A Dash from Diamond City

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 475K words
Chapters: 48

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.A Dash from Diamond City by George Manville FennAuthor: Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 4, 2007

Editor's review

This is a typical Victorian boys' adventure novel by the prolific author George Manville Fenn. The story revolves around pursuits and adventures set against the backdrop of Diamond City; the pace is brisk, the plot driven by coincidence and action, and it bears clear marks of its era. Its value lies not in literary depth but in offering a sample of how late-nineteenth-century English juvenile reading shaped courage, resourcefulness, and imperial imagination. Fenn excelled at writing boys coping with crises in unfamiliar settings, and the book's descriptions of tracking, escape, and peril are vivid, making it a suitable introduction to the adventure-novel tradition. Readers might note the geographical and cultural assumptions in the narrative, as such details reveal the work's historical context more than the plot itself. The electronic edition comes from Project Gutenberg, with clean formatting that suits segmented screen reading and makes it good extensive-reading material for English learners.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy classic boys' adventure stories
Enthusiasts studying Victorian juvenile literature
Learners who want light original English texts for extensive reading
Readers interested in the period attitudes embedded in nineteenth-century adventure narratives

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking complex character psychology and literary innovation
Contemporary readers sensitive to colonial-era cultural assumptions
Readers expecting tight, modern suspense pacing

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a feel for the narrative pace, then decide whether to continue straight through
Make brief notes when encountering unfamiliar place names or historical background to aid understanding
Read alongside other Victorian boys' adventure novels to compare conventions
English learners can read one or two chapters a day, looking up words to build 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.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly?

Not really for absolute beginners. The original is nineteenth-century English with period sentence structures and vocabulary; readers should have an intermediate level, or use an annotated edition and a dictionary for support.

What is the main appeal of the story?

The main appeal is the young protagonist's tracking and escape adventures near Diamond City; the plot moves through action and coincidence, is vividly rendered, and exemplifies the typical conventions of adventure reading of the time.

What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text with clean formatting but no modern annotations. Use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation to help with unfamiliar words and historical background.

Comments

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About the author

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909 Author

George Manville Fenn (1831–1909) was a British author whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources. The library holds 127 of his works, including The Little Skipper: A Son of a Sailor, The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains, and Sappers and Miners: The Flood beneath the Sea. Most center on youthful growth and adventure, often set at sea, in mining districts, or on the western plains. He also wrote such biographical work as George Alfred Henty: The Story of an Active Life. His writing emphasizes plot momentum and the shaping of character in young readers, and is commonly classified as inspirational coming-of-age fiction, holding a place in the tradition of juvenile adventure novels.