Idylls of the Sea, and Other Marine Sketches

Idylls of the Sea, and Other Marine Sketches

Mr. Bullens work in literature requires no introduction. If it ever did, it has received one so complete from Mr. Kipling, that not another word is needed. Mr. Kipling, in phrases as happy as they are generous, has exactly described the character of Mr. Bullens writings. After that, to commend him to the public is superfluous. However, in spite of this, Mr. Bullen has asked me to write a few words to put in the front of his book, and I obey. If my introduction does no good, it will at least do no harm, and I shall at any rate have the pleasure of being in very good company. His whales and sharks and other monsters of the deep are creatures with whom one is proud to be associated. These Idyllslittle picturesstrike me as some of the most vivid things ever written about the sea. I take it that only a man who has used the sea as a common sailor, and before the mast, reallyxii knows it in all its humours,has heard all those multitudinous voices that echo along the vast waste spaces of the deep. The officer is either too busy with his responsibilities of command, or else is off duty and so not at close quarters with the winds and waves. As a rule the sailor,the man who heaves the lead, stands at the wheel, sits in the crows nest for long hours together, and does the more wearisome and leisurely duties of the ship, is not a person of sufficient imagination and education to record the impressions that come to those who do battle with a remote and unhearing Ocean. In Mr. Bullen, perhaps for the first time, we have a man who has been a focsle hand and yet has the power, first to realise in a literary shape, and then to set down, the wonders of the flood. It was a most happy combination that for once the man who saw the tropic dawn from the crows nest of a whaler should be able to communicate the full magic of the scene. It is not conventionally that I have called Mr. Bullens work vivid. It is of writing such as his that we can say, and say truly: ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 64161
Author: Bullen, Frank Thomas
Release Date: Dec 28, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English