Master Mariner - Softcover

Monsarrat, Nicholas

4.34

148 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842321501 ISBN 13: 9781842321508

Publisher: House of Stratus, 2001

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This is Nicholas Monsarrat’s final masterpiece, an epic tale of the sea and seafaring from the sixteenth century to near the end of the twentieth. Told from the point of view of Mathew Lawe, a young Devon sailor who is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to wander “the wild waters till all the seas run dry,” it is historical fiction but beset by real events. Lawe represents the spirit of maritime exploration and fortitude; his life is the thread stringing together a long history of nautical adventure. He finds himself mixed up with Drake and the Armada; a buccaneer under Sir Henry Morgan in the Caribbean; press-ganged aboard the Shannon just before her duel with the American Chesapeake, and much more! Nicholas Monsarrat died before Book II was finished. Anne Monsarrat completed the remainder of the story in Nicholas’s own words, partly from some working notes he left and partly from his original synopsis of The Master Mariner Book II. Both are included here.

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About the Author:

Nicholas Monsarrat was born in Liverpool and educated at Cambridge University, where he studied law. His career as a solicitor encountered a swift end when he decided to leave Liverpool for London, with a half-finished manuscript under his arm and only forty pounds in his pocket. His first book to attract attention was the largely autobiographical This is the Schoolroom, which was concerned with the turbulent thirties, and a student at Cambridge who goes off to fight against the fascists in Spain only to discover that life itself is the real schoolroom. During World War II he joined the Royal Navy and served in corvettes. His war experiences provided the framework for the novel HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbour and The Cruel Sea. His career concluded with The Master Mariner, a historical novel of epic proportions. Well known for his concise storytelling and tense narrative on a wide range of subjects, he became one of the most successful novelists of the twentieth century.

Review:

"He has never written anything to compare with this work - it is his master-stroke." (Manchester Evening News)

"... This huge action-packed volume can be recommended to anyone." (Sunday Times)

"No one can bring alive the cruel sea and the valiant men who have sailed on it through all the generations like Monsarrat." (Daily Mail (UK))

"This is Monsarrat, master storyteller, running proud." (The Scotsman)

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