| Title | : | The Phantom Ship |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1846375371 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781846375378 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 260 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1839 |
The Phantom Ship Reviews
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"- ¡Santo Cielo! Jamás he estado tan asustado en mi vida - observó Kloots-. No sé qué hacer ni qué decir. ¿Qué le parece a usted, Philip, no ha sido esto una cosa sobrenatural?
- Sí - contestó el interpelado, con profunda tristeza-. No me cabe duda"
Me gustó mucho este libro, sin embargo, no se gana las 5 estrellas sobre todo por el estilo y la manera de presentar y desarrollar las historias que, para mí, deja qué desear en varias ocasiones.
Cuando estaba dando un paseo por una librería encontré esta edición de la Editorial Abraxas que, dicho sea de paso, recomiendo mucho ya que aunque la letra es un poco pequeña los capítulos están bien marcados, el tamaño del libro es muy amigable y además cuenta con un pequeño apéndice de términos marinos (aunque recién me di cuenta luego de terminar de leer toda la novela jaja). Cuando vi por primera vez el libro y me enteré que trataba de la leyenda del famoso barco "Holandés errante" no dudé en comprármelo aunque no había escuchado antes de él. Desde luego, lo hice porque "Piratas del Caribe 2" es mi película favorita de toda la vida y, aunque supuse que no tendría casi nada que ver con la película, quise leer esta novela que es uno de las grandes obras donde se habla de aquel legendario barco y ayuda en el origen de la leyenda.
Para nada en este relato nos encontramos con algún personaje de la película, en lo absoluto, y el que Davy Jones sea el comandante del barco me parece un buen invento de Disney aunque no sé si antes ya alguien lo había puesto así, de hecho Davy Jones sí existe también como leyenda pero es aparte del "Holandés".
El autor, Frederick Marryat, fue un marino que recibió algunas condecoraciones por su trabajo al lado de Lord Cochrane al servicio de Inglaterra y realmente su experiencia se ve aquí plasmada de forma genial en cuanto a las venturas marítimas y todos los detalles que hacen a la narración bastante verídica con un conocimiento de todo lo que implica atravesar océanos al mando de poderosas y pequeñas embarcaciones.
Esta novela nos cuenta la historia de Philip Vanderdecken quien al inicio tras una penosa enfermedad de su madre se entera de un gran secreto familiar, su padre, maldito, necesita de él que lo libere de una poderosa y mágica maldición, pero para ello deberá entregar un relicario que atesorará siempre en sus manos y encontrar el "Holandés Errante". Este barco legendario y que sale del fondo del mar en ocasiones (igual que en la película, aunque me demoré en darme cuenta que así lo hacía) es una leyenda conocida por todos los marineros, pero son pocos los que realmente lo han visto, pues su presencia casi siempre es sinónimo de calamidades. Philip conocerá a Amina, quien será un personaje clave en la trama y también ligada a un destino bastante particular que hace sólo más interesante todo el relato. También tendrá muchos amigos, de entre ellos Krantz es uno de los que también más aporta a la saga, pero sobre todo es recordado porque hay un "microrelato" dentro de la novela que muchas veces ha sido "extraído" para ser presentado en antologías, me refiero a "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains". Schriften, por su parte, es un marinero tuerto y bastante desgarbado quien en ocasiones ve a Philip y parece que de alguna manera influirá en su destino.
