Strange Stories cover

Strange Stories

Rating 3.4
Word count
666K words
Chapters
67

Tags

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.Strange Stories by Grant AllenAuthor: Allen, Grant, 1848-1899,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 15, 2012

Editor's review

Strange Stories is a short story collection by the English writer Grant Allen, released free in English as an eBook by Project Gutenberg. Allen was a prolific late-19th-century author and popular science writer whose fiction often blends intellectual curiosity with a lightly grotesque touch, making this collection well suited to readers who want a low-barrier entry into Victorian short narrative. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies not in binding or textual scholarship but in accessibility: readers can open it on any device and read a story or two in spare moments. Read it as a slice of its era, noting narrative voice, suspense technique and character types, and observing how late-19th-century popular fiction balanced entertainment with the expression of ideas. Because it is in the original English, it suits readers with some English reading ability who are willing to look up words as they go. For language study, choose a shorter story for close reading and record vocabulary and sentence patterns rather than trying to finish it in one sitting. Overall, this is a public-domain collection suited to fragmented, interest-driven reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Literature lovers curious about 19th-century English short fiction
  • Learners with basic English reading ability willing to read the original
  • Readers who enjoy weird or suspenseful themes and prefer short forms
  • Those who need free public-domain e-texts for extracurricular extensive reading

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who want a Chinese translation and prefer not to face the English original
  • Researchers expecting full annotations, an introduction or a scholarly edition
  • Readers impatient with 19th-century pacing who want only fast modern stories

Reading tips

  1. Skim the contents and pick the story whose title appeals most; you need not read in order.
  2. After each story, summarize plot and suspense in one or two sentences to practice English retelling.
  3. Guess unfamiliar words from context first and check them after finishing, to avoid constant interruption.
  4. Read alongside background on the author's era to understand the assumptions behind the stories.

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

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?
According to the source, the book is in English: a Project Gutenberg English e-text with no Chinese translation. Chinese readers need some English reading ability or a dictionary tool to assist them.
What are the features of Project Gutenberg books?
Project Gutenberg was the first project to offer free eBooks, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. Its texts are mostly public-domain works available free of charge, suitable for reading on electronic devices, but usually without detailed annotations or introductions.
Is it suitable for learning English?
It can serve as extensive reading material, but is not recommended as a systematic textbook. The English is 19th-century, with wording and sentence patterns somewhat distant from modern English. Close-read a short story with a dictionary and record vocabulary for steadier results.

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About the author

Grant Allen (1848–1899) was a late nineteenth-century British writer known both for science writing and fiction. Thirty of his works are held in the collection, spanning science fiction, detective stories, social novels, and popular science essays. His novel The Woman Who Did stirred controversy for its treatment of female independence and marriage morality; An African Millionaire presents humorous satire through the serial exploits of the swindler Colonel Clay; Hilda Wade and Miss Cayley's Adventures create determined female protagonists. In popular science, Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science and Anglo-Saxon Britain show his skill in making science accessible, while Biographies of Working Men focuses on ordinary laborers. Public information on his life is limited, but his works reveal a gift for combining scientific reason with popular narrative, giving him a place in late Victorian popular literature.

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