The Greater Power

Bindloss, Harold, 1866-1945Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 557K words
Chapters: 56

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 Greater Power by Harold BindlossAuthor: Bindloss, Harold, 1866-1945,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 9, 2009

Editor's review

The Greater Power is a novel by the British writer Harold Bindloss, belonging to the English-literature tradition he excelled in, and is now offered by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain eBook. Bindloss was active from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, and his works mostly revolve around life, enterprise, and human fate in remote regions, with steady narration and attention to how environment and character shape each other. The "greater power" of the title is not abstract preaching but is advanced through concrete relationships and situations, allowing readers to sense the author's handling of duty, ambition, and the natural environment as the plot unfolds. Because it is an old public-domain work, the language bears the marks of its era and the pacing is gentler than contemporary fiction, making it better suited to readers willing to slow down and savor the English narrative tradition. It can serve as a supplementary sample for extensive reading in English literature, and is also suitable for readers interested in early twentieth-century English popular novels to work through chapter by chapter without rushing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early twentieth-century English novels
Readers who want to supplement extensive reading in English literature with public-domain eBooks
General readers who enjoy steady narration and remote-region subjects
Book-club organizers who need free long English material

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced contemporary genre fiction with strong reversals
Readers impatient with old-fashioned English expression and narrative pacing
Readers who only want Chinese translations and are unwilling to approach English originals

Reading tips

Make a chapter-by-chapter reading plan, reading one or two chapters each time to keep the thread of character relationships coherent.
Mark period expressions first and look them up after finishing a chapter, avoiding frequent interruptions.
Keep pen and paper handy to note character relationships and key events, helping to grasp the long narrative.
If used for a book club, select passages around the "power" of the title for thematic discussion.

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

How difficult is the language of this novel?

The work was written early and its wording and sentence patterns bear period features; overall it is traditional English narrative, slower to read than contemporary fiction. Readers with a good English reading foundation can finish it with a dictionary, and proceeding chapter by chapter is recommended.

Is it suitable as English-learning material?

Yes, but it is better suited to readers who already have some foundation and wish to encounter literary narrative. Its value lies in experiencing the description and pacing of a traditional long novel rather than high-frequency practical expressions; beginners should start with short stories and then transition.

Why choose the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain eBooks, and this book is released on its platform. It is easy to access, suitable for readers who want low-cost reading of old English works, and convenient for reading in segments on electronic devices.

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About the author

Bindloss, Harold, 1866-1945 Author

Harold Bindloss (1866–1945) was an English-language writer active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century; public information about the details of his life is limited. The library holds 43 of his works, mostly novels, including Hawtrey's Deputy, Blake's Burden, For Jacinta, The Mistress of Bonaventure, The Greater Power, For the Allinson Honor, The Long Portage, and By Right of Purchase. Judging from these titles and their number, he was a prolific author of popular fiction for general readers, with themes often involving adventure, honor, duty, and life overseas. Because systematic biographical sources are lacking, his nationality, education, and specific experiences cannot be confirmed at present; assessments of his style and literary influence should also be further examined in light of more editions and reviews.