Como mencioné las aventuras marinas están muy bien descritas, el relato en general es bastante atrapante (sólo me costó las primeras 3 primeras páginas) y se avanza bastante rápido pues siempre uno quiere ver qué va a pasar. Los viajes son diversos, así Philip tiene ocasión de alternar con holandeses, portugueses, indios, Etc, etc y también va por diferentes rutas en busca del Holandés. Una característica que me sorprendió y que a algunos puede gustar y a otros no es que el autor no se guarda nada, hay muertes, hay naufragios, y eso puede resultar chocante, por lo menos para mí; es un relato que algunos enmarcan como gótico, pero tiene bastante de aventura y algo de "terror". Sin embargo, definitivamente, me faltó más la presencia del "Holandés Errante", es descrito pero de muy lejos a mi parecer. La trama está centrada sobre todo en Philip y sus aventuras y el tema del misterio y maldición del Buque fantasma es poco tocado para mí a lo largo de toda la novela. También el relato es en general un poco "infantil", aunque como menciono hay hechos muy macabros que lo hacen todo lo contrario. Es una novela que no tiene mucha profundidad, casi como cualquier libro de aventuras, los personajes desde luego parecen algo caricaturizados e incluso creo el héroe puede caer algo mal. Hay muchos temas que se mencionan como la religión, los aborígenes, el colonialismo, pero no creo que deban ser vistos seriamente. Lo más resaltante del libro es la descripción de las aventuras en alta mar.
Me encantó la parte religiosa, debido a que es muy bien utilizada, Philip a pesar de ser holandés es católico y eso tendrá una importancia a lo largo de toda la obra, no sólo en él, sino en los demás personajes. Pero aún así, nuevamente, insisto en que faltó más importancia al Holandés y en todo caso al por qué era un barco maldito o cuál era su relación con el Demonio que sólo se comenta pero para nada se aborda. Me gustó sí, la manera de resolver muchos problemas o la fortaleza de Philip para pasar muchas situaciones bastante caóticas, sobre todo cuando despreciaba casi solamente a los marinos vulgares y codiciosos.
Hablando de lo malo (porque para mí tiene esto un peso importante en la obra que hace que no le ponga 5 estrellas) debo decir que "El Holandés" tiene poca presencia en el libro, por otro lado el estilo del autor es bastante simple, tiene algunas buenas frases es cierto; pero no sólo eso, la manera de caracterizar a los personajes es demasiado superficial por momentos y sus reacciones no son siempre coherentes, la misma trama por momentos es bastante irregular, los desenlaces sobre todo, son demasiado abruptos, y no creo que sea por un deseo explícito del autor sino por falta de talento para cerrarlos; hay algunas cosas que parecen extrañas y para mí esto se debe a la poca calidad de su pluma. La trama para mí jala demasiado al fin único del personaje, por lo cual eso quizás es la causa de que las demás subtramas tengan un desarrollo tan pobre y muchas veces algo incoherente.
De todas maneras, estoy encantado de poder haber descubierto a este nuevo autor y sobre todo haber aprendido algo más del "Holandés Errante"
"No estoy muerto y, sin embargo, no vivo. Mi destino es permanecer entre este mundo y el mundo de los espíritus" -
So, at my day job, I was looking at material to include in a forthcoming GOTHIC story e-book collection (we like to throw in some novels as bonuses), and I decided to process this classic Gothic novel about the Flying Dutchman, as it was long on my reading list anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone?
Prior to this, my knowledge of the Flying Dutchman myth was his appearance in an episode of LAND OF THE LOST when I was a kid, and general knowledge that a lush filmed version had been made at one time.
It should be noted early on that despite curses and ghostly ships and magic rituals (and even a werewolf!), this is decidedly a Gothic novel and not a Horror novel (although the questions it raises about religion and the disposition of one's soul would have nudged it closer to the realm of disturbing for readers at the time of publication).
And what a Gothic novel it is! It opens on a lurid, small scale scene with a mother's bloody death throes and the revealed secret of a sealed room. Our main character, Philip Vanderdecken - a brooding, violent youth, quick to anger - is told of an ages-old ghostly visitation to his mother by her seafaring husband. The Captain cursed God in the teeth of a storm and now is fated to sail the seas until Judgment Day, an ill omen to all sailors, unless his son can track him down in his spectral wanderings and present him a sacred relic, a piece of the True Cross, upon which he must weep in contrition. And so Philip swears to save his father's soul and sets forth on dangerous journeys around the world...
