Tracing an awe-inspiring ocean journey from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and an eloquent, insightful account of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. At the young age of nineteen, Richard Henry Dana abandoned the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors and real dangers. His account of the journey is an astonishing tale, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain. It also includes fascinating historical detail, including an...

Tracing an awe-inspiring ocean journey from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and an eloquent, insightful account of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. At the young age of nineteen, Richard Henry Dana abandoned the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors and real dangers. His account of the journey is an astonishing tale, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain. It also includes fascinating historical detail, including an...

Richard Henry Dana dropped out of school and became an ordinary deckhand on the brig Pilgrim. The perilous journey from Boston, begun in 1834, took the ailing yet determined youth past Cape Horn and around the Americas, concluding in the Mexican territory California. This expedition inspired Two Years before the Mast, a first-hand account of "the life of a common sailor" a work that combines history, philosophy, and personal experience.

Two Years Before the Mast is a remarkable book, part travelogue and part seafaring adventure. A great look at what life was really like on the merchant sailing ships of the first half of the 19th century, Two Years Before the Mast is also part suspense yarn, with the hero's return to his native land in serious doubt due to events beyond his control. Seen through the eyes of young man in his late teens who looks for both a cure for his measles and some real thrills, Richard Henry Dana treats us to his view of the west coast and the Californians as compared to his native, very urban and...

A true story of the battered life of a foremast crewman, Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana s classic travel narrative, which inspired canonical works such as Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As Rod Scher follows Dana (the Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America, he annotates Dana s tale with critiques, compliments, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Dana s time."

In 1869 the late Richard Henry Dana, Jr., prepared a new edition of his "Two Years Before the Mast''. In presenting the first 'author's edition' to the public, he has been encouraged to add an account of a visit to the old scenes, made twenty-four years after, together with notices of the subsequent story and fate of the vessels, and of some of the persons with whom the reader is made acquainted. The popularity of this book has been so great and continued that it is now proposed to make an illustrated edition with new material.

This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare's finesse to Oscar Wilde's wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim's Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.