The Pirate of the Mediterranean: A Tale of the Sea

William Henry Giles KingstonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
1M words
Chapters
100

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Suspense ThrillerMilitary StrategyLegendary LivesVengeance and GratitudeJianghu FeudSea AdventureHeroismMediterranean SceneExotic CultureYouth Reading

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 Pirate of the Mediterranean: A Tale of the Sea by William Henry Giles KingstonAuthor: Kingston, William Henry Giles, 1814-1880,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 9, 2007

Editor's review

This is a typical Victorian sea adventure novel by the prolific children's author Kingston. Set in the Mediterranean and built around pirate adventure, it bears clear marks of its era: dense nautical terminology, plot driven by suspense and action, and sharply divided good and evil characters. For readers who want a sense of nineteenth-century English juvenile sea adventure literature, the book offers a directly readable sample of the original text; its public-domain electronic edition is easy to obtain and also serves as a concrete example of the early Project Gutenberg ebook project. Read it as a window: look at the story itself, and at how that era shaped courage, loyalty and maritime honor for young readers. Because it was written long ago, its narrative pace and language habits differ markedly from contemporary fiction; read it with historical awareness rather than judging it by the standards of a modern thriller.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read a chapter or two first to get the rhythm of the language, then decide whether to read straight through or select key maritime passages.
  2. Prepare a short glossary of nautical terms and note mast, sail and ship-handling vocabulary as you go.
  3. Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century juvenile adventure literature to understand its narrative conventions.
  4. If using it for English study, retell the plot in two or three sentences after each chapter.

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
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  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
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100

FAQ

How difficult is the English in this book? It is nineteenth-century English narrative, with long sentences and many nautical terms, generally harder than contemporary young adult fiction. Readers with college-level English who are willing to look up words will find it easier to get into; those who want a light story may be slowed by terminology and old-fashioned expression.
Is it suitable as an adventure story for children? The book is an adventure narrative aimed at young readers, but it was written long ago, its language is quite different from today's children's books, and its depiction of violence at sea reflects its era. Adults should look through it first, or use it for parent-child reading and discussion of historical context, rather than handing it to young children to read alone.
What is special about this edition? This is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg and one of the project's early ebook achievements. Its value lies in being free, searchable and easy to cite, suitable for reading and research; but it is not a scholarly edition with modern notes or an introduction, so readers must supply background knowledge themselves.
Do I need to know the author's background before reading? Special research is not necessary, but knowing that Kingston was a prolific nineteenth-century author of juvenile adventure fiction helps explain why the book emphasizes maritime honor, courage and discipline. Reading with that period context makes its narrative pace and character setup easier to accept.

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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.