Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Penguin Classics)

Dana Jr., Richard Henry

ISBN 10: 0140390081 / ISBN 13: 9780140390087

Published by Penguin Publishing Group (edition Reprint), 1981

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0140390081-7-1-13

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Penguin Classics)
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group (edition Reprint)
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140390081
• ISBN 13: 9780140390087
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Reprint.
• Condition: Fair

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.