Under Fire cover

Under Fire

Rating 2.7
Word count
810K words
Chapters
81

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.Under Fire by Charles KingAuthor: King, Charles, 1844-1933,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 14, 2006

Editor's review

Under Fire is a work by the American author Charles King (1844–1933), released as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. King served in the U.S. Army, and his novels often draw on military and frontier experience; this book likewise belongs to the American literary tradition of narratives concerned with military and wartime settings. As a public-domain ebook, its primary value lies in an open, easily accessible text that serves as a sample of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century American popular military fiction. Readers can observe the narrative pacing, characterisation, and depiction of army life of the period, and it can also serve as supplementary material for the popular-literature strand of an American literature course. Note that the available data provides only author, language, and classification information, with no plot summary, so one should not approach it expecting specific battles or historical events. It is best read within the context of American historical fiction, attending to how the author, as a participant, organises scenes, rather than judging it by the complexity of modern war literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Students and scholars of American literature, especially fiction of military and frontier themes
  • General readers interested in depictions of late nineteenth-century American army life
  • English learners seeking public-domain English texts for reading practice or textual analysis
  • Readers collecting works by Charles King or editions of American popular fiction

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting the deep reflection and psychological portraiture of modern war literature
  • Readers who want a Chinese translation and are unwilling to read the English original
  • Casual readers who prefer fast-paced plots and have limited patience for older narrative styles

Reading tips

  1. Begin with the opening chapters to become familiar with the author's narrative pace and the way characters are introduced, then decide whether to read through or selectively.
  2. While reading, note the depictions of daily army life, discipline, and comradeship, and compare them with historical sources of the same period.
  3. English learners can excerpt vocabulary related to military and frontier life to build a thematic word list.
  4. If used in a course, pair it with American war-themed short fiction of the same era to compare differences in narrative perspective.

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
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81

FAQ

What is Under Fire about?
The available data gives only the author, language, and literary classification, with no plot summary. Judging from Charles King's military background and the subjects common in his work, the book is a narrative of American military and frontier themes. For specific plot details, consult the original text or a dedicated introduction to the book.
Who was Charles King?
Charles King (1844–1933) was an American author whose works, according to the data, fall under American and Canadian literature. His writing is largely connected with his military experience. Details such as his rank and service record are not covered in the data; consult reference works on American literature or military history.
Is this book suitable for English beginners?
The book is in the original English, published in an earlier era, with sentence structures and vocabulary characteristic of its time, making it somewhat difficult for beginners. It is better suited to readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to look up words; beginners may start with simplified editions or study guides.

Comments

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About the author

Charles King (1844–1933) was an American author. Public information about him is limited, and few systematic records of his life details are available. The library holds twenty-eight of his works, commonly classified under inspirational growth. Representative titles include Campaigning with Crook, and Stories of Army Life; Starlight Ranch, and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier; A Wounded Name; Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68; From the Ranks; Sunset Pass or, Running the Gauntlet Through Apache Land; Lanier of the Cavalry or, A Week's Arrest; and An Apache Princess: A Tale of the Indian Frontier. As the titles suggest, his writing draws largely on American frontier and military life, centering on Indian frontier conflicts, cavalry experience, and everyday camp life. The works combine adventure narrative with elements of personal growth, emphasizing plot momentum and the recreation of period atmosphere, and offer some reference value for understanding nineteenth-century American popular literature on Western military themes.

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