Ethel M. Dell’s first British publication in book form,
The Way of an Eagle, was her twenty eighth out of a total of ninety-eight published titles and a significant financial success. Narrational tensions and the excessive use of superlatives and multiple sub-plots appear throughout the breathless narrative, with Dell continually wrong-footing her readers, adding complexity to an already non-prototypical narrative.
The hundred and five-thousand-word work is divided into five parts and fifty-six short chapters, all with cliff-hanger endings. A story-telling skill is displayed and Dell leaves a trail of snippets that has the reader eager to progress, but she never tells the whole story until the conclusion of the narrative. This was Dell’s breakthrough and first major work. Sixty
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Citation: Tanner, David. "The Way of an Eagle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 June 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40699, accessed 19 April 2024.]
