in English: follow the story first, then revisit characterization and dialogue technique; for language learning, choose several passages for close reading and retelling.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy English popular fiction and want strong plot momentum
Learners who want to use public-domain eBooks for English extensive reading practice
Organizers who need lightweight texts for book-club or classroom passage selection

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting serious literary depth and complex narrative experimentation
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who need annotated editions
Readers who prefer contemporary subjects and contemporary narrative pacing

Reading tips

Read through the first few chapters to grasp the characters and conflict before deciding which chapters to close-read.
Use the eBook's annotation function to note unfamiliar words and typical dialogue for later review.
After finishing, retell the main plot in two or three sentences to check the effectiveness of your extensive reading.

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

How difficult are the language and style of this book?

The material shows that this is an English novel in the popular narrative mode. Overall it suits readers with intermediate English reading ability; if your vocabulary is limited, use a dictionary and proceed by extensive reading first.

Can it be used as English learning material?

Yes, but it is better suited to extensive reading and building language intuition than to systematic study. Choose dialogue-heavy passages for close reading, imitate the sentence patterns, and do brief retelling exercises.

Where can I get the electronic version of this book?

This book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. Readers can search for the text on its platform by title or author; the available formats are those provided by the platform.

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About the author

Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius), 1877-1942 Author

Frank L. Packard (1877–1942) was an English-language writer of popular fiction in the early twentieth century; reliable public information about his life and nationality is limited. The library holds thirteen of his works, including Pawned, The White Moll, The Wire Devils, On the Iron at Big Cloud, The Miracle Man, The Night Operator, The Adventures of Jimmie Dale, and The Sin That Was His. These titles show that he excelled at tightly plotted adventure and mystery narratives, often drawing on urban crime, railway life, and questions of identity. His stories move at a brisk pace and place characters in perilous situations, bearing the hallmarks of early popular-magazine serial fiction. The Jimmie Dale series in particular created a distinctive detective-style protagonist who found a readership in his day and offered a model for later genre fiction.