Tales of the Sea

I have a foundness for tales of the open sea. One of my faveorite Poe stories is The Descent into the Maelstrom, and I also really enjoyed MS. Found in a Bottle.

One of my faveorite Stephen Crane stories which I have read, is The Open Boat.

I also really liked the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge

and I just finnished reading The Temple by H.P. Lovercraft, and found it an eerie and huanting tale.

I also own, but have not yet read The Sea Wolf by Jack London.

So do you have any high seas adventures you would recomend or any faveirote tales of the sea?

I am open to anything, novels, short stories, plays, poems.

I recently read Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's pretty darn good.

There's Victor Hugo's classic Toilers of the Sea. Along with Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it's part of a kind of trilogy: Hugo explained it as Nature, Society, and Religion.

Best novels of the sea I've ever read, though, are Patrick O'brian's. Starting with Master and Commander, there are some twenty novels in the series. They are elegantly written, gripping, and quite funny at times. Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin are a pair of characters that rival Homes and Watson. O'Brian has been likened to Jane Austen, and I wouldn't call that hyperbole.

I loved the movie Master and Commander. I might have to look into the book.

The Hugo triligoy sounds interesting as well. I have heard of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I did not know they belonged to a triligoy, and I like the Nature, Society, Religion, description.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I loved the movie Master and Commander. I might have to look into the book. ....

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DM, do have a go at the books - the movie was a strange contraction of two books Master and Commander, the first of the series and The Far Side of the World, the tenth in the series, and did neither of them justice. They are well written with lots of technical details and a real feel for the sea and the characters are so believable - Jack Aubrey is one of those characters I wish were real, I would so like to have known him!

Then there are the Hornblower books which I loved until I came across O'Brian, a much better writer, imo.

I guess Moby Dick is one of the most famous sea novels at all.
In Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym also one part of the story takes part on a ship.
I enjoyed reading Thoreau's Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. This is not exactly a novel, it's some kind of philosophical report I would say.

Regards

Hemingway's "The Old Man & The Sea".

Tristan Jones wrote what he said were non fictional accounts of his sea travels. But, as those who know him will say, all are fiction.

Jack London also wrote some very good stories of the Pacific Islands. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of these tales off hand.

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Originally Posted by hellsapoppin

Tristan Jones wrote what he said were non fictional accounts of his sea travels. But, as those who know him will say, all are fiction.

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That sounds interesting

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Jack London also wrote some very good stories of the Pacific Islands. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of these tales off hand.

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I love Jack London, I might have to do some looking into that

[QUOTE=curlyqlink;604023]I recently read Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's pretty darn good.

I just picked that book up at a sale I had placed it on the bottom of the to read pile, I will put it on top now

And then there's that book about a whale...:)

''Two Years' Vacation'' by Jules Verne. But that's more for children.
''An Icelandic Fisherman'' by Pierre Loti (haven't read it)
And maybe you can check out something by Leonce Peillard.

Once. liked Lord Jim and should read it again.

Yeah I can't believe no one has mentioned any Conrad novels until just now. Lord Jim, Victory, Nostromo, The Nigger of the Narcissus, Youth, Heart of Darkness, Typhoon. Even the lesser novels are interesting: Almyeer's Folly, Chance.

And how come no one has mentioned Moby Dick?

Most of Conrad's novels are set at sea, or have the sea as a major element. Typhoon, The Nigger of the Narcissus, Lord Jim spring to mind immediately.
[Hah! Virgil got in first, while I was writing this!]

From a similar period, John Masefield wrote some good sea yarns - The Bird of Dawning, Victorious Troy, The Taking of the Gry etc. Of course, the poem Sea Fever is also his. Since you refer to "high seas adventures" you may well be looking more to Masefield than Conrad - Masefields sea stories tend to be Adventures, whereas Conrad's tend to be Novels, although that statement probably insults both.

Henry Dana's "Two Years before the Mast" is an essential.

"Red Saunders" by Sinbad (A E Dingle) is a good (true?) tale if you can get hold of it.

And, since you say that you are open to anything, and especially if you love words as well as the sea, you might enjoy an hour or six with old seamen's manuals, like The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor by d'Arcy Lever. There are modern reprints of several of these and I find great pleasure in just reading them aloud and wallowing in the language they contain.

And I shall get told off if I don't mention E.T.Fox's "King of the Pirates: The Swahbuckling Life of Henry Avery" which is due out this month, I believe.

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"Then there are the Hornblower books which I loved until I came across O'Brian, a much better writer, imo." May be true, but without Hornblower there'd have been no O'Brian.

Thank you, A lot of your suggestions sound quite interesting. I tired reading Lord Jim, and well me and Virgil had a dicussion about this previously, and well I could not get into his style of writing.

I have read some of Melveille's short stories that are sea related, and well they tend to drag a little bit for me.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

Thank you, A lot of your suggestions sound quite interesting. I tired reading Lord Jim, and well me and Virgil had a dicussion about this previously, and well I could not get into his style of writing.

I have read some of Melveille's short stories that are sea related, and well they tend to drag a little bit for me.

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Muse, you might like Conrad's novel Victory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_(novel)
or here:
http://www.amazon.com/Victory-Pengui.../dp/0140189785.

There's more description on the amazon site. For some reason I think this is your type of work.