I loved the sea even when I was a child in a family that couldn’t afford to spend much time around it! Reading books, I was always drawn to adventure on the seas – the first book I can clearly remember reading was Pinocchio when I was about 8, and the last third with the Terrible Dogfish. My latest novel, Spirits of the Ice Forest, is all about Vikings and their struggle to establish a toehold on Vinland, as well as the Native Americans who resisted them, and both being seafaring people was a huge part of what attracted me to that chapter in history.
Written with the intention of capturing the spirit of novels of the era in which it is set, Off The Map is a nostalgic tribute to writers such as Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
By 1873, the oceans, it's said, were tamed, at least that's what young French orphan girl Chanel Angeli thought when she settled down and married into a rich mining family by means of their charming, gorgeous heir Oliver Aubry. When Beaumont betrays and enslaves Oliver on the isolated piece of land, which is thought to be capital city of Atlantis, Chanel escapes and teams up with the devil-may-care captain of the Margeaux, endeavoring to rescue her husband, but along the way she finds, within herself, uncovering many mysteries of her own...
If I have a passion in life that rivals literature and education, it’s the sea. This book might have started all of it at once. The imagery, the gothic atmosphere, the use of allegory, and the depth of the characters are just stunning and it is rightfully counted as one of the greatest novels ever composed.
Melville's tale of the whaling industry, and one captain's obsession with revenge against the Great White Whale that took his leg. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colourful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography of Herman Melville and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom or at home to further engage the reader in the work at hand.
Whenever someone asks, c’est mon roman préféré. Un adventure sans égal – le drame, les personnages, les enjeux. It’s hard to imagine a serialized novel like this one capturing the public imagination to the degree that Game of Thrones did recently back in 1845, but that’s exactly what happened. You had to get the next chapter quickly because you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing spoilers about the latest installment.
The epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge, in its definitive translation
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas' epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized…
In keeping with books that influenced me to write Off The Map – and this is going back to 2003 when I started the novel – Treasure Island is high up there. I was usually discouraged to find a book that lacked a female character at all but when it comes to Treasure Island it’s just that perfect, succinct, exciting boys’ adventure you don’t get anymore.
Penguin presents the audio CD edition of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Captain Flint, young Jim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. For he has discovered a map that will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island. But a host of villains, wild beasts and deadly savages stand between him and the stash of gold. Not to mention the most infamous pirate ever to sail the high seas . . .
Yes, I know it lacks the sea, but Off The Map has a female lead for a reason and this book is it. I didn’t like Pip. He was arrogant, rude, and selfish. But Estella was so enchanting! She might have been an early crush for a 12-year-old me and I wanted a book that was about her, not Pip. She was a huge influence in how I created Chanel in Off The Map – the power and confidence in herself, and yet that sense of claustrophobia and isolation because the time and the place just don’t work for her.
'His novels will endure as long as the language itself' Peter Ackroyd
Dickens's haunting late novel depicts the education and development of a young man, Pip, as his life is changed by a series of events - a terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - and he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'. This definitive edition includes appendices on Dickens's original ending, giving an illuminating glimpse into a…
Off the Map is a tribute and to me the greatest tribute novel of all times is Jamaica Inn. It’s clearly a love letter from du Maurier to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, but given a much greater darkness and gravity. She breathed la vie de la vérité into Bronte’s vision and in doing so became every bit as influential as Bronte did with her novel. You read Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark or Blood Meridian – there’s the pale-faced preacher as the leader of the mysterious trio and as Judge Holden, respectively. A tribute to a tribute. Amazing, beautiful, worthy work.
After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan crosses the windswept Cornish moors to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. There she finds Patience a changed woman, downtrodden by her domineering, vicious husband Joss Merlyn. The inn is a front for a lawless gang of criminals, and Mary is unwillingly dragged into their dangerous world of smuggling and murder. Before long she will be forced to cross her own moral line to save herself.
I became fascinated with 16th-century and 17th-century Europe after reading Don Quixote many years ago. Since then, every novel or nonfiction book about that era has felt both ancient and contemporary. I’m always struck by how much our environment has changed—transportation, communication, housing, government—but also how little we as people have changed when it comes to ambition, love, grief, and greed. I doubled down my reading on that time period when I researched my novel, Dulcinea. Many people read in the eras of the Renaissance, World War II, or ancient Greece, so I’m hoping to introduce them to the Baroque Age.
Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.
By doing so, he unwittingly exposes his muse to gossip. But when Dolça receives his deathbed note asking to see her, she races across Spain with the intention of unburdening herself of an old secret.
On the journey, she encounters bandits, the Inquisition, illness, and the choices she's made. At its heart, Dulcinea is about how we betray the people we love, what happens when we succumb to convention, and why we squander the few chances we get to change our lives.
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