The Big-Town Round-Up

Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 406K words
Chapters: 41

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.The Big-Town Round-Up by William MacLeod RaineAuthor: Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 3, 2005

Editor's review

William MacLeod Raine was a prolific author of American Western fiction in the early twentieth century, and The Big-Town Round-Up continues his usual narrative approach of bringing the West and the city into collision, centering on characters caught between frontier traditions and the rules of the big city. As a public-domain electronic text, its value lies mainly as a specimen of genre fiction: it shows how early popular Westerns set up conflict, shaped hard-boiled heroes, and handled the recurring theme of "the rural versus the urban." The language is plain and the plot moves fast, making it an accessible introduction to the American popular literary tradition and a useful text for readers studying the evolution of genre narrative. One caveat: such works carry clear marks of their time, and their characterizations and ethnic portrayals may not meet contemporary expectations. Readers should keep a critical eye and place the book in its literary-historical context rather than accepting it wholesale as pure entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American Western genre fiction who want to understand early popular literature
Scholars of English and American literature or popular culture who need public-domain texts for genre narrative analysis
English learners who want to practice extensive reading with plot-driven original texts
Collectors of public-domain ebooks who wish to read systematically by author

Not a good fit for

Contemporary fiction readers expecting modern pacing and complex psychological characterization
Readers sensitive to the era's prejudiced portrayals
Scholarly readers seeking an authoritative critical edition or a heavily annotated version

Reading tips

Learn about Raine's background and the features of the Western genre before starting the text; the narrative conventions become easier to grasp.
As you read, note how the frontier and the city are set against each other, and jot down recurring images and character types.
For English study, read through for plot first, then closely read dialogue passages to absorb the habits of early popular English.
After finishing, read it alongside other public-domain Westerns and compare how conflict and protagonists are constructed.

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 genre is this book, and what is the plot roughly about?

It is an early American popular Western, with a story built around characters caught between frontier traditions and the rules of the big city, featuring such genre staples as a hard-boiled hero, confrontation, and maneuvering. For specifics, consult the text itself; readers can approach it with genre expectations.

What is the difference between this public-domain e-edition and a formal publication?

This version comes from a Project Gutenberg public-domain electronic text. It mainly provides the original work and usually lacks the introduction, notes, and textual scholarship of a modern edition. The reading experience is plain, suited to readers who bring their own background knowledge or use additional reference materials.

Are there period limitations to watch out for?

Early popular Westerns often contain stereotyped portrayals of ethnicity and gender roles, a product of the genre and its time. Readers are advised to stay critical and understand the book as literary-historical material rather than accepting its value judgments at face value.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954 Author

William MacLeod Raine (1871–1954) was an American writer of Western fiction. He wrote prolifically, producing many popular novels set on the American frontier, and this site holds twenty-two of his works. Raine’s fiction focuses largely on life in the border regions of Texas, Montana, New Mexico, and the Yukon, often featuring rangers, sheriffs, frontiersmen, and settlers, with plots centered on frontier order, adventure, and conflict. His style is accessible and fast-paced, emphasizing storytelling and a strong sense of place. Representative works include A Texas Ranger, The Yukon Trail: A Tale of the North, Ridgway of Montana, and The Sheriff’s Son. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.