Marina (Peace-Love-Books) -
The book is fascinating, but very long. I had to read it in small sections, but for history buffs, it's a great read.
I'm a big Horatio Hornblower fan, so it was interesting to hear about merchant shipping it the same era. Plus the glossary is very helpful - actually more helpful than the Horatio Companion & biography.
I'm a big Horatio Hornblower fan, so it was interesting to hear about merchant shipping it the same era. Plus the glossary is very helpful - actually more helpful than the Horatio Companion & biography.
Cameron-Ashley H. (BigGreenChair) reviewed Two Years Before the Mast : A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea on + 461 more book reviews
Because it is a true autobiography about a voyage in 1834, it was fascinating to me about his accounts of places we know so well know now like San Francisco, San Diego, San Pedro, etc. and a true account of his impressions of the places, the people, their dress and customs...paints a very different picture than that which appears say in fiction books written today about that same period. His account is very detailed and was a very popular book back in 1840, but for pure nautical fiction and interest, I'd have to say the Horatio Hornblower series or the Aubrey Maturin series are more interesting to read by far, but then, they're fiction. This book is a 19 year old's experience of being a sailor in 1834. Just like when reading DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe it is so much more interesting to read a book in the language and nuances of their own time period, than ones written today of our impressions of what it was like back then.
