The White Dove

Locke, William John, 1863-1930Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 412K words
Chapters: 42

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 White Dove by William John LockeAuthor: Locke, William John, 1863-1930,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 20, 2017

Editor's review

The White Dove is a novel by the English writer William John Locke, belonging to his usual vein of popular fiction. Locke's works tend to drive the narrative through character relationships, emotional entanglements, and moral dilemmas, and are highly readable, making this a suitable sample for understanding early 20th-century English popular fiction. This book has been digitized by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain work and is easy to obtain, making it suitable for English reading practice with original texts or as supplementary reading for literary history. While reading, pay attention to the characters' dialogue and psychological descriptions, and observe how the author advances conflict through everyday scenes; compared with British novels of the same period, it also reveals the orientation of popular fiction in plot design and reader taste. It is not a weighty scholarly work, but better read as an English book with a story.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English readers who enjoy early 20th-century British popular fiction
Learners who want to practice reading with public-domain English originals
Readers interested in Locke's works or English literary history
Self-learners who need lightweight English fiction material

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced suspense or science fiction
Beginners who need a Chinese translation or sentence-by-sentence annotations
Readers looking for serious works of literary theory

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters first to confirm the character relationships, then proceed chapter by chapter to avoid confusing the characters midway.
Keep a notebook to record the main characters and key turning points to help grasp the plot thread.
For English reading, set a fixed number of pages each day; when encountering new words, guess first and look them up later to maintain rhythm.
After finishing, look back at the opening and ending to observe how the author handles the characters' fates and thematic echoes.

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

What kind of novel is this book?

Judging from the author Locke's identity and the work's classification, this is an English novel in the category of popular fiction, focusing on character relationships and emotional narrative rather than historical research or theoretical writing.

How difficult is the English?

As an early 20th-century English novel, its sentence structures and word choices carry period features. It is not obscure overall but requires a certain vocabulary. Intermediate or above English reading ability is recommended, or read in sections with a dictionary.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It is suitable as extensive reading material. The novel has plot support and is easy to stick with; however, public-domain texts usually have no annotations, so focus on understanding the general meaning rather than parsing every word. Look up and note recurring new words in a concentrated way.

Do I need to know the author's background first?

Not strictly necessary. You can enter the story by reading the text directly; for deeper understanding, briefly learn about Locke's era and writing style before reading, then compare afterward for a fuller understanding.

Comments

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About the author

Locke, William John, 1863-1930 Author

William John Locke (1863–1930) was a British novelist, with 23 of his works held in this collection. His representative works include The Belovéd Vagabond, The Mountebank, The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol, Septimus, The Rough Road, The White Dove, The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne: a Novel, and Jaffery. Public information about his life is limited, so this entry offers only a brief account based on the works in the collection and the clues they provide. Judging from these titles and the character of the works, Locke's novels are largely character-centered, with brisk plots that often carry a romantic and humorous tone, blending vagabondage, adventure, and social observation, and creating many vividly drawn figures whose fortunes rise and fall. His works found a readership in the early twentieth century, and some were adapted for the stage and screen, leaving a mark on popular literature and general reading.