The Last Hope

Merriman, Henry Seton, 1862-1903Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 537K words
Chapters: 54

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 Last Hope by Henry Seton MerrimanAuthor: Merriman, Henry Seton, 1862-1903,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 2005

Editor's review

This novel comes from the late nineteenth-century English writer Henry Seton Merriman and belongs to the typical late Victorian tradition of adventure and sentimental narrative. The original text has long been in the public domain, and the Project Gutenberg electronic edition makes it readily accessible to readers today. Merriman's works often place characters in foreign or frontier settings, advancing the story through journeys, duty and emotional choices, with a steady narrative pace and dialogue marked by the idiom of the period. For Chinese readers, the value of this book lies more in offering a sample of how late nineteenth-century English popular fiction told stories: it does not aim for the sharp reversals of modern suspense but draws readers through atmosphere, character relationships and gradually accumulating tension. It suits continuous reading in quiet, uninterrupted stretches and also serves as extensive reading material in public-domain English fiction. One caution: the electronic edition is in the original English, and the book is early, so some vocabulary and syntax are distant from modern English; beginners should use a dictionary or notes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy late nineteenth-century English adventure and sentimental fiction
Learners who wish to practise reading a full-length English novel in the public-domain original
Researchers interested in the style of late Victorian popular narrative
People who want steady-paced reading for the commute or before sleep

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern fast-paced suspense or sharp plot reversals
Beginners with weak English who are unwilling to look up words
Readers who prefer the feel of contemporary Chinese original fiction

Reading tips

Read the first three chapters first, confirm you can adapt to the original's feel, then set a plan of ten to fifteen pages a day.
Keep a vocabulary notebook, recording only words that recur and affect comprehension, so looking up every word does not slow the pace.
After finishing, revisit the main characters' key choices and trace how the author uses setting description to heighten emotion.

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 in Chinese or English?

This is a public-domain English e-book released by Project Gutenberg; the text is in the original English, with no Chinese translation. Chinese readers need some English reading ability or a dictionary and other aids.

Can I read this directly without having read other works by the author?

Yes. This is a self-contained novel and does not depend on earlier works. To get into it faster, you might first learn about the common narrative pace of late nineteenth-century English fiction, then begin the text.

How should I read the electronic edition?

Use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation, so you can mark unfamiliar words and passages at any time. Since the original is long, setting a daily page count in stages is easier to sustain than reading it all at once.

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About the author

Merriman, Henry Seton, 1862-1903 Author

Henry Seton Merriman (1862–1903) was a British novelist of the late nineteenth century. His real name was Hugh Stowell Scott, and he wrote under the pen name "Merriman." Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life remain uncertain. Sixteen of his works are held in this collection, including From One Generation to Another, The Slave of the Lamp, Roden's Corner, The Isle of Unrest, The Vultures, The Last Hope, Barlasch of the Guard, and Dross. These novels often draw on continental European political intrigue, diplomacy, and adventure, with tightly constructed plots in which characters are caught between moral and fatal tensions, giving the books a fin-de-siècle melancholy. Merriman was popular with readers in his lifetime, and his narrative skill and evocation of exotic settings exerted some influence on later popular historical adventure fiction.