Huge and sprawling, this book takes in many events and characters. Mynheer Poots (the greedy, conniving doctor) and his beautiful, exotic Arabic daughter Amine (raised as a Muslim and tutored in occult magic by her Mother), Schriften (a sardonic, one-eyed sailor - "It was not a man with one eye, but one eye with a man attached to it" - forever tittering and cruelly taunting, turning up like a bad penny at the worst of times and possessed of more knowledge than he lets on), Krantz (a stalwart friend of Philip, with his own mysterious background) and Father Mathias (who takes it upon himself to council and convert Amine). There are (as might be expected) shipwrecks and storms, desert islands and castaways and naval battles, but also skullduggery and greed and even...(not so unexpectedly)... the Spanish Inquisition!
You'll get a history lesson about the Dutch East India shipping company, Christianity spreading in Japan and, in the climax, the cruel, corrupt and devious bureaucratic machinations of The Inquisition. You'll meet a quirky captain who keeps a bear as a shipboard pet, one who talks to his boat as if it were a living woman, there's desertion, mutiny, a hanging, a gunfight with robbers and an attempted poisoning (followed by an accidental one).
Some memorable moments: Amine thinks Philip a ghost on his first return home from the sea; a ship's crew - spooked by sighting the Dutchman and driven by the prompts of the sinister Schriften - become deliberately intoxicated in the teeth of a dangerous gale and drunkenly wreck the ship; a prophetic, visionary dream of riding on a seashell and encountering a mermaid; a horrific scene of rafts coming apart in heavy seas with woman and children drowned and crushed; a ruse whereby Dutch sailors suffering from scurvy pretend to be English when finally reaching a Spanish port - Spain and Denmark being at odds at the time; the Flying Dutchman runs a pursuing ship aground by "sailing" onto dry land and later plunging straight *through* Vanderdecken's ship; a raft full of greedy, backstabbing wretches plot against each other as they sail on a quiet sea under a starry sky, later gambling away their worthless money and slaying each other when stuck on a desert island ("gold is a curse")...
The characters and the moral/spiritual conundrums they face are also surprisingly interesting: Philip, aware that he is cursed, can't justify buying a ship to pursue and free his father, as he would knowingly be putting the crew at risk, but neither can he sign up as crew on another's craft until he contrives a way to compensate for and share the danger. Later, debate is made over whether Philip should pursue his father's spirit or just follow the Catholic prescription of lighting mass candles for him (Catholicism and the Papacy, as usual for Gothic novels, gets raked over the coals quite a bit - when Amine is stuck in a convent later in the book she finds it a hive of gossips).
Amine Vanderdecken (nee Poots) is, in fact, a fascinating character - bold, resourceful, forthright and courageous (she rallies the crew of a storm tossed ship at one point, purely through her strength of character) she is also "other" - a woman, a Muslim and a practitioner of "heathen" magic. While these aspects cause her endless problems (even until the shocking climax) one can't help but be impressed by her portrayal, constantly making well-reasoned arguments against the restrictive and reductive doctrine of the Catholic religion (Amine dares to believe in spirits as a source of positive guidance, not just infernal trickery, and her final fate is determined by hypocritical, pompous, arrogant men, not God). She even argues the case for suicide at one point! A scene where she renounces Christianity (after honestly considering it but judging the religion by the actions of its followers) as she is cast adrift in the ocean, is well done.
The twin climaxes are also extremely powerful and quite satisfying, even poetic (the reveal of Schriften's true identity took me by surprise), after the epic ordeal of the narrative.
Two minor notes - a chapter from this book is often excerpted as "The White Wolf Of The Hartz Mountains" (when sailor Krantz reveals his own background involving evil forest spirits and werewolves) and appears in many anthologies - it was nice to finally read it in context here, although the final disposition of Krantz in the narrative following his story is surprisingly perfunctory. Also, I really liked that the cursed Flying Dutchman, when finally engaged and not just encountered in a storm, sends over a seaman carrying the ship's mail to ask if it can be delivered as they have all been "a long while out" and their loved ones must be worried (not realizing that decades have passed)...
