The Third Volume cover

The Third Volume

Rating 3.0
Word count
518K words
Chapters
52

Tags

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 Third Volume by Fergus HumeAuthor: Hume, Fergus, 1859-1932,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 24, 2013

Editor's review

The Third Volume is an English novel by Fergus Hume, whose free electronic edition was released by Project Gutenberg in 2013. Hume is known for intricate plotting and suspense, and this work shares the readability of popular fiction: it revolves around mystery and the fate of its characters, moves at a brisk pace, and serves as a sample of English popular literature from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies in freely accessible, searchable text, making it suitable for low-cost trial reading or for genre-literature research. Note that Project Gutenberg editions usually contain no modern introduction, annotations, or author chronology; readers who want deeper background must consult other sources. Read it as genre fiction, focusing on how suspense is set up and revealed, rather than demanding classic status in literary history. Readers intimidated by the English original can try the first few chapters before deciding whether to continue.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy English popular fiction, suspense, and plot-driven stories
  • Enthusiasts studying English genre literature of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
  • People who need free public-domain English texts for reading or teaching
  • Trial readers who want a light introduction to Hume's work

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who want a Chinese translation and prefer not to face the English original
  • Readers who prefer literary classics and value textual depth and language experiment
  • Academic readers who need detailed annotations, introductions, or author research materials

Reading tips

  1. Read the first two chapters to gauge the narrative pace and language difficulty before deciding whether to read the whole book.
  2. While reading, note character relationships and key clues to help follow the unfolding suspense.
  3. For genre-literature research, read it alongside other popular fiction of the same period.
  4. When encountering unfamiliar expressions in the English original, do not look up every word; prioritize keeping 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
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52

FAQ

Is this book the English original?
Yes, this is the English original released by Project Gutenberg, without a Chinese translation. It suits readers with some English reading ability or those using dictionary tools.
Does the Project Gutenberg edition include annotations or an introduction?
Project Gutenberg editions usually provide only the text, without modern scholarly annotations, introductions, or author chronology. For background, consult relevant literary histories or author studies separately.
Is this book suitable for readers new to suspense fiction?
It can be a try. Hume's work is known for plot and suspense, and the narrative is relatively direct; but the English original and period context may still pose some difficulty, so try the opening chapters first.
Can it be used as English reading practice material?
Yes. The novel's narrative is coherent, with both dialogue and description, making it suitable for extensive English reading; but the text is from an earlier period and some expressions differ from modern English, so focus on understanding the plot.

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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.

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