The Two-Gun Man

Charles Alden SeltzerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 315K words
Chapters: 32

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 Two-Gun Man by Charles Alden SeltzerAuthor: Seltzer, Charles Alden, 1875-1942,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 9, 2006

Editor's review

The Two-Gun Man is a Western novel by Charles Alden Seltzer and belongs to the Western genre within American popular literature. Released as a public-domain eBook by Project Gutenberg, it gives readers free access to the original text. Seltzer's Western stories usually center on frontier towns, the identity of gunmen, and the order of justice, with direct plotting and clearly defined allegiances, making this a good introductory sample of early twentieth-century American Western narrative. Reading it offers both the pace of genre fiction and a window into how popular literature of the time imagined the frontier, violence, and the law. Because it is the original English edition, readers should have basic English reading ability or read alongside a dictionary or bilingual text. For those studying popular literature, the evolution of the Western genre, or American popular culture, this short book can serve as light supplementary material, but readers should not expect deep literary experimentation or complex psychological portrayal.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Western films or Western stories and want to read an original English popular novel
Students of American popular literature and Western narrative who need a public-domain text sample
Readers with intermediate or better English who want a short genre novel for reading practice
General readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular culture

Not a good fit for

Serious literary readers expecting complex literary technique or deep psychological portrayal
Beginners with weak English who are unwilling to look up words or read a parallel text
Readers uninterested in the violence and gunfight elements of the Western genre

Reading tips

Read through one chapter first to get a feel for the language's rhythm, then decide whether to read closely or extensively
Keep pen and paper ready to note character relationships and the town's power structure so the plot is easier to follow
Read alongside Western films to compare narrative conventions
For the original English text, read a Chinese introduction first for background, then move into the main text

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?

According to Project Gutenberg, this is the original English edition, with the language listed as English. Readers need some English reading ability or should use a dictionary or translation tool for support.

Is this book suitable for studying Western literature?

It can serve as an introductory sample of popular Western fiction, helping readers observe common elements such as frontier towns, gunmen, and order. But one short book cannot cover the whole genre; it is best used alongside other representative Western works and scholarly materials.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free eBooks, and this edition makes the original English text easy to access on a computer or e-reader, suitable for zero-cost reading and text searching. The formatting is mainly plain text with few notes or introductions, so readers must supply background knowledge themselves.

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About the author

Charles Alden Seltzer Author · American · 1875–1942

Charles Alden Seltzer (1875–1942) was an American writer of Western fiction, born in Janesville, Wisconsin, and died in Cleveland, Ohio. In his early years he drifted through various jobs and kept writing for more than a decade before getting published. Over his lifetime he wrote about forty Western novels and a large number of short stories. Set mostly on the Western frontier, his works are tightly plotted and action-driven; representative titles include The Two-Gun Man, The Trail to Yesterday, and The Range Boss, and several were adapted into films. The library holds ten of his works, commonly classified under inspirational growth. In his later years he served as mayor of North Olmsted, Ohio.