Cursed by a Fortune

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

2.7

Word count: 568K words
Chapters: 57

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.Cursed by a Fortune by George Manville FennAuthor: Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 1, 2010

Editor's review

This is an English novel by George Manville Fenn, falling within his usual vein of adventure narrative for young readers. Centered on a curse-like predicament brought on by a fortune, the story advances through its characters' struggles among money, circumstance, and moral choice, carrying the theatricality and didacticism common to late Victorian popular fiction. Its value for readers lies in showing how adventure fiction for young readers of that era organized suspense, shaped heroes and villains, and conveyed ideas of character, making it a useful sample for understanding English popular literary genres. As a public-domain ebook, the text is readily available and suits both genre reading and observation of literary history. Note that the pacing and characterization bear the limitations of their time; read for the narrative conventions rather than for modern-style complex psychological portraiture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Victorian English adventure fiction
Enthusiasts studying early popular fiction for young readers, its genres and narrative conventions
Intermediate to advanced English learners seeking public-domain long-form reading practice
General readers interested in stories about wealth, fate, and character

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced modern plots with strong twists
Readers expecting nuanced psychological description and complex character arcs
Beginners with little experience reading long English fiction who need extensive annotation

Reading tips

Get a rough sense of the character relationships before starting so the period-style pacing does not slow you down.
Read chapter by chapter and note key turning points to grasp how the adventure novel organizes suspense.
After finishing, revisit the opening "curse" premise and consider how it runs through the book and drives the characters' choices.

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 young readers?

Fenn often wrote for young readers, and this book is also an adventure narrative, but its language and attitudes carry Victorian traits. Young readers with reasonable English ability who can accept an old-fashioned narrative pace will find it easier going.

Is "cursed by a fortune" a literal supernatural premise?

Judging by the title and genre, it is closer to a narrative device centered on the troubles and moral tests that wealth brings than to a strictly supernatural horror setup. The exact treatment should be checked against the original text; as you read, note how the author explains this "curse."

What should I keep in mind when reading this public-domain book?

This is a public-domain electronic text; version information follows the Project Gutenberg release and it contains no modern editorial notes. Look up period vocabulary and background as needed, and avoid taking the book's attitudes as contemporary value judgments.

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.