The Cruise of the Thetis: A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection

Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
593K words
Chapters
60

Tags

English Originals War and Military Fiction Cuban InsurrectionSea VoyageBoy HeroVengeance and GratitudePerilous SurvivalThrilling NarrativeExotic Culture

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 Thetis: A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection by Harry CollingwoodAuthor: Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Apr 14, 2007

Editor's review

Harry Collingwood was a British writer of adventure fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Set against the Cuban insurrection, this book tells of a ship named Thetis and the adventures of its voyage, and belongs to the juvenile nautical adventure genre. Its value lies in showing the typical craft of English adventure fiction of the period: sea voyages, exotic settings, and a young protagonist's growth and trials. As a free eBook from Project Gutenberg, it gives readers low-cost access to the original text of this kind of literature, and it suits readers interested in sea stories or historical adventure. A caution: the book's treatment of the Cuban insurrection carries a marked period perspective, and today's readers should read it critically, distinguishing literary interest from the limits of its historical narrative. Overall, it is a text suited to broad reading and genre studies rather than a strict history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Before reading, spend ten minutes learning the basic timeline of the Cuban insurrection; it helps you follow the background.
  2. Keep nautical terms and place names on a separate sheet; don't verify each one—keep the plot coherent first.
  3. When you reach descriptions of local people, pause to consider the narrative perspective and make brief notes.
  4. Read it alongside other nautical adventure novels to observe common tropes and character setups of the genre.

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
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FAQ

Is the historical background of this book reliable? It is an adventure novel, not a history. The Cuban insurrection mainly serves as a backdrop, and details serve the plot. Readers who want the historical facts should consult specialized history books; do not treat the novel's narrative as historical evidence.
Can I understand it without nautical knowledge? Yes. There are descriptions of sailing and life at sea, but not understanding specific terms usually doesn't prevent you from following the main thread. Skim passages dense with terminology and focus on characters' actions and the development of events.
Who was Harry Collingwood? Sources give his dates as 1851–1922. He was a British writer known for nautical adventure novels, and this book belongs to that genre. The available information provides no further biographical detail; readers need not rely on anecdotes beyond the introduction to understand the work.
Does the electronic edition have illustrations or notes? The Project Gutenberg edition is primarily text; whether it includes illustrations depends on the specific file, and it usually has no scholarly annotations. After downloading, look through the table of contents and file notes first, and supply background material yourself as needed.

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

Collingwood, Harry, 1851-1922 Author

Harry Collingwood (1851-1922) was a British writer of maritime adventure fiction. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life remain unknown. The library holds 34 of his works, mainly nautical and military adventure stories, commonly classified as inspirational coming-of-age reading. Representative titles include Across the Spanish Main, The Cruise of the Esmeralda, The Rover's Secret, Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun, The Voyage of the Aurora, Turned Adrift, A Pirate of the Caribbees, and A Middy of the King. Set largely at sea, these novels involve pirates, warships, and distant waters, with tightly plotted stories that focus on young protagonists maturing through danger. Some draw on historical warfare, such as the Russo-Japanese War. His style is popular adventure writing that emphasizes courage, discipline, and responsibility, and is suited to young readers.