In all honesty, this was one of the most entertaining Gothic novels I have ever read! -
3.75
La historia me ha parecido bastante disfrutable. Con un misterio base que cumple su cometido de engancharte hasta que logra desenvolverse por completo en un final emotivo lleno amor filial. Quizás mi mayor 'pero' a ella sea lo poco que le hace verdadera justicia al título base. En varios momentos la historia abandona por completo el misterio del Buque para preocuparse más por el romance de Felipe y Amina, la tensión entre la fé oriental de Amina y la cristiana de su entorno ; la búsqueda de los enamorados por su reencuentro y las desventuras de Felipe y Krantz como prisioneros etc.
Pienso que el misticismo del Buque tenía la suficiente fuerza para ocupar un espacio más principal en su propio relato y hacerlo participe en las subtramas de los personajes. Pienso en el tratamiento que le dieron a su revisión en la saga de Piratas del Caribe. Como su presencia se vio inmiscuida en las tramas de amor filial , la búsqueda romántica y las desventuras de ser prisionero. Ese terror que me género la primer vez que ví el Cofre de la Muerte y la presencia de los tétricos navegantes mientras te transmitía el infortunio de toparse con la embarcación, sencillamente nunca lo pude sentir aquí. Las emociones vienen dadas al margen del buque pero no gracias a él. -
Interesante libro de aventuras sobre el mito del "Holandés Errante".
La prosa de inicios del XIX se hace un poco pesada y grandilocuente. La primera parte del libro puede llegar a aburrir por los vaivenes del argumento pero la segunda mitad se convierte en un relato de aventuras marineras que enganchan.
Del lado del terror realmente lo que más miedo da es la descripción de la Inquisición católica más que la historia de espectros malditos.
Debo ser un tipo bastante rarito pero lo que más me gustó es la crueldad con la que el autor trata a sus personajes, sin demasiada piedad, es broma, pero creo que Games Of Thrones tuvo aquí una interesante inspiración. -
A book about sea adventures, bravery, friendship and the importance of forgiveness. Although it is a book from the 19th century, the writer gives us quick descriptions and mainly focuses on the action itself, the subtlety is not that important here.
It is also a book about ghosts, creatures from the other world and forces beyond the world we know. It talks about a tragic fate that pursues the protagonist and that cannot be eluded, a fate he accepts, a burden he is destined to carry.
In addition, it depicts the figure of a courageous and brave woman, Amina, who fights for her own believes and proves that she is as bold and strong as any other man can be, and even more. She is a witty and smart lady who takes advantage of the misfortunes she encounters in her path and uses them in her on benefit. -
Wer segelt so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Der Fliegende Holländer - eine alte Legende, die schon unzählig oft bearbeitet wurde. Von Richard Wagner bis Spongebob findet sich dabei für jeden Geschmack etwas; Frederick Marryats Werk aus 1839 erzählt eine Fassung der Legende ausführlichst und mit vielen seemännischen Details.
Einerseits hat Marryat vereinzelt einen wunderbar lakonischen Witz, meist aber einen heutzutage schwer lesbaren schwülstigen Stil, vor allem, wenn es um die breitgetretenen Gefühle der Hauptpersonen geht. Schneller und leichtgewichtiger wird er dann in den Seepassagen, die unendlich viel besser sind als die Kapitel, die zu Lande spielen. Trotzdem ist der Roman mit zuviel Ballast beladen - jeder Lektor der letzten 100 Jahre hätte den Roman auf allerhöchstens die Hälfte gekürzt. So wird man als Leser gequält mit seitenlangen Monologen über wenig interessante Themen, die auch nur am Rande mit der Handlung zu tun haben, mit kaum zielführenden Nebenhandlungssträngen, einem endlos scheinenden Spannungsaufbau und schließlich, gegen Ende, sogar mit einer eingeschobenen Werwolf-Geschichte, deren Zweck in diesem Roman völlig unklar bleibt.
