Overview

The classic travel narrative of a Don Quixote-of-the-seas - the first man to circumnavigate the world singlehandedly. Joshua Slocum's autobiographical account of his solo trip around the world is one of the most remarkable - and entertaining - travel narratives of all time. Setting off alone from Boston aboard the thirty-six-foot wooden sloopSprayin April 1895, Captain Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world's great circumnavigators - Magellan, Drake, and Cook. But by circling the globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all- his three-year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history for its courage, skill, and determination. Sailing Alone around the Worldrecounts Slocum's wonderful adventures- hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and savage Indians in Tierra del Fuego; raging tempests and treacherous coral reefs; flying fish for breakfast in the Pacific; and a hilarious visit with fellow explorer Henry Stanley in South Africa. A century later, Slocum's incomparable book endures as one of the greatest narratives of adventure ever written. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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9780140437362

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Reviews

For 20 years tough, resourceful, sailing skipper Slocum navigated the oceans of the world, owned ships, built ships, survived mutiny and shipwrecks, until a last ill-fated voyage on which his crew were decimated by smallpox and his ship, with all his wealth, was lost on a South American sand bar. Back home, with no ship and little money a friend, perhaps as a joke, offered Slocum a ship. He found her in a field, half rotten, with gaps in her decks and grass growing through the hull. On her transom, in peeling paint, could just be read the name Spray. It is the story of this ship, how he rebuilt her and in 1895 became the first man to voyage singlehanded around the world that is told in this book. The final sentence: 'The days passed happily with me wherever my ship sailed' epitomizes the genial good humour with which the many adventures on land and sea are recounted. This is the special quality that brings readers back to enjoy Slocum's book again and again. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Thomas Philbrick is professor emeritus of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

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