Long Live the King!

Rinehart, Mary Roberts, 1876-1958Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 622K words
Chapters: 63

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.Long Live the King! by Mary Roberts RinehartAuthor: Rinehart, Mary Roberts, 1876-1958,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2001

Editor's review

This work is one of Rinehart's most representative long novels in terms of plotting, built around wealth, family, and the shifting of power. The suspense escalates layer by layer, and the characters' wavering between interest and emotion is rendered convincingly. Her narrative pace is brisk; she excels at using everyday details to build tension, and her dialogue is concise and full of personality, creating a strong visual sense. As a public-domain ebook, the text is complete and easily accessible, making it a suitable sample for understanding early twentieth-century American popular fiction. While reading, note how the author uses domestic space as a stage to advance intrigue and reversals, and the agency of female characters within it. For readers who enjoy old-fashioned suspense and family narratives, this is a work that is easy to enter and leaves a lingering impression.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy classic suspense and family-feud themes
Literature enthusiasts who want to understand early twentieth-century American popular fiction style
Readers who prefer tightly plotted novels full of suspense
Readers accustomed to reading English originals who want low-cost access to public-domain books

Not a good fit for

Beginner readers who need a Chinese translation or bilingual annotations
Readers expecting modern fast-paced thrillers with high-tech elements
Readers unaccustomed to early English narrative style and longer exposition

Reading tips

First read through the opening chapters to sort out the character relationships and family property clues, then move into the main plot
Mark each reversal briefly, and after finishing, look back at the foreshadowing the author planted
If English reading is difficult, proceed chapter by chapter with a dictionary; there is no need to finish it in one sitting
After reading, consider how wealth and power are portrayed in light of early twentieth-century American social context

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 beginners reading English originals?

Not very suitable for complete beginners. The work was written early, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period features, while the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace. Readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability can finish it with a dictionary; beginners are advised to start with retellings or introductory materials before returning to the original.

What are the main difficulties in reading this book?

The main difficulties lie in the dense character relationships and the intertwined family and property threads, as well as the relatively slow pace of early English narrative. It is advisable to note characters' identities and key events while reading; when encountering long descriptive passages, focus first on dialogue and action to avoid losing the main thread amid excessive detail.

What should be noted when using a public-domain ebook edition?

Public-domain ebooks are mostly prepared by volunteers, with plain-text formatting, so paragraph spacing or punctuation style may be inconsistent. Focus on understanding the content while reading; if you need to quote the original text, it is advisable to check the wording against other public-domain sources to avoid misreading caused by formatting differences.

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About the author

Rinehart, Mary Roberts, 1876-1958 Author

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958) was an American author known for her detective fiction and humorous sketches. The library holds 29 of her works, including The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, A Poor Wise Man, The After House, Tish: The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions, Kings, Queens and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front, Tenting To-night, and The Confession. Her detective novels often unfold through female narrators and build suspense from everyday details, creating tension without losing a sense of humor; they have influenced later mystery and detective writing. Public information is limited, so no biographical details are conjectured here, and readers may come to know her narrative style and themes through the works listed above.