Master and Commander (1969) Post Captain (1972) HMS Surprise (1973) The Mauritius Command (1977) Desolation Island (1978) The Fortune of War (1979) The Surgeon's Mate (1980) The Ionian Mission (1981) Treason's Harbour (1983) The Far Side of the World (1984) The Reverse of the Medal (1986) The Letter of Marque (1988) The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989) The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991) Clarissa Oakes (1992) (published as The Truelove in the USA) The Wine-Dark Sea (1993) The Commodore (1994) The Yellow Admiral (1996) The Hundred Days (1998) Blue at the Mizzen (1999) The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004) (published as 21 in the USA)
Like Bill, I tried but couldn't get into the O'Brian series. I've not a great sea story person. I read MOBY DICK in an abridged version in high school. Didn't love it. OLD MAN AND THE SEA was good but far from my favorite Hemingway.
I also have a great fondness for A. Bertram Chandler's Rim series of SF stories. Chandler was a ship's captain and the series boils down to sea stories set in space.
William Hope Hodgson's sea fantasies, although uneven, are worthwhile.
I have never been able to get into either Moby Dick or the Patrick O'Brien books. For decades now I've been saying that I'm going to read the Hornblower books "real soon now." **sigh**
Two by Richard Hughes: A High Wind in Jamaica & In Hazard Conrad's Typhoon & The Secret Sharer William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea
As I've shamefully yet to read MOBY DICK, I can put in a good word for "Billy Budd"...
Certainly such YA novels as CALL IT COURAGE and ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS come immediately to mind. And Gordon Dickson's SECRET UNDER THE SEA, which along with THE UNDERSEA WORLD OF JACQUES COUSTEAU got me started to study oceanography as late as undergraduate status...
At the moment, I'll opt for Damon Knight's CV trilogy. Shute's ON THE BEACH, Silverberg's HAWKSBILL STATION and the Melville novella as the runners (sailors) up...
And I think Travis mostly travels via the inland waterway...so he'd have to slug it out with Huck and Jim (and Avram Davidson's river pirates in "The Lord of Central Park") for best running freshwater books.
(That is to say, I started reading about oceanography while about 8yo or so, and was still partially serious about the pursuit more than a decade later...)
Gotta be "The Old Man and the Sea."
ReplyDeleteBest sea stories ever written:
ReplyDeleteThe Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian
Master and Commander (1969)
Post Captain (1972)
HMS Surprise (1973)
The Mauritius Command (1977)
Desolation Island (1978)
The Fortune of War (1979)
The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
The Ionian Mission (1981)
Treason's Harbour (1983)
The Far Side of the World (1984)
The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
The Letter of Marque (1988)
The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
Clarissa Oakes (1992) (published as The Truelove in the USA)
The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
The Commodore (1994)
The Yellow Admiral (1996)
The Hundred Days (1998)
Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004) (published as 21 in the USA)
She is a really talented author, Patti! I can see why you're enjoying it so much.
ReplyDeleteI like THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA but never got onto Patrick O'Brian's series. I like CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, too, but my favorite would be MOBY DICK.
ReplyDeleteLike Bill, I tried but couldn't get into the O'Brian series. I've not a great sea story person. I read MOBY DICK in an abridged version in high school. Didn't love it. OLD MAN AND THE SEA was good but far from my favorite Hemingway.
ReplyDeleteDoes Travis McGee count?
ReplyDeleteHomer's THE ODYSSEY.
ReplyDeleteGore Vidal's WILLIWAW.
I also have a great fondness for A. Bertram Chandler's Rim series of SF stories. Chandler was a ship's captain and the series boils down to sea stories set in space.
William Hope Hodgson's sea fantasies, although uneven, are worthwhile.
I have never been able to get into either Moby Dick or the Patrick O'Brien books. For decades now I've been saying that I'm going to read the Hornblower books "real soon now." **sigh**
I have friends who worship both O'Brien and Forrester but not me.
ReplyDeleteI picked up the first Hornblower book last year but still haven't started it.
ReplyDeleteTwo by Richard Hughes: A High Wind in Jamaica & In Hazard
ReplyDeleteConrad's Typhoon & The Secret Sharer
William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth
Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea
Outerbridge Reach by Robert Stone
ReplyDeleteI think I read that one, Elgin. Read A HIGH WIND years ago.
ReplyDeleteMr Midshipman Hornblower
ReplyDeleteMutuny on the Bounty
Typhoon
Captain Blood
I might have said Captains Courageous but I recently reread it and was disappointed.
As I've shamefully yet to read MOBY DICK, I can put in a good word for "Billy Budd"...
ReplyDeleteCertainly such YA novels as CALL IT COURAGE and ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS come immediately to mind. And Gordon Dickson's SECRET UNDER THE SEA, which along with THE UNDERSEA WORLD OF JACQUES COUSTEAU got me started to study oceanography as late as undergraduate status...
At the moment, I'll opt for Damon Knight's CV trilogy. Shute's ON THE BEACH, Silverberg's HAWKSBILL STATION and the Melville novella as the runners (sailors) up...
And I think Travis mostly travels via the inland waterway...so he'd have to slug it out with Huck and Jim (and Avram Davidson's river pirates in "The Lord of Central Park") for best running freshwater books.
ReplyDelete(That is to say, I started reading about oceanography while about 8yo or so, and was still partially serious about the pursuit more than a decade later...)
ReplyDeleteAnd "The Secret Sharer" has to be considered, too.
ReplyDeleteEither Moby is your favorite book or you never have read it (me), I find.
ReplyDeleteI like Joseph Conrad a lot but if I had to pick one novel it would be MOBY DICK. I've read it three times and it's about time for another rereading.
ReplyDeleteI did read, forced to as an assignment in high school, MOBY DICK, and disliked it in the extreme. Nothing has changed that opinion.
ReplyDeleteCRUEL SEA by Nicholas Monsarrat. WWII escort ships.
ReplyDeleteTHE TERROR by Dan Simmons. Frozen in the Arctic ice.
THE SEA WOLF by Jack London.
My brother read it, inspired in part by its role in the movie HEATHERS...I suspect it isn't his favorite, but might be his favorite ocean-going novel.
ReplyDeleteGerard's answer does make it clear FRANKENSTEIN could count.
ReplyDeleteHell, come to think of it, so could DRACULA.
ReplyDeleteKatherine Anne Porter's "Ship Of Fools".
ReplyDeleteHerman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny".