The Adventures of Captain Mago Or, A Phoenician Expedition, B.C. 1000

Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
605K words
Chapters
61

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Sea VoyageAdventure JourneyNautical LegendAncient TimesExotic CulturePhoenician CivilizationYouth Adventure

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Adventures of Captain Mago; Or, A Phoenician Expedition, B.C. 1000 by CahunAuthor: Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Dec 7, 2014

Editor's review

The Adventures of Captain Mago is an adventure novel set against Phoenician voyages of around 1000 B.C., in which the author, Cahun, unfolds for young readers an expedition around the Mediterranean. Its appeal lies in the combination of historical geography and adventure narrative: the fleet's voyages, foreign ports, trade, and encounters form an accessible picture of the ancient world. As a public-domain book for young readers, it does not excel in complex psychology but carries the reader forward through events and changes of scene, making it a good introductory story for learning about Phoenician seafaring and the geography of the ancient Mediterranean. Reading it today, one can enjoy the plain rhythm of a classic adventure story while recognizing that it is a nineteenth-century author's historical imagination rather than strict historical record. Reading it alongside a map of the ancient Mediterranean or brief material on Phoenician colonial city-states will add both pleasure and gain.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Look at a map of the ancient Mediterranean first and mark the main Phoenician city-states and routes before reading.
  2. Read chapter by chapter according to stages of the voyage, tracing the fleet's position on the map after each section.
  3. Keep a simple table of places and trade goods in the story, distinguishing imagined episodes from historical common knowledge.
  4. For extensive reading in English, do not get stuck on unfamiliar words; follow the chain of events first, then return to key vocabulary.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
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  25. 25
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  27. 27
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  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
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  60. 60
  61. 61

FAQ

How historically reliable is this book? It is an adventure novel written by a nineteenth-century author for young readers, imagining a Phoenician voyage; it cannot be used as a historical source. It is suitable as an engaging entry point, but specific historical facts still require professional historical works.
What age of child is it suitable for? The original is an English public-domain book for young readers, with adventure events as its main narrative and a relatively direct plot. Middle-school students with some English reading ability can attempt it; younger readers are better served by reading with a parent or choosing a Chinese adaptation.
Do I need to know Phoenician history before reading? No systematic background is needed. Knowing that Phoenicia was a seafaring trading people of the ancient Mediterranean that established several colonial city-states is enough to enter the story. If interest follows, supplementary historical material will be more effective afterward.

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About the author

Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900 Author · French · 1841–1900

David-Léon Cahun (1841–1900) was a French Orientalist and writer of adventure fiction, and this dual identity as scholar and storyteller is clearly reflected in his work. Two of his works are held in this catalogue, both dealing with the maritime expeditions of the ancient Phoenicians: one is the English edition The Adventures of Captain Mago; or, A Phoenician Expedition, B.C. 1000, and the other is the Latin version Pericla Navarchi Magonis sive Expeditio Phoenicia Annis Ante Christum Mille. He thus drew on Orientalist scholarship to construct tales of ancient seafaring and exotic adventure. Set in the ancient Mediterranean world, his historical adventure writing combines instruction with narrative appeal and belongs to the nineteenth-century European tradition of popular historical fiction inspired by archaeology and Oriental subjects. Beyond these two works, public information on his life and complete output is limited and awaits further research.