Stark moralisierend ist dann auch letztlich die Abfolge der Plotteile - die Bösen werden ziemlich zeitnah für ihre schlimmen Handlungen bestraft, kein Böser kommt in diesem Roman ungeschoren davon. Selbst die eine Überraschung, die der Roman für den modernen Leser bereithält, nämlich das Schicksal von Amine, passt dabei in die Weltsicht des Autors und sehr gut zum Grundtenor des gesamten Werks. Ein toller Schluss versöhnt letztlich über viele Stolpersteine hinweg.
Wenn Marryat sich dann noch seine Meinung über die "Hottentotten" mit "offensive, greasy attire, their strange forms, and hideous features" und ihrer halbmenschlichen Lebensart hätte sparen können, wäre ich dankbar gewesen.
Die eBook-Aufbereitung ist als gelungen zu bezeichnen - einige falsch gesetzte Absatzwechsel sind zu verkraften.
So bleibt mir ein Fazit - "The Phantom Ship" ist ein Roman, der heute wohl nur noch auf Grund seines Rufs und der beliebten Legende gedruckt wird, gewiss aber nicht aufgrund irgendwelcher Qualitäten des Texts selbst. -
Good heavens! What a tale of tragedy, mishap, murder, betrayal, and misfortune! This is the tale of the unfortunate Philip Venderdecken, whose destiny is to attempt to save his father from the fate of captaining The Flying Dutchman forevermore!
As long as you don't mind the slightly archaic language, this is a really great read. It's full of interesting and quirky characters whose motivations, passions and moral quandaries are all larger than life. From the annoying and ill-favoured Schriften, to the virtuous friend and confidante Krantz, to the youthful, beautiful, angelic and exotic Amine, each character is drawn in bold, clear strokes with little gray in any of them. The style is rather breathless and expository and it moves at quite a pace, but it can get a little tiring after a while.
It is a throwback to an earlier time and the details about maritime life and adventures are interesting. This is a time before even sextants were in use; how the hell did anyone manage to navigate??
The book is full of evil characters, plots against our hero, shipwrecks (so many shipwrecks!), musings on Catholicism vs the strange and magical arts of Araby, triple helpings of tragedy and plenty of human frailty. It's one heck of an adventure!
Shout out to my friend Shawn, whose review got me interested in reading this. -
A ghost ship, a nuatical adventure, a tale of a werewolf, all against the background of a grand theological discourse. Each element is present in Frederick Marryat's pioneering sea tale that is among the first literary works to make use of the legend of the Flying Dutchman in its pages. No wonder Joseph Conrad was impressed and influenced by Marryat. Like Conrad, Marryat does much more than tell a simple tale of the ocean and the men in ships that ply its waves. He leaves the readaer with a melancholy story that bespeaks of vengeance, love, greed, and, finally, redemption through forgiveness. Quite a work. Along with Conrad, Melville also found it influential.
The novel is an epic one. It crosses through two lifetimes and looks back on a world even older than that. It spans the entire globe in its setting. And best of all, for an adventure novel, it gives a psychological dimension to its developing characters, Phillip Vanderdecken, his wife, Amine, Krantz, the mate, and Schriften, the demonic representative of all that causes pain and sorrow. There is something of a medieval morality play in it as well. For something penned in the first half of the nineteenth century, The Phantom Ship still has the power to teach and pull in the reader of the this century--if they are willing to listen. -
A pesar del título, se trata de un libro clásico de aventuras más que de otra cosa. Me hubiera gustado que fuera tétrico y negro, quizá pesa demasiado "Piratas del Caribe", no sé. De todas formas, me sobra un poco la relación amorosa, la verdad.
Recomendable. -
Libro de aventuras y misterio, aunque lo más interesante es cómo retrata perfectamente la sociedad pensante de principios del siglo XIX, el racismo, la intransigencia De la Iglesia, la xenofobia... Los personajes más interesantes de la historia sin duda Amina y Krantz, sin ellos el libro sería un tostón.
