Customer Reviews

Riddle of the Sands (Classic Crime)

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This book is often referred to as the first spy novel, and it is not wrong. However, to appreciate the novel, you have to know beforehand several things. But, don't worry, that is not much.

The story is narrated by an English gentleman Currthuers, who received an unexpected invitation of duck shooting from an old friend Davies. Being tired of his neglected position in "society," he accepts it to go to the North Sea only to find that he is involved in a mystery, or "the riddle of the Sands." His friend claims there's something in the air, something hiding behind the misty coast of Germany. But how can they prove it?

As a story, "The Riddle of the Sands" is far from perfect. It is full of authentic descriptions of local landscapes (the author actually cruised his yacht there), but at the same time frequent reference to the geographical data and nautical terms are a bit wearisome to readers, and moreover, the narrator often refers us to the maps in the appendix. Those things only slow down the action of the novel, and actually the book sometimes has to go through lull.

But, wait a while. The story gets gradually faster, and as the adventure of the heroes slowly gets near to the core of the plot, the tale becomes more and more gripping. Though characters sometimes are just more than cardboard (and especially female part is poorly done), your patience will be rewarded.

It is well-known that Sherlock Holmes in "His Last Bow" turns a spy for his country, and says "There's an east wind coming." The meaning of what Holmes says is clear to the comtemporary people, and Childers, a politician, also wrote his book not as an amusement but as a warning to England about the coming threat of Germany, and actually "The Riddles of the Sands" was written about 10 years before WW1 began. In this historical context too, the book is interesting, and the tediousness of the opening chapters is justified if you keep it in mind that it is meant for Childers's sarcasm against indifference and complacency among the English people (talking of English complacency, we remember later in 1938, immediately before WW2, Alfred Hitchcock again uses it as a satire in his thriller "The Lady Vanishes" with brilliantly silly two British gentlemen who are more concerned with cricket games than surrounding danger). People don't change.

So, the book itself is still enjoyable, but these historical matters will make it more precious; after all, it is one of the proof how people reacted to the coming change in the history of mankind. And if you're interested in this kind of book (I mean, books reflects German-England relationship), check out "The Battel of Dorking" by George Chesney (written in 1871) and "When William Came" (in 1913) by Saki once.

I bought The Riddle of the Sands to use in an History essay for university where I was looking at how the spy was portrayed before World War I. As one of the more popular titles from that era of 'invasion literature,' Childer's work certainly fit the bill. It is the story of two men sailing around the Frisian Islands trying to uncover a German plot to invade the north of England. That's basically it in the way of plot. It was Childer's way of calling attention to what he believed where Britain's insufficient North Sea defenses, and the real possibility of a German naval invasion. He succeeded in that endeavour and the North Sea defenses were eventually strengthed, which you could view either as a testament to the power of this novel, or to the 'great underlying problems and increasing pessimism' felt throughout Europe (to quote Ruth Henig), in the lead up to World War I.

Whichever view you take, the novel has a depth of characterisation that is quite remarkable for a first attempt at fiction. Davies and Carruthers are representative of the two poles of English class/social structure at the time, with the inarticulate, yet perceptive everyman Davies teaming up with well-mannered and intellectually capable Carruthers, figurative of the way that all aspects of British society would need to come together to face the coming invasion. However, the fact that this was Childers' first and only novel begins to show in his pacing. This is hardly the 'cliff-hanger' that Milt Bearden claims it to be in his brief 5-page introduction. However, Childers' purpose was not to write a thrilling page turner, but a warning against German invasion. To really enjoy this novel, you have to read it in that context, otherwise you'll be thinking 'what's the big deal?' There is relevance to our contemporary situation, given the whole 'invasion' theme, but to understand that connection, you need to be aware of the reasons for Childers' decision to write this book, and, by extension, the motivation of his characters.

This Modern Library edition does offer some background in Bearden's introduction. Enough to give the casual reader some brief historical context, at least. It follows the Modern Library's tradition of having authors from relevant and related fields offering their thoughts, rather than the academic/scholarly approach that Penguin or Oxford take. The problem here though is that it is too brief to offer any real insights. There is also the standard Modern Library reading guide, offering questions that range between vaguely thought-provoking to superficial. I don't know why they bother with these reading guides, especially at the expense of a decent introduction. However, if you're just after the story without wading through the academia of the Oxford World's Classic release, then this is the version you're after. Plus, Modern Library's cover art is always so much nicer to look at!

