A Sailor's Life [Hardcover]

Jan De Hartog (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Harpercollins; First Edition edition (June 1956)
• ISBN-10: 9997500598
• ISBN-13: 978-9997500595
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,496,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The M an Who Sent Me to Sea, February 11, 2000

By 

David Bolton (Norfolk Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Sailor's Life (Hardcover)

During the winter of 1957 I was attacked by the measles and confined to the house for two weeks. My Aunt Mary dropped off a book she thought would interest me. She never new just how much it would.I was transfixed for hours.The descriptions of the indvidual seamans jobs,the day to day art of survival on board ship,how to behave,pack your clothes etc.held me spell bound.It also sealed my fate.Yes,I became a sailor.I never found De Hartogs descriptions over drawn,or over romanticized.Just lyrical. And factual,which is not an easy combination to put together. Much later De hartog would inflence me in other ways,but this the first and most important one.De Hartog writes in the tradition of Conrad.With English as his second language he shapes his sentances with a spareness and ecconomy that more authors should use.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sailor's Life, December 20, 1999

By 

J. Lancaster (FDNF) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Sailor's Life (Hardcover)

A Sailor's Life is a masterpiece. It is simply wonderful. It leaves the reader ready to run away to sea, for those who have never heard the call of the sea, this book may be the closest they maybe able to come to it...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the century's great books. Fabulous reading too!, July 29, 1999

By 

Jon Richfield([e-mail]) (South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Sailor's Life (Hardcover)

I am almost embarrassed to give this book stars. I think it is too good for my praise.

I first read this book on the recommendation of a friend in the navy. If he never did me any other favour, I still would be in his debt. For one thing the book is a marvellous read. It is by turns intriguing, blasphemous, enchanting, interesting, intimate, penetrating, romantic, a fine historical series of observations, an unpretentious self-help book, and almost everywhere it is funny. The laughter varies from sympathetic smiles, through cynical chuckles, to hysterical gasping while the tears drip off your chin.

The book suffers from two shortcomings: Its title, while accurate, is uninspiring, and its headings to its topics (about one page each) are down to earth. Who wants to read about hygiene or the ship's carpenter, or pilots, for instance? Trust me, YOU do, even if you do not realise it yet.

It came as a shock to see how poorly known this book is. It is so good and is such good reading, and even so unpretentiously useful, that it should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the sea, or contemporary history, or the human state in a range of enterprises as vast as those that involve the sea.

And if my shouting in your face to read the book does not attract you, then just ignore me and go off somewhere by yourself and do yourself a favour: dip into it and read a page here and a topic there. That is all it should take to hook you.