The latest dime novel from our collection to be made available as a free Project Gutenberg eBook by the Distributed Proofreaders project is A Tragedy of Love and Hate; or, A Woman’s Vow, part of Street & Smith‘s Bertha Clay Library.

The novel opens with a mysterious murder, then gradually reveals the cause of the tragedy through a flashback which makes up the majority of the book.

The identity of the book’s author may be a bigger mystery than the identity of the murderer in the story. While attributed to the fictional “Bertha M. Clay” pseudonym for this edition of the work, the novel was first anonymously serialized in The Family Reader under the title Lady Alden’s Vow. Many Bertha M. Clay novels were pirated reprints of works by the British author Charlotte M. Brame; the tone and content of this book seem very close to Brame’s usual territory, but because of its anonymous publication, it cannot be definitively identified as her work. (See the Victorian Fiction Research Guide to Brame for much more detail on this).

Whether or not Brame is the author, the book is comparable to some of her most successful works, while also having some unique characteristics of its own. The tone is darker than many romances of the period, featuring comparatively complex and flawed characters, and a plot where love cannot conquer all problems. The mystery elements and non-linear narrative also set it apart from more formulaic fare.

If you would like to read the book for yourself, the full text can be found online or downloaded in common eBook formats through Project Gutenberg.

Another one of dime novel publisher Frank Tousey‘s Ten Cent Hand Books has been added to Project Gutenberg, using scans from our Digital Library and volunteer time from Distributed Proofreaders. This latest title is How to Become a Scientist, which covers experiments in pneumatics, mechanics, arithmetic, chemistry and acoustics, with a special section devoted to making fireworks.

Like many other books in this series, the text seems to have been borrowed from other sources without a lot of thought to context — particularly in cases where illustrations are referred to but not included. While the reader of the book would certainly learn how to achieve some interesting (and frequently quite dangerous) effects, the text doesn’t devote much space to theory, or any at all to the scientific method. If it created any young scientists, it did so by sparking curiosity rather than providing much instruction.

The book does acknowledge the hazardous nature of some of its proposed experiments, and justifies them in this way:

We know full well the intense delight taken by boys in risking their limbs or their lives, especially when such risk is accompanied with noise. Boys always have done so, and always will do so in spite of the very best of advice or precautions. As, therefore, it is impossible to keep them from making noises, and endangering themselves, we have, in this article, endeavored to show them how to make as much noise as possible, with as little danger as possible.

If you want to learn more about how science was presented to young readers at the dawn of the 20th century, you can read the full book online (or download it in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg… but please don’t try these experiments at home!

The latest Project Gutenberg release produced by Distributed Proofreaders from images in our Digital Library is The Strength of Love; or, Love is Lord of All, by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.

First serialized in The New York Fireside Companion in 1896, the novel is another of its author’s melodramatic tales of love and jealousy. The story revolves around Daisie Bell, a poor school-teacher whose beauty attracts two suitors: the wealthy Royall Sherwood and the mysterious Dallas Bain. In typical Mrs. Miller fashion, the romance is accompanied by plot twists and dramatic incidents, including attempted murders and various life-threatening disasters.

If you’d like to learn more about the trials and tribulations of Daisie, Royall and Dallas, you can read the entire book online, or download it in popular eBook formats, through Project Gutenberg.

Once again, an item from our Digital Library has been converted into a Project Gutenberg eBook by the volunteers of the Distributed Proofreaders project. The latest title is another of the small chapbooks from the Multum in Parvo Library: How to Conduct a Small Mail Order Business, first published in March of 1896.

As the title suggests, this little book contains general advice on making money by selling goods through the mail. Given the limited scope of the text, most of its advice is very broad and high-level, and rather curiously, the book switches from mail order advice to random jokes and anecdotes near the end. Needless to say, this is unlikely to provide a whole lot of value for a 21st century business person, but it is an interesting relic of the past.

You can read the full text of the book (or download it in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg.

Another dime novel by prolific author Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller has been added to Project Gutenberg by the Distributed Proofreaders project, using scans from our Digital Library. The latest book is The Man She Hated; or, Won by Strategy, a melodrama first serialized in the New York Fireside Companion story paper under the title A Lovely Orphan; or, The Love Story of a Beautiful Sewing Girl.

The novel tells the tale of Fairfax Fielding, a young sewing girl whose mother desires that she should marry a rich man and restore the family’s fortunes. This pressure, assisted by the malicious actions of a jealous coworker, leads Fair into an unhappy marriage, allowing Mrs. Miller’s usual style of plot twists and catastrophes to ensue.

As always, the full text of the book can be read online or downloaded in popular eBook formats via Project Gutenberg.

