Tom Slade on the River

Fitzhugh, Percy Keese, 1876-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 254K words
Chapters: 26

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.Tom Slade on the River by Percy Keese FitzhughAuthor: Fitzhugh, Percy Keese, 1876-1950,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Feb 22, 2013

Editor's review

Tom Slade on the River is one of Percy Keese Fitzhugh's "Tom Slade" series, an early twentieth-century American adventure and coming-of-age novel for boys. The protagonist, Tom Slade, has a Boy Scout background; the story revolves around a river journey and emphasizes outdoor skills, comradeship, responsibility, and self-discipline, bearing a distinct imprint of Boy Scout culture. The value of such works lies in the narrative model of early boys' adventure fiction: outdoor action drives the plot and concrete tasks test character, in plain language and brisk pacing. For readers studying the history of American children's literature, the Boy Scout movement, or the boys' adventure genre, it is a usable specimen; for general readers it is a light English-language original, suited to experiencing the feel of a hundred-year-old boys' book. Note that its attitudes and expressions bear clear marks of their time and should be understood historically.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the American boys' adventure novel genre
Researchers of Boy Scout culture and early twentieth-century children's reading
English learners seeking light original English novels for extensive reading
Young readers who enjoy outdoor, river, and team-mission subjects

Not a good fit for

Adult fiction readers who prefer complex literary structure and psychological depth
Readers sensitive to outdated gender attitudes and period expressions
Readers expecting modern adolescent coming-of-age themes

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to grasp the character relationships and the journey's goal, then proceed chapter by chapter.
English learners can note three to five action verbs and outdoor terms per chapter to build adventure-narrative vocabulary.
After reading, consult background on the Boy Scout movement to understand the period logic of the tasks and character training.

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

Will not having read earlier books in the series affect my reading?

Only to a limited extent. Boys' adventure novels of this kind usually have relatively self-contained single-volume plots; this volume centers on a river journey, and core relationships are explained in the narrative. Reading this volume directly allows you to follow the main story, though knowing the series background helps in understanding the continuity of the character's growth.

Is this book suitable for children?

It can be tried as an English-language original, but the book carries early twentieth-century attitudes and expressions, some of which are distant from today's standards for children's reading. Parents are advised to look through it first, or to read it with their children and discuss the period differences.

Where does its literary value mainly lie?

Mainly as a generic specimen: it shows how early American boys' adventure fiction organized plot through outdoor action, tested character through tasks, and carried the value claims of Boy Scout culture. It is more meaningful to students of children's literary history and the evolution of adolescent reading than as a work to be judged by purely literary standards.

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About the author

Fitzhugh, Percy Keese, 1876-1950 Author

Percy Keese Fitzhugh (1876–1950) was an American author of children's literature, best known for his two boys' series featuring Roy Blakeley and Tom Slade. The collection here includes twenty-six of his works, among them Roy Blakeley: His Story, Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike, Roy Blakeley's Motor Caravan, Tom Slade on Mystery Trail, Tom Slade, Motorcycle Dispatch Bearer, Tom Slade at Temple Camp, Tom Slade on the River, and Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp. These books are generally classified as inspirational coming-of-age stories. Set around boys' experiences in camping, hiking, cycling, and outdoor adventure, they portray friendship, courage, and responsibility in a light, humorous tone and stress honesty, mutual help, and self-reliance. Public information about his life is limited, but the series show his skill in creating lively, upright boy characters whose stories stay close to young readers' lives, giving him a representative place in early American juvenile fiction.