Rudyard Kipling

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition.

Captains Courageous

Sarah Sammis

I usually picture Indian settings when I think of Rudyard Kipling. His 1896 novel Captains Courageous has nothing to do with India. For the most part, it's set mostly on the Atlantic Ocean on the schooner "We're Here."

What the book shares with the more typical Kipling fare is a young boy as a protagonist. In this case, the boy is fifteen year old Harvey Cheyne the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon based in California.

Harvey falls over board and ends up on the schooner during fishing season along the Grand Banks. Young Harvey spends the season learning how to fish. Along with the fishing he learns responsibility.

I enjoyed most of the novel but the time at sea seemed to drag on too long. The sea chapters are padding with a number of sea shanties. Kipling did a good a job of showing how multicultural the fishing industry was and how sailors would need to know a handful of languages well enough to communicate with the other ships. Yet, Captains Courageous doesn't seem like a Kipling novel; it reads more like a parody of a Joseph C. Lincoln novel.

Captains courageous

Colleen

Captains Courageous is a wonderful classic by Rudyard Kipling about which too many people have forgotten. The plot is straightforward: a spoiled rich boy falls overboard and is picked up by a fishing boat where he learns some fast and hard life lessons. It is part adventure and part cautionary tale. It delivers its message without being overbearing or boring though. It is a short and fast paced novella that could easily be read in a day.

There are two things I will mention though. The first is that there are a lot of maritime terms that will leave the non-sailing-enthusiasts confused. This isn't the book to try to figure your boom from your bow. The second thing is that Kipling's phonetic writing of Massachusetts accents can be a bit hard to wade through at times. But it did not detract from the story for me. It was a heartfelt, easy read and a nice change of pace.


This review fulfills the "Book from an Author You Love That You Haven't Read Yet" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

Captains Courageous

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