With Rifle and Bayonet: A Story of the Boer War

Frederick Sadleir BreretonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1
Word count
679K words
Chapters
68

Tags

English Originals War and Military Fiction Military StrategyAdventure JourneyFate and FortuneHeroismComing of AgeExotic Culture

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.With Rifle and Bayonet: A Story of the Boer War by F. S. BreretonAuthor: Brereton, F. S. (Frederick Sadleir), 1872-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 20, 2010

Editor's review

This is a juvenile adventure novel by Brereton set against the backdrop of the Boer War, classified as young adult literature. The work follows the typical formula of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century English boys' adventure stories: a young protagonist's military experiences drive the plot, with emphasis on courage, loyalty, and teamwork, brisk narrative pacing, and scene descriptions bearing a distinct period flavor. Its reading value lies in two respects: first, as a sample for understanding how British popular literature of the Boer War era presented war and imperial narrative; second, as an English original, its language is relatively straightforward and suitable for practicing narrative reading. A caveat: the book's stance and descriptions carry obvious period limitations, and its presentation of both sides of the war is not necessarily balanced; readers should approach it with a historically critical eye and not treat it as a factual history. The electronic edition is in the public domain, making it easy to obtain and read alongside other sources.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Learn the basic background of the Boer War before reading, so as not to mistake the novel's narrative for fact.
  2. Note how the book depicts both sides and the imperial stance; keep critical notes as you read.
  3. English learners can read for plot first, then closely read two or three chapters to build narrative and military vocabulary.

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

FAQ

Is this a history book or a novel? It is a novel, a juvenile adventure story with the Boer War as its backdrop. It is not a work of historical research; the arrangement of events and characterization serve the narrative and cannot be taken directly as factual evidence about the Boer War.
Does the book carry period bias in its stance? Yes. The work arose in a particular historical period, and its presentation of war and imperial narrative reflects the perspective of its time, not necessarily balanced or objective. Readers are advised to stay critical and read it alongside modern historical scholarship rather than accepting its judgments wholesale.
How difficult is the English, and what kind of learner is it suitable for? The language is generally narrative and the sentences fairly straightforward, suitable for learners with intermediate English reading ability who want to expand vocabulary and language sense through fiction. When encountering military and period terms, guess from context or look them up rather than stopping at every word.

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About the author

Frederick Sadleir Brereton Author · United Kingdom · 1872–1957

Frederick Sadleir Brereton (1872–1957) was a British Army medical officer who later became a writer of adventure stories for boys. Born in Surrey in 1872, he served in the Second Boer War and the First World War, rising to honorary lieutenant colonel and receiving the CBE. His works, 18 of which are held in this collection, celebrated heroic deeds of the British Empire and drew on colonial wars and expeditions—titles include Jones of the 64th, How Canada Was Won, On the Road to Bagdad, With Rifle and Bayonet, With Wolseley to Kumasi, A Gallant Grenadier, With the Dyaks of Borneo and With Wellington in Spain. These military adventures are tightly plotted and centre on brave, resolute young heroes, bearing a clear mark of their era; full details of his life and writings remain limited in publicly available sources.