I love seafaring tales. This should come as no surprise to you by now that I love seafaring tales. I have been watching the A&E production of Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures. I am rationing them out, one a week as they will come to an end all too soon. I believe these are based on C.S. Forester's first Hornblower book Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, which is short stories. It is sitting next to my bed burning a hole in the floor waiting to be read. I have no doubt I can zip through it once I get to start it. But I refuse to start anything new until I finally manage to finish The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland. So Emily Carr and I are now going everywhere together. I have been dragging the book around and I hope to finish it in the next couple of days.
So in the spirit of seafaring adventures I thought I would put together a list of books that I have read or plan to read that are full of adventure and have something to do with the sea. As always suggestions are welcome! Anything from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (must get back to that one as well!!!) to Persuasion by Jane Austen (okay, no swashbuckling sword fights or duels at dawn, but it's still set during "age of sail"). So in no particular order, fiction and nonfiction (not all are shown in the photo...just those close at hand):
- Frenchman's Creek, Daphne Du Maurier (she is next after Horatio Hornblower!)
- Mr . Midshipman Hornblower, C.S. Forester
- Isabella, Fiona Mountain (fictional tale of Fletcher Christian and Isabella Curwen and the mysteries that surround the Mutiny on the Bounty)
- Moonfleet, J. Meade Falkner (smuggling and pirates)
- Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, David Cordingly (nonfiction)
- The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an 18th-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts, Sian Rees (nonfiction)
- Hen Frigates: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea, Joan Druett (nonfiction)
- A Bride's Passage: Susan Hawthorne's Year Under the Sail, Catherine Petroski (19th century diary)
- The Rising Sun, Douglas Galbraith
- Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian
- Voyage of the Narwhal, Andrea Barrett
- The Captain's Wife, Douglas Kelley
- The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf (is this a stretch?--it does take place on a sea voyage!)
I have a sinking feeling that I posted a list of similar books not so terribly long ago, and if so forgive me. I am not sure how many people share my fascination with these types of books! I can't help myself. I guess when it comes down to it I just love a really good story that will take me away to a completely different time and place. When you are surrounded by concrete walls day in and day out (that would be the lovely "brutal" architecture of my library), you really need a colorful imagination!!