The Monkey That Would Not Kill

Henry DrummondProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 59K words
Chapters: 6

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 Monkey That Would Not Kill by Henry DrummondAuthor: Drummond, Henry, 1851-1897,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 27, 2009

Editor's review

This work comes from the late nineteenth-century Scottish writer and speaker Henry Drummond. It is short but uses a monkey that "would not kill" as the core of an allegorical narrative, discussing the relationship between instinct, goodwill, and growth beneath the surface of a light animal story. The Project Gutenberg electronic edition preserves the language of the original: the English is plain and the sentences short, making it a good little book for entering English public-domain children's literature. Its value lies not in complexity of plot but in making abstract moral choices concrete and vivid through anthropomorphism, so it reads lightly yet leaves something to think about. It suits reading in one sitting before bed or in spare moments while traveling, and also works as English material for parent-child reading, with adults guiding children to discuss "what if an animal went against its nature." Note that it was written over a century ago, and its narrative pace and ideas bear clear marks of their time; readers should approach it with a historical eye rather than as a model of contemporary children's literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginning and intermediate English learners looking for plain public-domain English reading practice
Parents needing short allegorical material for parent-child reading
Readers interested in late nineteenth-century English children's literature and animal fables
Commuters who want to finish a small book in spare moments

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long adventure plots or complex character relationships
Parents seeking contemporary children's education guidance or parenting methods
Readers sensitive to the period attitudes in texts from a century ago

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the storyline, then go back to look up unfamiliar words, avoiding frequent interruptions to the reading rhythm.
During parent-child reading, after each section have the child say why the monkey would not kill, then compare with their own choices.
Read the animal fable alongside other public-domain children's books of the same period to sense differences in style of the era.
After finishing, write your understanding in three to five sentences as practice in writing a short English review.

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 to read directly?

The original language is generally plain with short sentences, suitable for beginning and intermediate learners with some foundation. If your vocabulary is limited, read through once with a dictionary, then reread without annotations, focusing on the allegorical way of telling rather than reading word by word.

Is this book a long story or a short one?

From the information available, it is a short animal fable suitable for reading in one sitting or over a few sessions. Readers should not expect a complex long plot; it is better treated as a short story to savor repeatedly.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg is a free provider of ebooks, and this edition belongs to its public-domain ebook series, preserving the original language and making it freely accessible for readers. The typesetting is mainly plain text, so layout information such as illustrations may be less rich than in a print copy.

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About the author

Henry Drummond Author · Scottish · 1851–1897

Henry Drummond (1851–1897) was a Scottish evangelical preacher, biologist and writer, born in Stirling on 17 August 1851 and died in England on 11 March 1897. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he entered the Free Church of Scotland and from 1877 served as lecturer in natural science at the Free Church College in Glasgow, becoming known for blending scientific thinking with Christian faith. His best-known works include Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883), which draws analogies between the laws of nature and the spiritual life, and The Greatest Thing in the World, a widely read sermon on love. Seven of his works are held here, mostly in the inspirational and personal-growth category; his plain, earnest style combines a preacher's warmth with a naturalist's eye for detail, and he retains a lasting readership in the English-speaking world.