The Disappearing Eye cover

The Disappearing Eye

Rating 2.8
Word count
506K words
Chapters
51

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.The Disappearing Eye by Fergus HumeAuthor: Hume, Fergus, 1859-1932,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 25, 2018

Editor's review

The Disappearing Eye is a full-length English novel by Fergus Hume, released free through Project Gutenberg as a public-domain English literary e-text. Hume is known for plot-driven popular fiction dense with suspense, and this work is likewise best read as an English book with mystery and detective appeal. Its value lies mainly in narrative momentum and suspense rather than canonical status in literary history; for readers who want to practice reading long English fiction while keeping the plot engaging, this kind of public-domain novel is relatively accessible. Since the e-edition usually has no modern introduction or notes, readers must adapt on their own to late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century English expression and narrative pacing. It suits continuous reading in fragmented time such as commutes or before bed, and can also serve as supplementary material for understanding the popular suspense novel tradition.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who want to practice long-form English reading and prefer suspenseful plots
  • Genre readers who enjoy classic popular detective and mystery fiction
  • Teachers who need public-domain English texts for classroom extensive reading
  • Literature enthusiasts interested in early twentieth-century English popular fiction

Not a good fit for

  • Academic readers expecting modern notes, introductions, and background analysis
  • Readers who only read Chinese translations and do not want to handle English originals
  • Readers seeking pure literary depth or contemporary suspense pacing

Reading tips

  1. Read the first two chapters to gauge the language difficulty, then decide on a fixed one or two chapters a day
  2. Mark unfamiliar expressions without looking them up immediately, then deal with them together after finishing a chapter
  3. Keep a character relationship chart to avoid confusion over mystery clues
  4. After finishing, revisit key foreshadowing to observe how the author sets up suspense and reversals

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

FAQ

What kind of English novel is this?
Judging by Fergus Hume's writing style and the title, it is a popular English novel with mystery and suspense elements. The metadata provides no detailed plot summary, so readers may try it as a classic suspense genre title.
Is the English difficulty suitable for intermediate readers?
The book is popular English fiction from around the early twentieth century; the language is generally narrative but includes period expressions and uncommon words. Readers with intermediate or higher reading ability who are willing to look up words can try it; complete beginners may find it tough.
Does this edition have notes or an introduction?
The metadata shows it is a public-domain e-text from Project Gutenberg, which typically contains no modern notes, introduction, or background analysis. Readers who want to understand the author and period background should consult reliable sources separately.

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

Fergus Hume (Fergusson Wright Hume) Author · English · 1859–1932

Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist. Born in England, he moved with his family to New Zealand as a child, studied at the University of Otago and qualified as a lawyer. In 1885 he went to Melbourne, and the following year he published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab at his own expense, achieving instant fame; the book is regarded as a bestselling classic in the history of detective fiction. In 1888 Hume returned to England to settle, and thereafter devoted himself to detective and suspense fiction, producing more than a hundred works in his lifetime, of which 66 are held in this collection, including The Silent House, The Gentleman Who Vanished and The Spider. He died in Essex in 1932.

More by the same author

Top rated in the same category