Whatsoever a Man Soweth

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 390K words
Chapters: 40

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.Whatsoever a Man Soweth by William Le QueuxAuthor: Le Queux, William, 1864-1927,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 17, 2012

Editor's review

Whatsoever a Man Soweth is an English novel by William Le Queux, a public-domain eBook released free by Project Gutenberg. Le Queux is known for popular fiction with twisting plots and dense suspense; this book continues his characteristic narrative pace, building the story around characters' fates and retribution, with the title taken from a biblical phrase suggesting the link between actions and consequences. As a sample of early twentieth-century English popular literature, it lets readers experience the storytelling pleasures of that era and also serves as a text for observing the social attitudes and moral imagination of the time. The Gutenberg version is easy to search and excerpt on electronic devices, making it suitable for reading practice with the original English. Note that this edition contains only work information and classification, with no introduction or notes, so readers must grasp the background on their own. Overall, it is an old-fashioned storybook suited to leisure reading and to extensive reading in English literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early twentieth-century English popular fiction and suspenseful storytelling
English learners who want to use public-domain English originals for extensive reading practice
Readers interested in traditional moral themes such as retribution and turns of fate
Teachers who need free electronic texts for classroom or book-club discussion

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced suspense or tightly twist-driven plots
Beginner English readers who need detailed annotations and background introductions
Readers looking for serious literary classics or deep psychological portrayal

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read closely chapter by chapter or skim.
Keep a vocabulary notebook for recurring period expressions and colloquialisms.
After finishing the main plot, revisit the key turning points and trace the causal chain of the characters' actions.
If used for a book club, organize discussion around the moral proposition suggested by the title.

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? How difficult is it to read?

This is the original English edition, released by Project Gutenberg. Le Queux's language is generally accessible and fluent, but it retains early twentieth-century vocabulary and sentence patterns, which still pose some challenge for readers used to contemporary English; an intermediate or higher reading level is recommended.

Does the Gutenberg edition include annotations or an introduction?

According to the available information, this edition provides only basic work information, author, language and classification, with no additional annotations or introduction. Readers who want historical background can consult materials on the author and early twentieth-century British popular fiction themselves.

What does the title mean? Is it related to the content?

The title comes from a common biblical expression in English meaning 'what a man sows, that shall he also reap,' pointing to the correspondence between actions and consequences. Given Le Queux's habitual plotting, readers can watch how the characters' choices lead step by step to the outcome; this is one way into the book's theme.

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About the author

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927 Author

William Le Queux (1864–1927) was a British writer of popular fiction, with 74 of his works held in this collection. He is best known for invasion-scare and spy-adventure stories; The Invasion of 1910, which depicts a German invasion of Britain and the siege of London, drew considerable attention in its day, and The Great War in England in 1897 belongs to the same vein. His other works centre on mystery, intrigue and international espionage, such as The Zeppelin Destroyer, The Secrets of Potsdam, The Closed Book: Concerning the Secret of the Borgias and The Golden Face: A Great ‘Crook’ Romance, all marked by tight plotting and dense suspense. Le Queux often set fictional crises against real places to create a sense of urgency, and his work had some influence on the development of early spy fiction and thrillers. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.