The Mucker

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

3.0

Word count: 678K words
Chapters: 68

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 Mucker by Edgar Rice BurroughsAuthor: Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 1995

Editor's review

The Mucker is a 1914 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs that, unlike his better-known Tarzan series, turns its gaze on the urban underclass and high-seas adventure. Its protagonist, Billy Byrne, grows up in a poor neighborhood; rough by nature yet not wholly a scoundrel, he gradually reveals a sense of morality and responsibility through a series of kidnappings, shipwrecks, and foreign escapades. The work bears clear hallmarks of popular adventure fiction: fast-paced plotting, frequent changes of scene, and direct conflict, while also lightly satirizing class prejudice and the notion that birth determines character. As a sample of early twentieth-century American popular literature, it lets readers enjoy a tightly paced adventure narrative and glimpse how mass fiction of the time handled the theme of a lower-class youth's reform. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain English ebook; the main barrier to reading lies in early slang and period feel, so it is best approached for entertainment rather than judged harshly for depth of characterization.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early American popular adventure fiction
Readers interested in Burroughs's works beyond the Tarzan series
Literature enthusiasts curious about early twentieth-century mass fiction
English readers comfortable with old-fashioned slang and period feel

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking literary depth and nuanced psychological portrayal
Readers sensitive to outdated racial and class representations
Readers hoping for polished modern prose

Reading tips

Read the book as an adventure genre novel and simply follow the plot.
When you hit early slang, skim past it; it won't affect overall comprehension.
Keep Burroughs's historical context in mind and note the social prejudices depicted.
After finishing, compare it with Tarzan to observe how the author handles different subjects.

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 the same kind of story as Tarzan?

Not exactly. Both are by Burroughs and both have adventure elements, but The Mucker centers on a lower-class urban youth, with scenes ranging from the streets to the sea to foreign lands, and its style is closer to popular adventure fiction than to jungle fantasy.

Will the slang in the book affect comprehension?

Somewhat. The protagonist's language carries early twentieth-century American lower-class slang, and some expressions are unfamiliar to contemporary readers, but the plot overall is clear, and skipping individual words and phrases won't affect the main thread of reading.

Is this book suitable as English-learning material?

It can serve as extensive reading material, but is not recommended as an intensive-study textbook. Its language has period characteristics and slang, making it better suited to readers with some foundation in English reading who want to follow the story.

Does the Project Gutenberg edition have annotations?

Project Gutenberg provides public-domain electronic texts, which usually contain no modern annotations or introduction. Readers who want background material can consult biographies of Burroughs and introductions to early twentieth-century American popular literature separately.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

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.