The Three Admirals

William Henry Giles KingstonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
954K words
Chapters
96

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Military StrategyFleet LifeLeadershipPortrait GalleryMilitary CommandersPower GameHeroismVictorian EraYouth 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 Three Admirals by William Henry Giles KingstonAuthor: Kingston, William Henry Giles, 1814-1880,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 15, 2007

Editor's review

This work is one of the more representative of Kingston's maritime adventure novels, centering on the experiences of three naval admirals and combining navigational detail with themes of youthful growth. A long-time writer for young readers, the author keeps a brisk narrative pace, draws characters in clear moral terms, and renders life at sea with concrete vividness, letting readers feel the weight of courage, discipline, and friendship amid tense plots. As a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, it preserves the original face of nineteenth-century English juvenile literature and is well suited to observing how adventure stories of that era were written and what values they carried. Readers need not seek precise historical accuracy; it is better taken as a coming-of-age read marked by its time. For English learners, the book contains many nautical terms and passages of dialogue, making it useful material for expanding vocabulary and growing familiar with a classical narrative tone. Overall, its value lies in the combination of storytelling and period-document quality, and it is well suited to being read chapter by chapter in leisure time.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Proceed chapter by chapter, and after each chapter summarize the plot and character changes in one or two sentences.
  2. Mark nautical terms when you meet them and look them up together after finishing rather than stopping midway.
  3. Read alongside the author's other maritime works to observe similarities and differences in his narrative formulas.
  4. English learners can read dialogue passages aloud to feel the nineteenth-century narrative tone.

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
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not really for absolute beginners or elementary readers. The work dates from the nineteenth century, with long sentences and many nautical terms and old-fashioned expressions, requiring some vocabulary and patience. It is better attempted after reaching roughly intermediate reading ability, or after first reading a simplified edition to become familiar with the story's framework.
Does the content have a historical basis? This is an adventure novel for young readers; its plot and characters serve the story and its moral themes and should not be treated as a factual record of naval history. Readers can take it as a period work to enjoy the flavor of nineteenth-century adventure literature; those concerned with historical fact should consult specialized histories.
Why is chapter-by-chapter reading recommended? The work advances through episodic passages, and its chapters are relatively self-contained. Reading by chapter makes it easier to follow character relationships and the sequence of events, and reduces fatigue caused by terminology and long sentences. A brief review after each chapter helps maintain interest in the main adventure.

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

William Henry Giles Kingston Author · British · 1814–1880

William Henry Giles Kingston (1814–1880) was a British author of adventure stories for young readers. Born in London, he spent part of his youth with his father in Porto, Portugal. He rose to fame in 1851 with Peter the Whaler and thereafter devoted himself to tales of the sea and exploration, writing more than a hundred books over his lifetime and also translating works by Jules Verne. His notable works include The Three Midshipmen, Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries, and Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley, most of them drawing on seafaring, exotic adventure, and the deeds of the British Navy. He excelled at linking the adventures of young protagonists with informative and moral content, in briskly paced stories rich in maritime atmosphere that were widely popular with young readers in the Victorian era. The collection here contains 133 of his works. Public information on his early education and specific experiences is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.