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Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Modern Library Classics)
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Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Modern Library Classics) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Everyone from California should read this
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This is a good read for anyone who loves adventure and a great read for anyone interested in Californian history. More to the point, this book was *THE* book on California for Americans living between 1840 and 1860. Dana's insights into the culture, customs, and early history of California are fantastic, as are his predictions (one of which is that California would one day become an economic powerhouse).
This book was listed by National Geographic as one of the 100 best adventure books written. The adventure portions are definitely interesting (clinging to life ropes 100 feet above deck during a blizzard at Cape Horn is hard to beat for a real-life experience), but the nautical jargon is a bit pedantic at times. It is the small pauses between the sailing that hold the most interest, at least to this reader. And the final, bittersweet return to California in 1859 holds perhaps the most interesting passages. It is here we see Dana come to grips with a common theme - the reconciliation of nostalgia with progress. (And what a quick progress it is - from a single shanty in 1835 to 100,000 citizens in San Fransisco in 1859!)
My personal favorite passage is a comment that is probably as true today as it was in his time - the difficulty in understanding a life other than your own if you fail to adventure once in a while. "His is one of those cases which are more numerous than those suppose who have never lived anywhere but in their own homes and never walked but in one line from their cradles to their graves." |
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