Narrated by the crew member Ishmael, this epic whaling adventure follows the crew of the Pequod as its captain, Ahab, descends deeper and deeper into madness on his quest to find and kill the white whale that maimed him. Beyond the surface of ship life, whaling, and the hunt for the elusive Moby Dick are allegorical references to life - and even the universe - in this masterpiece by Herman Melville. Regarded as the Great American Novel, Moby Dick...

The Sea-Wolf (1904) is an adventure novel by American writer Jack London. Inspired by his acquaintance Captain Alex MacLean, a sailor from the Pacific Northwest, London sought to write a novel of the high seas with psychological and philosophical underpinnings. An intelligent scholar named Humphrey van Weyden boards a ferry in San Francisco. Lost in the fog, the Martinez collides with another ship, and van Weyden is tossed overboard. Afloat in the...

The Dunnes have set off on a ten day boat trip, a trip that hopefully will bring them closer together, despite the fact that the father, Stuart is staying behind on land. But only an hour into the trip they're already falling apart. The teenage daughter plans to drown herself, and the teenage boy is high on drugs. Ten-year-old Ernie is near catatonic. But their mother Anne, with the help of her brother-in-law Jeff, is insistent on pulling everyone...

"Nostromo, A Tale of the Seaboard" is set in the South American country of Costaguana, and more specifically in that country's Occidental Province and its port city of Sulaco. Though Costaguana is a fictional nation, its geography as described in the book resembles real-life Colombia. Costaguana has a long history of tyranny, revolution and warfare, but has recently experienced a period of stability under the dictator Ribiera. Charles Gould is a native...

First published in 1922, "Captain Blood" is an entertaining tale of pirates by Rafael Sabatini, the Italian-English author of adventure and romance novels. "Captain Blood" tells the story of Dr. Peter Blood, an Irish physician who had traded his past life as a sailor and a soldier for a quiet life tending to his garden and patients in Somerset, England. Dr. Blood attends to the wounds of rebels injured in the Battle of Sedgemoor during the Monmouth...

As the awkward one, Courtney Watson may not be as together as her sisters, but she excels at one thing: keeping secrets, including her white-hot affair with a sexy music producer. Planning Mom's wedding exposes her startling hidden life, changing her family's view of her - and how she views herself - forever. When Sienna's boyfriend proposes - in front of her mom and sisters, for crying out loud - he takes her by surprise. She already has two broken...

A young man dares not return to England after his ship is taken over by pirates and he becomes a member of their crew.

From Washington Irving (1783–1859) to F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), the authors represented in this expansive American short story anthology invite you to see the world as they saw it. Irving's culture-defining tales of American life-"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle"-offer a turn of events that both surprises and chills the reader. In "Bartleby," Herman Melville introduces us to a lawyer whose easy way of life is upended...

Almayer, an immigrant living on the Malayan continent with his native wife and his daughter, Nina, dreams of riches, and so pursues hidden gold mines and begins construction on a mansion to impress the British forces that he believes are coming to conquer the region. However, none of Almayer's schemes come through for him, and his recklessness results in a desperate situation for him and his family. Almayer's Folly was Joseph Conrad's first novel....