... not that I know enough about literary history to be able to vouch for that myself. It's hard to explain exactly what its kind is. Call it a modern spy story: and I think what makes it modern is the feeling that the protagonists are no more than a stone's throw from society, often WITHIN society, and can some of the time claim protection from society; and yet if they turn down the wrong street or move a mile or two to the left they might as well be in the wilds of Siberia, for all the mercy that anyone will show them. Everyone in this novel, in innocence or in guilt, leads a kind of double life.

Two stories run side by side: the riddle of the title, concerning an unknown threat to England, and the redemption of a feckless civil servant named - naturally - Carruthers. The setting is lovely; the life aboard ship is vividly described; the author never leaves important details vague. But do pay close attention to the map in the front of the book as you read.

This book has been described to me both as "the best Yachting Book written" and "The book that saved Britain". Written in part as a wake-up call to the British Public at the turn of the last century -Childers (no stranger to Whitehall politics) was terrified that existing British strategy left the country wide open to an invasion from Germany- and in part as a celebration of a lifelong passion for boats and boating, the book "works" brilliantly. Even non-yachting enthusiasts will be drawn into the story, and those of us who have worked our way along a foggy coast by chart and compass will appreciate Childers' attention to detail and faithfulness to his subject. Overall I found the two principal characters well drawn, but the Germans are a bit cartoonish, and the hint of Romance towards the end was an un-needed distraction, other than that, this is a quite-un-put-downable novel of adventire & daring that MAY just have changed the course of history.

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the British government was prone to regular spasms of alarm about the possibility of invasion by a European power .Fortifications were built for the defence of London and a chain of fortresses were constructed in Kent and Surrey ,and intended to be the centres of resistance to the invader .The enemy was usually assumed to be France ,the UK's traditional enemy in war and main commercial rival in peacetime .
While sharing the view of the need to arm against invasion Erskine Childers was of the view that it was Germany not France that was the likely rival and set out to dramatise this concern in The Riddle of the Sands .The book is openly propagandist in nature being written to convert military and public opinion to the dangers of German naval expansionism .It did so successfully and the book caused a hugh sensation when it appeared in 1903 .His warnings gained credibility partlt because Childers was not a professional novelist but rather a respectable civil servant ,a Committee Clerk in the House of Commons .
His novel is the work of a man with a powerful romantic imagination -he devoured Fennimore Cooper and Dumas as a child -and he applied this together with a passion for sailing in a well written and propulsive narrative .The genesis was a trip he took in 1897 ,a sialing trip to the Fresian islands where he claimed he saw signs of German preparations for invasion .The book was cast in the form of a novel the better to engender interest among the general public .It also found a strong advocate in Admiral Fisher ,the only British maritime leader to warn about German naval strength at that time .
These controversies are long dead and ,truth to tell ,the topical passages are the heavies-going in the book ,So ,why still read this book if all it is is a historical curiousity ?Well ,it is more than that .It is a tale of adventure ,and conveys as few books have ever done the zest and enjoyment of sailing .
The two stalwart heroes are Carruthers and Davies who are on a sailing holiday in the Fresians when they stumble across a German plot to invade England .They must evade capture and return to England to warn the authorities of their discovery . The description of their fog bound journey in a dinghy through the narrow waters of the Memmert Balje is a superb piece of writing and the atmosphere of the islands is brilliantly captured .The two men are adequately characterised heroes and in "Clare Dollman " he created a spirited and personable heroine .
The book is a precursor to the modern spy story and memorable for that reason amongst others .
The book is no longer topical but it is still eminently readable

I became aware of 'The Riddle Of The Sands' while reading Andrew Lownie's biography of my favorite author, John Buchan ('The Thirty-Nine Steps'). Buchan, a contemporary of Childers, reviewed a reissue of the book in 1926, calling it, "the best story of adventure published in the last quarter of a century". Well, 78 years later not much has changed. The writing is witty, intelligent and literate and the story at once simple yet complex. This novel is a perennial favorite among small-boat sailors, and is certainly "riddled" with enough sailing jargon to perplex most landlubbers. All of this is, however, very neatly integrated into a spy story that, like many of Buchan's wonderful novels, starts with the slenderest of threads and challenges the characters to figure out the skullduggery using sheer wit and intelligence.