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As a tale of the Flying Dutchman, it drags, and drags, and drags, in a way completely impossible in modern fiction. My previous candidate for toneless dragging, Joseph Conrad's Victory, is not even in the same league. Mind you, the despair is well done indeed. -
It was quite slow and repetitive in the beginning, but there was more excitement in the last quarter or so of the book. The short werewolf story Krantz told was probably my favorite part of the book. It's very gothic, with religion, a beautiful exotic woman with occult powers, a flawless hero and - of course - the supernatural in focus.
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По началу книга очень цепляет, но вот к концу создавалось чувство, что я читаю какое-то собрание историй.
Сам корабль тут практически не играет роли, и назвать это произведение одной из интерпретаций об «Летучем Голландце», да ещё и самой известной – ну просто язык не поворачивается.
Да, именно нить, связующая героев с кораблем двигает их на действия, но мне казалось, что персонажи ведут себя странно, в особенности Филип, который часто забывал зачем выходит в море. Язык автора прекрасен, читается легко и занимательно, но вот к самой истории возникают вопросы, в особенности к концовке. Может, тут был заложен какой-то посыл, которого мне не удалось уловить, не знаю.
Берясь за чтение, учитывайте лишь то, что про корабль вы читать не будете, тут скорее морская хроника и трагедия, вперемешку с историями «у костра». -
სიკვდილის მუდმივი შიში, საყვარელი ადამიანის დაკარგვის შიში, ეს წიგნი საოცარი საზღვაო თავგადასავალია. ყველაზე მეტად კრანცის ამბავი მომეწონა, რაღაც მისტიკური და საშიში იყო. დასასრული კი იმდენად მოულოდნელი და გამაოგნებელი იყო, რომ აღმაფრთოვანა.
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Oh!! One of the best novels I have ever read! It had a great impact on my heart. It causes very great emotion and I loved the end of the story too. I definitely recommend it!!
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Dore pričica. Bila bi mi još draža da je bilo više priče o Ukletom Holandezu nego što je bilo.
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I’ve developed a habit I’d like to evolve out of - in truth, I think I’m finally ready to kick this morbid, repetitive tick I developed not long ago: watching aircraft tragedy videos on YouTube. CVRs, computer animations, years-long investigations of wreckage, maintenance checks that do more harm than good thanks to cut corners, children flying jets, helicopter pilots multitasking themselves to death, a pilot shrieking over and over again after disastrously landing on the wrong runway, flying up to 41000 feet for fun and paying the ultimate price for it��
And on and on. This is what comes from checking out a few 9/11 videos, as well as some Kobe Bryant videos…prompts for similar videos I couldn’t ignore. But, I have to say, the sheer coincidence of reading Frederick Marryat’s dusty old aquatic Horror novel while trying to break this dubious habit of mine, well, it could be the cure. Putting it bluntly, the amount of maritime disasters the novel The Phantom Ship shopped out to me, coupled with all these aircraft falling out of the sky, may be enough mass tragedy once and for all.
Yes, Philip, in adopting the naval lifestyle, and death-risk, during the best years of his life - all in order to confront and redeem his ghost of a father trapped on a ghost ship (fictional version of the Flying Dutchman) - puts the reader through just about everything that could go wrong at sea. Nature, and man’s own greed or evil, seem to be forever dropping Philip into the ocean and trying to drown him. Making it to shore - whatever shore - always leads to new horrors. Backing up for a second, it’s worth noting that at the beginning of the novel, we have a long stretch of strange occurrences and dangerous interactions that happen well before Philip first treads a wooden deck and then treads water. I enjoyed that, even if I was anxious to go to sea.
Amine, and Schriften, are two wonderful supporting characters; Philip loves one, and despises the other. One is flesh and blood, the other may not be. I came to love Amine myself - a brave and opinionated soulmate for Philip who is determined to join him at sea for better or worse - and I came to loathe Schriften while at the same time loving whenever he appeared. It’s like when someone when asked who was their favourite Avenger, said the Hulk, “because when the Hulk shows up, shit happens, guaranteed”. Same with Schriften.
