The Golden Magnet

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 2.8
Word count
533K words
Chapters
54

Tags

Motivation and Growth Legendary LivesFate and FortuneVengeance and GratitudeHeroismInspirationGrowing UpExotic CultureYouth Reading

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 Golden Magnet by George Manville FennAuthor: Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Mar 24, 2008

Editor's review

The Golden Magnet is a boys' adventure novel by the prolific British author George Manville Fenn, made available as a public-domain ebook by Project Gutenberg. Fenn was known for writing adventure stories for boys, and this book is classified as juvenile literature, continuing the motifs of travel, treasure-seeking, and courage common to such works. The title's "golden magnet" carries a strong image of attraction, readily evoking journeys in pursuit of wealth and the unknown. As a public-domain text, its significance lies in presenting the narrative conventions, character setups, and values of late Victorian boys' adventure fiction, offering reference value for understanding the evolution of the genre. It is best read as an adventure story bearing the marks of its era, with attention to its geographical imagination, construction of masculinity, and moral instruction. It suits casual reading and genre study rather than readers seeking a modern pace.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to gauge the narrative pace and language difficulty before deciding to read through or selectively.
  2. Note the treasure-seeking motif and character functions common to adventure fiction as you read.
  3. Read alongside other boys' adventure works by the author to observe his narrative patterns.
  4. Jot down old nautical or geographical terms as you go to better understand the story's setting.

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

FAQ

What kind of work is this book? The material classifies it as juvenile literature, and the author Fenn is known for boys' adventure novels, so this is a classic boys' adventure story with elements of travel and treasure-seeking, not serious adult literature.
There's no synopsis—how do I judge whether it suits me? Try the opening chapters first to get a feel for the language difficulty and narrative pace; if you're used to older English adventure novels, it's usually easy to get into, but if you prefer modern fast-paced works, proceed with caution.
Is this a complete story or a collection? The material does not indicate it is a collection; the author is credited as a single author, George Manville Fenn, so it should generally be regarded as one complete full-length work, with the exact structure to be confirmed from the text itself.
What should I watch for when reading a public-domain ebook? Public-domain texts are prepared by volunteers and may show period differences in layout or punctuation; focus on understanding the story rather than worrying about individual formatting issues.

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

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909 Author

George Manville Fenn (1831–1909) was a British author whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources. The library holds 127 of his works, including The Little Skipper: A Son of a Sailor, The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains, and Sappers and Miners: The Flood beneath the Sea. Most center on youthful growth and adventure, often set at sea, in mining districts, or on the western plains. He also wrote such biographical work as George Alfred Henty: The Story of an Active Life. His writing emphasizes plot momentum and the shaping of character in young readers, and is commonly classified as inspirational coming-of-age fiction, holding a place in the tradition of juvenile adventure novels.