The Cruise of the Dainty; or, Rovings in the Pacific

William Henry Giles KingstonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
237K words
Chapters
24

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Pacific VoyageIsland EncountersTravelogueNature ObservationSea VoyageTrial of CourageComing of AgeAdventure NarrativeExotic CultureCross-Cultural View

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 Cruise of the "Dainty"; Or, Rovings in the Pacific by KingstonAuthor: Kingston, William Henry Giles, 1814-1880,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 15, 2007

Editor's review

The Cruise of the Dainty is another of Kingston's sea-adventure novels for young readers, built around a voyage and wanderings in the Pacific and continuing the nautical vein he excelled in. The free eBook from Project Gutenberg makes the work easy to obtain and a useful entry point into nineteenth-century English maritime adventure narrative. Its descriptions of life at sea, exotic ports, and shipboard relationships bear a clear mark of their era: it can be read as a brisk adventure story or as a text for examining how Victorian boys' literature shaped courage, discipline, and the spirit of exploration. The pacing is traditional and characterization serves plot momentum, so contemporary readers will need some patience. Lacking a modern introduction and notes, it is best read alongside a glossary of nautical terms or a map, and is especially suited to readers interested in Pacific voyaging in the age of sail.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Before reading, find a map of the Pacific and mark the voyage route as the plot progresses to strengthen the sense of space.
  2. Prepare a short glossary of nautical terms and look up words for rigging, ship position, and so on in one place.
  3. Read in segments by voyage; after each segment, summarize in a few sentences the ports of call and main events.
  4. Compare it with sea-adventure works of the same period, comparing how they narrate indigenous peoples, trade, and seafaring.

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
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24

FAQ

How does this book's subject differ from that of In the Rocky Mountains? Both are juvenile adventure novels by Kingston, but the settings differ: the former is set in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in North America, while this book centers on sailing and roaming among ports in the Pacific. If you are more interested in seafaring and island stopovers, read this book first; if you prefer mountain adventure, choose the other.
What should I pay attention to when reading a public-domain ebook? Project Gutenberg editions usually offer multiple formats but generally lack modern annotations, maps, or introductions. Choose a clearly formatted version and read alongside an external map and dictionary; also be aware of period biases that may appear in early texts and read critically.
Can this book be used as English-learning material? It can serve as thematic extensive reading material for intermediate and above learners, but it is not suitable for absolute beginners. The book contains many nautical terms and 19th-century expressions; use a dictionary and glossary, read first for plot and then tackle language difficulties, and avoid looking up every word, which would disrupt reading rhythm.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

William Henry Giles Kingston Author · British · 1814–1880

William Henry Giles Kingston (1814–1880) was a British author of adventure stories for young readers. Born in London, he spent part of his youth with his father in Porto, Portugal. He rose to fame in 1851 with Peter the Whaler and thereafter devoted himself to tales of the sea and exploration, writing more than a hundred books over his lifetime and also translating works by Jules Verne. His notable works include The Three Midshipmen, Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries, and Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley, most of them drawing on seafaring, exotic adventure, and the deeds of the British Navy. He excelled at linking the adventures of young protagonists with informative and moral content, in briskly paced stories rich in maritime atmosphere that were widely popular with young readers in the Victorian era. The collection here contains 133 of his works. Public information on his early education and specific experiences is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.