And same goes for the Phantom Ship - it appears out of a sudden mist as a harbinger of shipwreck and disaster, even as Philip always looks to spot his spectral pappy on creepy deck. I read this not long after delving into Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame…and anyone who had a rough go with that book because they wanted more of Quasimodo, who actually does not appear all that much, may experience discontent over how much phantom ship we get in a book called The Phantom Ship. For me, hmm, let’s just say the quality of the phantom ship manifestations make up for the quantity - it seems to have a new trick up its sheets for every appearance! - and besides, there’s so much else going on that is incredibly diverting.
That said, the ending feels a bit rushed, though the culmination of Philip’s quest did work for me. But say, ahem, that extended bit just before the ending proper - seemed to leap out of nowhere in the most bizarre fashion ever. Late-innings horrors thanks to a white she-wolf borrowed from Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, and a tiger stolen from the Octopussy movie, result in what I feel is some of the scariest, but maybe the most awkwardly misplaced or shoe-horned in, sequences in the whole book. Just imagine you’re reading a great Horror novel, and then suddenly there’s a random short story dropped in for your pleasure, just before the big finale. I don’t know what to make of that, never as a reader experienced anything quite like it.
Still, as neglected 19th-century, nautical Horror romps that don’t always get wet go, this one is a winner. I wouldn’t recommend it as highly as Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, but hey, Poe’s Poe, y’know. -
Jag tycker generellt att äldre böcker är väldigt sega och så är även fallet med Den flygande holländaren. Boken känns dock något snabbare och mer lättläst än andra äldre böcker jag läst. Emellanåt är boken skriven som en saga och dessa inslag kan jag förstå stör vissa läsare men jag tycker det är ganska mysigt när en berättarröst bryter den fjärde väggen. Vissa delar är bra och i stora drag gillar jag handlingen. Men boken är alldeles för seg och fruktansvärt utdragen. Man kan sammanfatta det som att det händer väldigt mycket men samtidigt ingenting. Det stora problemet är nog att varje gång det händer någonting intressant så väljer författaren att spola fram tiden istället för att gå in på djupet, istället djupdyker vi i träiga kärlekskonversationer och religiösa samtal.
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I was a little confused about when exactly this book was written - the narrative is old, but there were many "modern" ideas, especially in the portrayal of Amine as a strong, independent character. She was without a doubt the strongest character in the entire book, so the fact that this was originally written in the 1800's is even more interesting to me and that in itself gives this book 3 stars. There were also some moments of snide remarks that made me giggle and which made me think this was a more recent story.
The Catholic church gets torn apart in this book, full of hypocrisy and idiocy. -
Radnja se romana odvija brzo, i nema nekih pretjeranih zapleta. Način pripovijedanja bi mogao biti i bolji, ali treba uzeti u obzir i period u kojem je roman pisan. Možda bi bilo bolje pročitati u orginalu, nego u prijevodu, jer mi se čini kao da se dostavl toga izgubilo u prijevodu. U svakom slučaju, zanimljivo štivo koje se može u jednom danu ,, progutati ". Roman možda zaslužuje i veću ocjenu, ali, unatoč zanimljivosti priče, možda zbog ne tako vrhunskog prijevoda, osjećala sam kao da nešto fali u romanu. Preporučujem roman svima, ne jer je pustolovini roman, nego sama priča šalje odličnu poruku svima nama.
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Stephen King he is not. Marryat does a fair job but, for 1839, this may have been a good novel but, more likely (as now), it was just an okay novel. It's too long and long-winded but the core story is a fairly good idea. It has some cool stuff when it deals with the Flying Dutchman but it goes off into strange asides - most notably a detour on werewolves which, apparently, is deleted from some editions. I had this copy on my iPad mini and read it on the bus and train during commutes so it took a long time but it's not a bad book to have if you are interested in looking up an old ghost story.
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A truly bad book. Stupid story and badly written. Awoid if possible 😒
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Originally published in 1839, this novel had some great passages but it was mostly just a tedious read.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the very beginning, up until page 369, where it proved utterly irredeemable and a waste of time. I can’t recommend it.
