Adam Johnstone's Son

Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 333K words
Chapters: 34

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.Adam Johnstone's Son by F. Marion CrawfordAuthor: Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 29, 2007

Editor's review

This is one of Crawford's plot-driven novels, built around a father-son relationship and a question of identity, with the dramatic tension and moral inquiry typical of nineteenth-century popular fiction. Crawford excels at advancing a story through scene and lively dialogue, keeping the narrative brisk; the book is a useful sample of the popular literary taste of its day in Britain and America. Published by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook, the text is complete and easy to obtain. It need not be judged by the high standards of canonical literature for depth of thought; read it rather as an enjoyable period story, attending to how character motives are laid out and suspense constructed. For readers studying nineteenth-century narrative technique or doing extensive reading in English, it offers a light but rewarding experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who enjoy nineteenth-century English plot novels
English learners seeking public-domain fiction for extensive reading
Literature enthusiasts studying popular narrative and father-son themes
Teachers needing short chapter-length material for classroom extensive reading

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking deep social critique or modernist technique
Readers uncomfortable with Victorian values and narrative pacing
Specialist researchers looking for demanding literary analysis

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to grasp the relationships and the central mystery, then decide whether to read straight through or selectively.
Treat it as extensive reading material: one or two chapters a day keeps the plot coherent.
Watch how the father-son thread drives the plot, and jot down key turns as you go.
Afterwards, compare it with other popular novels of the period to see how narrative conventions differ.

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

What is this novel about?

It centres on a father-son relationship and a question of identity, in the kind of plot-driven novel Crawford often wrote. The details are left to the reader; no spoilers here. Overall, character conflict and dramatic scenes carry the narrative, with the hallmarks of nineteenth-century popular fiction.

What kind of writer was Crawford?

F. Marion Crawford was a prolific late-nineteenth-century novelist known for strong plots, vivid scenes and lively dialogue, often set against international backgrounds and moral conflict. This book shows his fluent, popular narrative style and is a good introduction to his work.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

Yes, for learners with some foundation, as extensive reading. The language is nineteenth-century prose, with longer sentences than modern English, but the strong plot makes it easy to keep going. Aim for general understanding rather than checking every word.

Where can I read this book?

It is published by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook, available on its website. You can read it online or download it for personal reading and study.

Comments

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About the author

Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909 Author

F. Marion Crawford (Francis Marion Crawford, 1854–1909) was a notably prolific English-language novelist. The library holds 46 of his works, spanning a wide range of subjects: long novels set in Italy, such as Saracinesca, Greifenstein and Fair Margaret: A Portrait; the two-volume Ave Roma Immortalis, which portrays the history and monuments of Rome; the Arabian tale Khaled, A Tale of Arabia; and atmospheric ghost stories including The Upper Berth and Wandering Ghosts. These works show a writer skilled at evoking foreign and historical settings, with clear narrative structure and steady plotting, accomplished both in popular long fiction and in tales of the strange. His supernatural stories in particular have been favored by later anthologies and have had some influence on the English ghost-story tradition. Because public information is limited, biographical details are not elaborated here; the outline above rests on the works in the library's holdings.