White Fire

John OxenhamProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 495K words
Chapters: 50

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.White Fire by John OxenhamAuthor: Oxenham, John, 1852-1941,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 19, 2011

Editor's review

White Fire is an English novel by John Oxenham, a public-domain literary work offered free by Project Gutenberg. It has a clear popular-fiction character, dwelling on the unfolding of its characters' circumstances and emotional conflicts; the language is plain and the pace smooth, making it suitable as practice material for extended reading in English. The electronic edition makes it easy to look up unfamiliar words and passages at any time, and readers can thereby get a sense of how popular English fiction of the early twentieth century told its stories and what values it held. Because the public-domain edition lacks a modern introduction and notes, readers must supply the historical background themselves and keep a cautious judgment about the ideas in the book. Overall, it is better suited as supplementary literary reading than as a core text for academic research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate to advanced learners of English who want to build stamina for long-form reading through popular fiction
Readers who enjoy early twentieth-century English popular fiction and are willing to fill in the background themselves
Teachers who need public-domain English novels as extensive reading material for book clubs or classes
Readers interested in narratives of character and emotion, with flexible reading paces

Not a good fit for

Beginning readers who want a Chinese translation or detailed notes
Readers who prefer the pace and subjects of contemporary fiction and have little patience for older narrative styles
Readers who need an authoritative scholarly edition and systematic research materials

Reading tips

Set a fixed number of pages to read each week; first grasp the main plot, then go back over key dialogue.
Keep a vocabulary notebook, organize high-frequency words and expressions by chapter, and review them together after finishing.
Briefly learn about the author's era before reading, to help understand the characters' behavior and values.
After reading, write a plot summary and an evaluation of the characters to check comprehension and consolidate what you have gained.

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 suitable for English beginners?

Not really. The work is in the original English and lacks modern notes, so the sentences and background may be a considerable burden for beginners. It is better to try it after reaching an intermediate-to-advanced reading level, or to start with a simplified edition and introductory material.

Do public-domain e-books have notes and introductions?

Public-domain e-books from Project Gutenberg usually consist mainly of the text itself and do not necessarily include modern notes or introductions. Readers need to prepare their own dictionaries and background material, or supplement their understanding through book-club discussion.

At what pace should I read this book?

You can divide the reading into weekly portions by chapter: first read through to grasp the plot, then go back over the dialogue and key turning points. After finishing, organize a summary and the relationships among characters to help form a complete understanding.

Comments

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About the author

John Oxenham Author · British · 1852–1941

John Oxenham (1852–1941) was the pen name of William Arthur Dunkerley, a British journalist, novelist and poet. Born in Manchester, he first won recognition with the poetry collection Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful Verse, which gathers short, reflective poems. His fiction is often set against island and coastal life, and includes such works as Carette of Sark, A Maid of the Silver Sea, Maid of the Mist, The Coil of Carne, White Fire and Pearl of Pearl Island, with plots centred on character and emotion and on local scenery. He also wrote well-known hymns and served as mayor of Worthing. Eight of his works are held in this collection, though a common classification is not yet available; public information is limited. His writing spans poetry, fiction and hymns, combining popular readability with a sense of moral concern.