The Captain's Toll-Gate

Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 527K words
Chapters: 53

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 Captain's Toll-Gate by Frank Richard StocktonAuthor: Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 2, 2004

Editor's review

Stockton was an American popular novelist of the late nineteenth century, known for light, humorous short stories and novels. The Captain's Toll-Gate continues his usual comedy-of-manners approach, building character relationships and everyday conflicts around the locally colored setting of a toll-gate; the plot moves briskly, the dialogue is witty, and the book has the unhurried rhythm of old-fashioned Anglo-American fiction. As a free electronic text from Project Gutenberg, the book is easy to access and low in barriers to entry, making it suitable as extensive reading material for English literature and as a sample for readers studying nineteenth-century American popular literature. Note that this is a public-domain e-book without modern annotations or an introduction, so first-time readers need their own background knowledge; moreover, the work is early, and its narrative rhythm differs markedly from contemporary fiction, so it is best read slowly and for leisure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English learners who want to read original English novels for pleasure
Readers interested in nineteenth-century American popular literature and comedy of manners
Teachers and students who need free public-domain electronic texts as reading material
Readers who enjoy traditional narrative works with a leisurely pace and humorous dialogue

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern fast-paced plots or strong suspense
Beginners with weak English foundations who need sentence-by-sentence annotations
Researchers seeking academic introductions and detailed background annotations

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a feel for the language rhythm, then decide whether to read intensively or extensively.
Mark unfamiliar expressions first, then look them all up after finishing the chapter.
Read alongside the author's other short stories to appreciate his humorous style.
Use the electronic text's search function to sort out character relationships and scene changes.

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 English beginners?

Not very suitable. The work was written in the late nineteenth century, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period features; the public-domain e-book has no annotations or vocabulary list. It is better suited to readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who can finish a chapter independently with a dictionary. Beginners may first choose retold editions or graded readers as a transition.

What is the reading experience of the public-domain e-book like?

This book comes from Project Gutenberg as a free electronic text with simple formatting and no ads, and it can be opened on a computer or e-reader. The drawbacks are the lack of a modern introduction, annotations, and an optimized table of contents, and the many long paragraphs. Reading software with adjustable fonts and bookmark functions is recommended for easy marking and review.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading?

Not necessarily. Stockton is known for humorous novels of manners, and readers can appreciate the witty dialogue and brisk plot by entering the text directly. For deeper understanding, readers can briefly learn about the publishing environment of nineteenth-century American popular literature after finishing the book, then revisit its local color and character setup.

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About the author

Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902 Author

Frank Richard Stockton (1834–1902) was an American writer known for humorous and fanciful short stories and novels. This collection holds 33 of his works, spanning a variety of genres: the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, famous for its dilemma ending; the whimsical tales of “The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales”; light, comic travel and domestic stories such as “The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine”, “The Associate Hermits” and “The Squirrel Inn”; and adventure and exotic settings in “Kate Bonnet: The Romance of a Pirate‘s Daughter” and “A Bicycle of Cathay”. His writing is marked by witty dialogue, absurd premises and gentle satire, with brisk plots and surprising turns, making him a distinctive figure in late nineteenth-century American popular literature. Public information is limited, so details of his life beyond his dates are omitted.