Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative Of Life At Sea

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (Author); Thomas Philbrick (Edited, With An Introduction by)

ISBN 10: 0140390081 / ISBN 13: 9780140390087

Published by Penguin Classics/Penguin Books/Published by the Penguin Group, New York, London, et al., 1981

About this Item

572 pp. Over-sized and/or over weight book; may require extra postage. Please note that large and/or heavy items may incur an additional shipping charge. Solidly bound copy with minimal external wear, crisp pages and clean text. Small stain on back cover near fore edge. Synopsis: In 1834, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., left the comforts of genteel Boston to endure the hardships and abuses of the most exploited segment of the American working class.

Seller Inventory # 1iCf0060

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative Of Life At Sea
• Publisher: Penguin Classics/Penguin Books/Published by the Penguin Group, New York, London, et al.
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140390081
• ISBN 13: 9780140390087
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: 21st Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Studies, Literary Theory & Lit. Criticsm
  • Literature: Classic & Historic Literature
  • Academic, Scholarly, Research

About this title

Synopsis

In 1834, Richard Henry Dana Jr. left the comforts of Boston for the hardships and abuses of the most exploited segment of the American working class.  Dana’s account of his passage around Cape Horn to California, and back, is a remarkable portrait of the seagoing life: the day-to-day routines and conversations, the sailors who manned the ship, the brutality of incompetent officers, and the style of life in the newly emerging coastal towns of California. 

As Thomas Philbrick discusses in his introduction, the public’s sympathy for the plight of mariners, which was aroused by the book, eventually faded, but Two Years Before the Mast forever changed readers’ romanticized perceptions of life at sea and inaugurated a lasting tradition of realism and concern for human values.

About the Author

Thomas Philbrick is professor emeritus of English at the University of Pittsburgh.