Another Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller novel has been added to Project Gutenberg based on scans from our Digital Library. First serialized in Street & Smith’s New York Weekly story paper from June to September of 1894, Sweet Violet; or, The Fairest of the Fair is a tale of jealousy, in which Amber Laurens seeks revenge on her cousin, Violet Mead, after Violet wins the affections of the poor but handsome Cecil Grant.

Being a Mrs. Miller novel, there are a few subplots to supplement the surface-level romance. The most interesting of these involves a murder near the Chicago World’s Fair which bears at least a superficial resemblance to the story of conman and murderer H. H. Holmes, who received sensational newspaper coverage around the same time that this novel was published. However, given that Holmes’ crimes didn’t begin appear in the national news until about two months after the serial ended, this seems to be coincidence rather than a case of the author taking inspiration from the headlines.

If you want to read the book for yourself, the full text can be found online (or downloaded in popular eBook formats) at Project Gutenberg.

Charles Garvice was a very popular author around the turn of the twentieth century, churning out formulaic but sometimes witty romances about upper class British life. Many of his works were reprinted in dime novel format, and so quite a few have made their way into our Digital Library, and a handful from there into Project Gutenberg, thanks to the efforts of Distributed Proofreaders.

The latest such book to be released as a free eBook is Olivia; or, It Was for Her Sake, a fairly typical example of Garvice’s output. The titular heroine is the daughter of a country squire, and the story focuses on her interaction with two neighbors who both grow to love her: a disgraced but self-sacrificing noble who has retired to the country to escape scandal, and a wealthy but ruthless and uncultured “self-made man.” As the setup implies, this is yet another Garvice novel built almost entirely upon its author’s class prejudices. The story is not without its sensational moments, but compared to the twist-packed work of some of Garvice’s contemporaries (like Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller), it seems rather slow-moving and conventional. Still, in spite of its flaws, its author’s style occasionally makes it distinctive, as demonstrated by the dry, ironic humor of its opening paragraph:

It was in the “merry month” of May, the “beautiful harbinger of summer,” as the poets call it; and one of those charming east winds which render England such a delightful place of residence for the delicate and consumptive, and are truly a boon and a blessing to the doctors and undertakers, was blowing gaily through one of the lovely villages of Devonshire, and insidiously stealing through the half opened French windows of the drawing-room of Hawkwood Grange.

If you want to read any further, you can find the entire book available for free online reading (or for download in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg.

In the early years of the 20th century, author Bertram Lebhar wrote a series of novels for publisher Street & Smith about Frank Hawley, an adventurous photojournalist known as “the Camera Chap.” Our latest Project Gutenberg release, produced by the Distributed Proofreaders project using images from our Digital Library, is one of the later “Camera Chap” novels: The Presidential Snapshot; or, The All-Seeing Eye.

In this book, Hawley is sent on a mission by the president of the United States to investigate rumors that a former president of a South American country has been illegally imprisoned by his successor. His mission is made more complicated by government spies, a growing revolution, and the appearance of an old rival. Fortunately, he also finds aid from a variety of allies….

As always, if you’d like to learn more, you can find the entire book available for free online reading, or for download in popular eBook formats, through the Project Gutenberg website.

Our latest Digital Library item to see new life on Project Gutenberg courtesy of the Distributed Proofreaders project is another Mrs. E. Burke Collins melodrama: A Bitter Reckoning; or, Violet Arleigh.

Like our earlier Collins release, Her Dark Inheritance, much of the plot revolves around a buried secret from the past. In this case, the titular heroine’s mother is a victim of blackmail by a villain who wishes to marry her (or her daughter) in order to gain access to the family’s considerable wealth. This setup leads to many of the familiar story paper tropes: jealousy and misunderstandings between lovers, apparent deaths and subsequent resurrections, abuse of insane asylums, a clever detective hot on the trail, etc., etc.

If you’d like to check it out for yourself, the entire book can be read online or downloaded in popular eBook formats through Project Gutenberg.

The third and final book in W. T. Nichols’ Safety First Club series has been added to Project Gutenberg by the Distributed Proofreaders project, using scans from our Digital Library.

The Safety First Club Fights Fire follows the continuing adventures of high school student Sam Parker, his mentor Lon Gates, and his friends in the “Safety First Club.” The book’s title rather gives away its finale, but along the way, the boys also find themselves on the wrong end of school politics, and take some time to work on a rather ambitious project involving a high-powered motor. Readers who enjoyed the first two books will find more of the same here, though some parts of this book feel a bit more episodic and disjointed than the previous volumes.

The full text can be read online or downloaded in popular eBook formats through Project Gutenberg.