The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto Or, A Run for the Golden Cup

Rockwood, RoyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
242K words
Chapters
25

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature TeamworkAuto RacingFriendship RivalryInspirationTest of CourageSuspensefulBook SeriesBoyhood AdventureYouth ReadingSpeed and Passion

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 Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto; Or, A Run for the Golden Cup by RockwoodAuthor: Rockwood, Roy,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Oct 22, 2015

Editor's review

This is a typical boys' adventure novel, representative of the early English-language young adult literature on "boys and technology." The story follows the Speedwell brothers and their modified racing car in a contest for the Golden Cup; the pace is brisk, with racing and competition as the main thread, interwoven with friendship, family, and sportsmanship. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook, its value lies more in the history of the text and of reading: readers can observe the narrative formulas, language style, and values of early twentieth-century American juvenile fiction, and see how early automobile culture entered young people's literature. The original is in English; the language is not especially difficult, but it contains period expressions and racing terminology, making it suitable as light English extensive reading material or a small sample for the study of juvenile literature. Read it as a "slice of its era," focusing on how it imagines technology, competition, and youthful growth, rather than judging it by the complexity of contemporary fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read one chapter first to get a feel for the language rhythm, then decide whether to read the racing passages closely
  2. Keep pen and paper to note racing terms and period expressions, and look them up together after reading
  3. Read alongside other boys' adventure series to compare similarities and differences in formulas
  4. Focus on extensive reading; don't look up every word, and keep the reading flow

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

What English level is this book suitable for? The original is in English with fairly direct sentence structure, but it contains early twentieth-century expressions and racing-related vocabulary, putting it at roughly an upper-intermediate extensive reading level. Readers with a high school or above reading foundation who are willing to accept some unfamiliar words will find it easy to get into; those who prefer word-by-word intensive reading may need to look up words frequently.
Is this one book in a series? Judging from the title and character setup, the Speedwell brothers are series characters, and this book is one volume in the series, centered on racing and the Golden Cup. Each volume usually has a standalone adventure as its main line, so reading it alone generally does not hinder comprehension, but reading in series order makes it easier to follow the character relationships.
What should I note when reading it as a public-domain eBook? This book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text. The typesetting and proofreading are generally usable, but there may be differences in punctuation and paragraphing from modern editions. It is recommended to use a reader with adjustable fonts; if you encounter obvious typesetting problems, you can compare with other editions, and there is no need to let individual formatting issues affect your reading.

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About the author

Rockwood, Roy Author

Roy Rockwood is an early English-language author of popular fiction about whom very little is publicly known; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and actual English name are not clearly recorded in available sources. Fifteen of his works are held in the collection, mostly adventure novels for young readers, with a particular fondness for journeys into unknown realms—underground, under the sea, through the air, and into space. Representative titles include Five Thousand Miles Underground, The Wizard of the Sea, Dave Dashaway and His Giant Airship, and Lost on the Moon, which typically follow young protagonists on voyages by airship or submarine. Judging from the existing titles, his style is series-oriented and fast-paced, driven by imaginative settings, placing him within the early twentieth-century vogue for boys' adventure fiction. Because public information is limited, his personal history and full body of work remain to be further examined.