The Bomb-Makers

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 176K words
Chapters: 18

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 Bomb-Makers by William Le QueuxAuthor: Le Queux, William, 1864-1927,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 21, 2012

Editor's review

This work comes from the British writer William Le Queux and belongs to the tradition of conspiracy and suspense narrative he excelled in. The story revolves around a secret group making explosives, with a tight pace and the typical features of early popular thrillers: hidden identities, the shadows of the city, technological panic, and pursuit and counter-pursuit. As a public-domain eBook, its greatest value is as a sample of how early twentieth-century popular literature responded to industrial anxiety and security fears. Do not expect deep psychological complexity; enjoy it as a genre novel marked by its era, noting how the author uses serial-style suspense to drive the plot and how he constructs the opposition of good and evil. For readers studying popular literature, the evolution of genre fiction, or English public-domain texts, it is a light and entertaining supplement.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early English thrillers and suspense fiction
Enthusiasts studying early twentieth-century popular literature and conspiracy narrative
Learners who need light English public-domain texts for extensive reading practice
Casual readers interested in the shadows of the city and secret gangs

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting tight deduction or the complex structure of modern crime fiction
Readers impatient with old-fashioned English expression and serial pacing
Readers seeking deep psychological characterization and literary experimentation

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to grasp how the suspense is set up, then proceed chapter by chapter; there is no need to finish in one sitting.
Take brief notes on unfamiliar historical background or old-fashioned expression to help understand the characters' motives.
Read it against thrillers of the same period to observe how genre conventions persist and change.

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 practicing English reading?

It works as extensive reading material, but note that it is early twentieth-century English, with sentence patterns and vocabulary at some distance from contemporary English. Aim at following the main plot rather than looking up every word, and close-read only at key suspense points.

What background knowledge do I need before reading?

No special background is needed to enter the story. To read more deeply, learn a little about security fears in early twentieth-century industrial cities and the publishing environment of popular serial fiction; this helps explain why the work favors secret gangs and explosives.

Where is the main pleasure of reading this novel?

The pleasure comes mainly from the pace of suspense and the pursuit between good and evil, and from the atmosphere of technological panic marked by its era. It does not aim for the complex reversals of modern crime fiction; it is better enjoyed as a genre diversion with an old-time texture.

Comments

Find this book

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

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927 Author

William Le Queux (1864–1927) was a British writer of popular fiction, with 74 of his works held in this collection. He is best known for invasion-scare and spy-adventure stories; The Invasion of 1910, which depicts a German invasion of Britain and the siege of London, drew considerable attention in its day, and The Great War in England in 1897 belongs to the same vein. His other works centre on mystery, intrigue and international espionage, such as The Zeppelin Destroyer, The Secrets of Potsdam, The Closed Book: Concerning the Secret of the Borgias and The Golden Face: A Great ‘Crook’ Romance, all marked by tight plotting and dense suspense. Le Queux often set fictional crises against real places to create a sense of urgency, and his work had some influence on the development of early spy fiction and thrillers. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.