It may sound trite, but they really don't make 'em like they used to.

I was intrigued when I came across this unassuming little book at a used bookstore. The plot revolves around the dual quest of Davies, one of the book's two protaganists. An Englishman and amateur yachtist, Davies' spot of autumn sailing along the challenging Frisian coast, Germany's narrow mouth on the sea facing England, turns into something more when a man ostensibly out to aid Davies by "piloting" his small craft with his larger yacht through an intricate network of sandbanks in harsh weather, actually makes an attempt to lead Davies and his boat to their doom along the treacherous coast. This act of deceit piques the indefatigable Davies' curiosity. What was so important among these nondescript sand islets fronting the German coast that would necessitate murder? This question is one object of Davies' subsequent quest. The other is a lover's quest, namely in the form of the daughter of the putative pilot just mentioned. To aid him in his foolhardly quest, considering his small yacht and the inclement weather of the North Sea in autumn, Davies summons from England his acquaintance Carruthers, whose fluent German could prove useful. What he doesn't do, at least at first, is tell Carruthers just what is afoot, suggesting instead a spot of duck hunting and pleasure sailing. What follows soon upon Carruther's arrival is a nautical cat and mouse game involving the small yacht of Davies, an Imperial German gunboat, and an assortment of other yachts and shady characters peopling this melancholy and threatening coastline.

I found Childer's work very engaging, especially as I chose to read it while doing some traveling along a similar shoal of islands, though far from Germany and not in a yacht. The novel certainly kept me riveted by its plot, and Childers does a fine job in developing the primary characters and personalities of both Davies and Carruthers who emerge in very human detail against their backdrop. I'm not sure what edition the reader will be reading, but one disapointment I encountered was that the backcover of my edition gave away too much. The nature of the mystery should be left completely to the reader to discover. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the frequent use of nautical terms and the heavy reliance upon the intricacies of coastal features (requiring, at least for the curious, a continuous back-referencing to the series of maps) does hinder the pace a bit, but not to any great degree. What I found particularly interesting about this work was its language. It is a period piece, not just historically, by revealing a growing unease among Britain of the period of a rising German power, but culturally, as seen in the very approach to their problem taken by Davies and Carruthers. It is a game, and the phrase "playing the game" comes up frequently in the course of the text. Manliness and ruggedness, being proven and found worthy by one's adversaries (be they the elements or the Germans), and most of all "winning the game" with pluck and verve are all salient characteristics of Childer's attitude (and certainly not unique to him). I found the novel revealing in the general attitude towards international rivalry and war in the pre-World War One years. It was this gamesmenship attitude to combat and its challenges (a very British notion) that helped contribute to the willingness with which men threw themselves into death in 1914. I'm not sure if "Riddle of the Sands" is indeed the first modern espionage thriller (what about Arthur Conan Doyle?), but it is a perfect insight into period attitudes and fears. It is also exciting reading.

Widely considered the first modern spy novel, and the still the best book about sailing. Perhaps a bit tedious due to the 100 year old prose, but well worth it. It is very appearant that the author, Childers, knows his subject matter. Not only was he an avid yachtsman, and a foreign office employee, but he knew a bit about spying, too - he was executed for running guns to the IRA in the 1916 rebellion. This book is somewhere between Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Treasure Island. Truly a classic...and the movie's great too.

Don't look for subtle characters. There aren't any.

Do look for a Boy's own Best Spy Adventure. Wonderful precise detail about practical sailing as we might recognize it today.

The best sequence is an awesome feat of blind, tidal naviagation.

I wish Hitchcock had made the movie. He would have known what do to do with it.

This novel is reputed to be one of the tensions that started WWI. Certainly the fictional strings have contributed to modern espionage. You will recognize traditions of Le Carre and Deighton.

I found this spy novel particularly interesting as I was born on the coastline described. Childers's descriptions of the Frisian Islands, the cities of northern Germany, and the dangerous tides are very accurate. That's what I like best about the book. The narrator, Anton Lesser, does a generally good job reading the book. In fact, he's much better than some other actors I've heard. However, his grasp of the German language is dreadful. Some sentences he reads in German are almost incomprehensible. This is inconsistent with the fact that the narrator of the story is supposed to speak German like a native. Listen if you love stories about ordinary people getting caught up in extraordinary events. Listen if you love the North Sea and Baltic coasts of Germany. Stay away if you love the German language.