The Mutiny of the Elsinore

by Jack London Narrated by Sean Murphy

Overview

This is the story of a voyage of a sailing ship from Baltimore to Seattle, east-to-west around Cape Horn in the winter. It is set in 1913 and the glory days of "wooden ships and iron men" are long over. The Elsinore is a four-masted iron sailing vessel carrying a cargo of 5000 tons of coal. She has a "bughouse" crew of misfits and incompetents.
This book was published in 1915 and some actions of some of the characters seem odd to us today. There is romance, but it is strangely platonic. Two important characters disappear with no real explanation. The disparity between the officers on the one hand and the fo'c'sle on the other is striking (literally). Some people will be offended by the bigotry.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2009 - AudioFile

Toward the end of his career, Jack London churned out a number of adventure novels to bolster the finances of his failing ranch. Among these was THE MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE, narrated by a passenger on a ship that is delivering coal from Baltimore to Seattle. Most of the book captures the pace and drama of a long, mostly uneventful sea voyage, although the action picks up when the mutiny finally starts. The novel is further marred by London's deeply racist portrayals of the characters, each of whom is defined in terms of hair and skin color, which in turn determine strength and moral standing. While John Bolen seems to be reading a text with which he is not familiar, with odd emphases, many of his accents do successfully evoke early-twentieth-century stereotypes. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178280010
Publisher:	Oregan Publishing
Publication date:	12/24/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos