The Red-headed Man

Fergus Hume (Fergusson Wright Hume)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 285K words
Chapters: 29

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 Red-headed Man by Fergus HumeAuthor: Hume, Fergus, 1859-1932,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 12, 2017

Editor's review

The Red-headed Man is an English-language novel by Fergus Hume, an Australia-born British author, available in Project Gutenberg's free eBook library. Hume was known for plot-driven popular fiction, and this book continues in his signature suspenseful narrative style, centering on a mystery involving a red-headed man, with intricate relationships and clues that unfold layer by layer. It serves as an accessible introduction to English popular literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Project Gutenberg edition is convenient for reading on electronic devices at any time and can also serve as extensive reading material for English learners, helping them build vocabulary and grow familiar with the narrative rhythm of English fiction while following the plot. For fans of mystery and suspense literature, the book offers a sample of how early genre fiction built suspense and arranged twists. Note that this is the original public-domain English text, without Chinese annotations or introduction, and requires a certain foundation in English.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Victorian to Edwardian English popular fiction
Learners who wish to practice extensive English reading with plot-driven texts
Readers interested in the development of early suspense and detective genre literature
Readers accustomed to reading public-domain English classics on electronic devices

Not a good fit for

Beginner English readers who need a Chinese translation or sentence-by-sentence annotations
Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced suspense narratives and lack patience for older prose styles
Readers expecting scholarly introductions or author study materials

Reading tips

Read through the chapter titles and opening paragraphs first to grasp the relationships among characters before going into detail.
Don't look up every unfamiliar word; follow the plot first and deal with vocabulary after finishing a chapter.
Keep a chart of characters and clues, noting plot points related to the red-headed man, to help untangle the mystery.
If using the book for English study, aim to read one or two chapters at a fixed time each day and excerpt typical sentence patterns.

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 in Chinese or English?

This is the original English eBook released by Project Gutenberg, with the text in English and no Chinese translation or annotations. Readers need at least intermediate English reading ability, or a dictionary tool for support.

What are the characteristics of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg was the first project to provide free eBooks, and its editions consist mainly of public-domain works. The texts are free, easy to download, and readable across devices, but they usually lack the introductions, annotations, or proofreading notes of modern publishers, making them fairly plain original texts.

I haven't read any other works by Hume. Can I start with this one?

Yes. This is a standalone novel that does not depend on prior events from other works. However, Hume's narrative pace and language style carry the marks of their era; if this is your first encounter, read a few pages to get used to the style before deciding on your reading speed.

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About the author

Fergus Hume (Fergusson Wright Hume) Author · English · 1859–1932

Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist. Born in England, he moved with his family to New Zealand as a child, studied at the University of Otago and qualified as a lawyer. In 1885 he went to Melbourne, and the following year he published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab at his own expense, achieving instant fame; the book is regarded as a bestselling classic in the history of detective fiction. In 1888 Hume returned to England to settle, and thereafter devoted himself to detective and suspense fiction, producing more than a hundred works in his lifetime, of which 66 are held in this collection, including The Silent House, The Gentleman Who Vanished and The Spider. He died in Essex in 1932.