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Title: The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, Milton Bearden ISBN: 0-8129-6614-7 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 10 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Always a delight
Comment: This book has been described to me both as "the best Yachting Book written" and "The book that saved Britain". Written in part as a wake-up call to the British Public at the turn of the last century -Childers (no stranger to Whitehall politics) was terrified that existing British strategy left the country wide open to an invasion from Germany- and in part as a celebration of a lifelong passion for boats and boating, the book "works" brilliantly. Even non-yachting enthusiasts will be drawn into the story, and those of us who have worked our way along a foggy coast by chart and compass will appreciate Childers' attention to detail and faithfulness to his subject. Overall I found the two principal characters well drawn, but the Germans are a bit cartoonish, and the hint of Romance towards the end was an un-needed distraction, other than that, this is a quite-un-put-downable novel of adventire & daring that MAY just have changed the course of history.
Rating: 5
Summary: This is the first of its kind ...
Comment: ... not that I know enough about literary history to be able to vouch for that myself. It's hard to explain exactly what its kind is. Call it a modern spy story: and I think what makes it modern is the feeling that the protagonists are no more than a stone's throw from society, often WITHIN society, and can some of the time claim protection from society; and yet if they turn down the wrong street or move a mile or two to the left they might as well be in the wilds of Siberia, for all the mercy that anyone will show them. Everyone in this novel, in innocence or in guilt, leads a kind of double life.
Two stories run side by side: the riddle of the title, concerning an unknown threat to England, and the redemption of a feckless civil servant named - naturally - Carruthers. The setting is lovely; the life aboard ship is vividly described; the author never leaves important details vague. But do pay close attention to the map in the front of the book as you read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Puts most modern adventure novels to shame
Comment: I became aware of 'The Riddle Of The Sands' while reading Andrew Lownie's biography of my favorite author, John Buchan ('The Thirty-Nine Steps'). Buchan, a contemporary of Childers, reviewed a reissue of the book in 1926, calling it, "the best story of adventure published in the last quarter of a century". Well, 78 years later not much has changed. The writing is witty, intelligent and literate and the story at once simple yet complex. This novel is a perennial favorite among small-boat sailors, and is certainly "riddled" with enough sailing jargon to perplex most landlubbers. All of this is, however, very neatly integrated into a spy story that, like many of Buchan's wonderful novels, starts with the slenderest of threads and challenges the characters to figure out the skullduggery using sheer wit and intelligence.
It may sound trite, but they really don't make 'em like they used to.
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