Vera, the Medium

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 176K words
Chapters: 18

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.Vera, the Medium by Richard Harding DavisAuthor: Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 1999

Editor's review

Richard Harding Davis's Vera, the Medium takes the figure of the medium as its narrative core, with a clear flavor of social observation and suspense. Davis was an American writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose work often attends to social settings and verbal sparring; this tale of mediumship and deception, trust and doubt, lands squarely in the era's public psychology of curiosity and wariness toward mediums. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg eBook, its reading value lies in observing, in a light and compact form, how the medium theme was handled early in English popular literature: the story advances through dialogue and scene management, sustaining suspense not through gore or violence but through information gaps and identity performance. Readers may take it as a sample of early twentieth-century American popular narrative or as English short-fiction extensive reading. Note that the language carries period habits and the pacing differs from contemporary genre fiction; readers expecting modern thriller intensity may find it mild.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early literary treatments of mediums and spiritualism
Readers of English short stories who enjoy dialogue- and wit-driven plots
Enthusiasts or students of early twentieth-century American popular literature
Intermediate readers seeking public-domain English short stories for extensive reading

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern horror or strong thrills
Genre readers who need dense action and rapid twists
Beginners with weak English who struggle with period prose habits

Reading tips

Watch how the medium's identity is established, questioned, and exploited in dialogue; this is the core of the story's tension.
Read through for plot first, then revisit key exchanges to see how the author uses information gaps to create suspense.
In extensive reading, follow scenes and relationships rather than dwelling on individual archaic expressions.
For literary-historical interest, compare with other medium-themed works of the period to see differences in treatment.

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

Does this story contain supernatural elements?

The available information only confirms that the title relates to a medium; it does not establish whether supernatural phenomena actually appear. The safer reading is to treat it as popular narrative about mediumship, trust, and doubt, with specifics to be judged from the text itself.

Is it suitable for intermediate English readers?

Worth trying. It is a public-domain English short story with period language habits, but it is short and driven mainly by dialogue; intermediate readers using extensive-reading strategies can usually follow the main line.

Why recommend it rather than a modern suspense novel?

Its value is not intensity but as a sample of how early twentieth-century American popular literature handled the medium theme, suited to readers interested in genre origins and English short narrative.

Comments

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About the author

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916 Author

Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) was an American writer and war correspondent, with 49 works held in this collection. Public information is limited, yet the range of his writing can be seen from the titles listed here: he wrote both war reportage and fiction and character sketches. Notes of a War Correspondent records a reporter's firsthand experiences in the field, Real Soldiers of Fortune tells of adventurous soldiers, while Gallegher and Other Stories and Van Bibber and Others show his skill in the short story, with a light touch and a gift for portraying city life and a variety of characters. His works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age reading and have circulated among young readers, combining the immediacy of journalism with the readability of fiction; they have influenced later war reporting and popular narrative.