Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Jr., Richard Henry Dana (Author), Thomas Philbrick (Contributor)
Key Phrases: taught bowline, weather caring, duck trowsers, San Diego, Cape Horn, Santa Barbara (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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"Possesses . . . the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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"Possesses . . . the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 17, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140390081
• ISBN-13: 978-0140390087
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #376,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why should you read this book?, January 21, 2001

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Two Years Before the Mast (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Why should you read this book? Yes, it is a classic. Yes, it documents the wonderful, adventurous time of the clipper ship. But that's not why you should read it.

Richard Henry Dana must have been a most extraordinary man. While attending Harvard as a young man, his eyesight became weak and his health declined. He decided that the austere prescription of salt air and plain hard work would be the cure. Not many would give up comfort and privelege, but for two years, Dana served as a common sailor, given no special treatment as the gentleman he was, and lived in the forecastle of the Alert, eating the mess of salt beef and common hardtack, risking his life and serving under a captain crueler than most.

Dana was able to write in such a way as to re-create the life on board a sailing ship, down to the smallest details and that's what makes this book so real and touching. You can feel the cold of Tierra del Fuego, taste the salt beef, and feel the wind and damp. What's more amazing is that Dana's carefully-kept journal was lost along with his other mementos of his voyage when he landed back on shore in Boston, due to some tragic carelessness of someone he entrusted with his chest of belongings. Yet he was able to recreate his voyage in loving detail and in some very excellent writing.

Dana's later life as a lawyer was far from happy, though he made some critical contributions to maritime law. He died a poor and disappointed man, but left us the richer with his book. I just re-read it again for the tenth time, and it is fresher than ever. Read it along side of Moby Dick. It's American literature and American history and culture at its very best.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Voice from Another Time and Place, May 23, 2000

By	A Guy from Central Illinois "Central Illinois... (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Years Before the Mast (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a great in many ways - as history, as narrative, as travelogue, as social documentary and as Adventure, but I feel that it's probably fair to caution the modern reader that it's written in a style that he or she may not be used to - not flowery, but not spare either. You do get the sense that you're not reading a modern work.

Aside from its other merits, it's great background reading for fans of the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, even though it takes place about 20 years after their last published exploits.

Faults? Well, for my taste, there was perhaps a little more sailor jargon than I could take in (the version of the book I read, not this edition, had no diagrams). When he was going into great detail on sails and ropes, I skimmed past some material, but not too much, and was able to pick up the sense of what he was writing about, without necessarily being able to determine the precise difference between two types of sails on the same mast (call me Maturin). Overall, you get the sense that he spent two years in almost unceasing toil, and that life as a sailor in those days was not one that anyone today would envy.

Also, since this was a recount of an actual two year voyage, there was perhaps one or two too many recounts of cruises up and down the coast for those seeking "adventure" reading, but this is an actual historical account, and can't be faulted for some slow pacing - I have no doubt it WAS awfully tedious at times (which the book is not).

However, it has SO many other merits that any patient reader will gain much from it, particularly an authentic, well documented perspective from another time.

So, read the book, but don't think you'll knock it off in one night, or that it'll read like Tom Clancy, or even Mark Twain. Nevertheless, read it anyway, it's well worth it.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CALIFORNIA HISTORY HAS NEVER BEEN SO FUN !, March 21, 2000

By	MARK J GARCIA (Fairfield, North San Francisco Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Signet classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Just finished reading this book today and thought that it was really good. Myself, being from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was thrilled to hear Dana describe areas that I am well familiar with. The book was a history lesson for me of early California. My book, the Penguin Classic edition, had an extra chapter at the end written by Dana called "Twenty-four Years After". In this chapter he returns to California 24 yrs later and writes about all the changes that have occurred since he was last there, a lot due to the fact of the gold rush. He also goes into some detail on the whereabouts of his former crewmates and the two ships that he sailed on while on his adventure. I have to say that this book probably would have more appeal to someone who is familiar with California as I am. I'm not sure if the book centered on Oregon lets say, that I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. I picked this book up at a second-hand store and am glad I decided to give it a try. I would suggest the same for anyone else that may have an interest in how it was to work and live on ships in the 1800's and early California before statehood.