The Reckoning: Restored Classics to Go Edition

Robert W. Chambers

Oct 2026 · Otbebookpublishing

Ebook

403

Pages

Eligible

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About this ebook

Elsin Grey, The Reckoning plunges into British-occupied New York during the American Revolution, where espionage, divided loyalties, and the collapse of frontier order shape every encounter. Robert W. Chambers frames the story as part of a larger struggle involving the Johnsons, Butlers, Schuylers, Van Rensselaers, and the Iroquois Confederacy, then opens on a city scarred by fire, hunger, disease, prison ships, and constant suspicion. Yet amid the devastation, patriots, spies, and a few compassionate souls keep resistance and mercy alive. At the center is a Continental agent who has lived for years under cover, secretly reporting to American intelligence while fearing exposure and execution. His coded pursuit of "Thendara" draws him deeper into hidden operations linked to Fort Niagara and another unseen operative. Into this dangerous world steps Elsin Grey, a poised young Englishwoman whose loyalty, innocence, and curiosity complicate the narrator's mission. Their conversations move from the horrors of the prison ships to the everyday absurdities of wartime life, then into growing intimacy as they walk, watch drills, and share the uneasy beauty of a city and countryside at war. Faith, sacrifice, and the human cost of conflict echo through the novel's solemn military scenes and burning patriotic fervor. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

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About the author

Robert W. Chambers, born in Brooklyn in 1865, came of age in a vibrant, fast-changing America that left its mark on his fiction, and after studying art in New York and Paris he turned from illustration to writing, eventually becoming one of the most popular and versatile authors of his era. He made his reputation with stories that moved easily between romance, adventure, historical fiction, and the uncanny, and his best-known work helped define the lingering atmosphere of fin-de-siècle unease that would influence later supernatural and weird fiction. Chambers had a gift for pairing elegance with mystery, creating narratives that could be lush and atmospheric one moment and psychologically unsettling the next, while also showing a keen eye for the social ambitions, desires, and disappointments of modern life. His work often explores beauty shadowed by decay, the pull of the past, the instability of identity, and the tension between desire and consequence, themes that still resonate with readers living in a world of rapid change and uncertainty. Though once celebrated primarily as a bestseller, his legacy endures because he bridged popular entertainment and literary atmosphere with unusual skill, helping shape the mood and possibilities of modern genre fiction. Today, readers who enjoy elegant prose, romantic intrigue, historical settings, and stories with a touch of the strange are especially likely to find Chambers rewarding.

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