I almost squealed with delight when I saw The Wreck of the Golden Mary the library.
No, I had never heard of it, nor anyone had ever recommended it to me. But what made me happy was that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins wrote this book. Till I read this book, I had no clue that they were colleagues or even friends!!
So what is The Wreck of the Golden Mary about?
Photo Credit – @old_pioneer @ unsplash.com
This novella tells the story of the crew and passengers on the ship The Golden Mary, sailing towards the Californian coast. There is a mixed group of passengers – a man looking out to make money in the gold rush, an estranged fiancé, a mother and her child heading to meet the father. An iceberg strikes and sinks the ship tragically. Luckily all the crew and passengers are moved safely to two lifeboats. The people though alive, are far from safety as they float stranded on the open sea with minimum food and water between them.
Apart from the captain and the first mate through whose eyes the story is told, a significant character is Golden Lucy. She is the only child on board and everyone’s favorite. She presents purity and happiness when the ship was afloat, and hope when survivors hung between life and death in the lifeboats.
Dickens brings out interesting aspects of human behavior under this severe living condition and creates vivid characters in such short storytelling. One of the steps the survivors take to keep their spirits alive as days pass by without the sign of another ship is to tell each other stories. Five such stories all contributed by five different writers form the body of the novella.
Verdict
Read it!
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6 comments
I knew they were friends but I had no idea that they collaborated on their work. I will have to check this out. I love the photo on your banner by the way!
Danielle – thanks for stopping by! The photo was taken on Pebble Beach on the coast of California 🙂
The Wreck of Golden Mary is very different from both Dickens and Collins typical style and content of writing.
The best part are the 5 stories. And they are written by a different set of writers.
I have never heard of this book… had no idea it existed even though I knew the two authors were friends. Will add it to my ‘keep an eye out for’ list as it sounds very good. I love the cover.
Cath – I had never heard of this either. I just saw this is the library and went – Really?!!.
It is a pretty interesting short novel.
I found this by chance in the amazon free ebooks section.
The story I found ends abruptly with the first mate Ralph Steadiman narrating.The closing words are”This, as well as I can tell it, is the full and true account of how I came to be placed in charge of the lost passengers and crew of the Golden Mary, on the morning of the twenty-seventh day after the ship struck the Iceberg, and foundered at sea.”I can’t find the stories you mention told by five characters
” to tell each other stories. 5 such stories all contributed by 5 different writers form the body of the novella.”
Any idea where to look.
I like your pages- very interesting!
Peter
Peter
I have searched and searched the internet but I cant find the edition that I had read. I got it from the local library
What you are looking for is
The wreck of the Golden Mary / Charles Dickens ; with Wilkie Collins, Percy Fitzgerald, Harriet Parr, Adelaide Anne Procter, Reverend James White ; edited by Melissa Valiska Gregory, Melisa Klimaszewski.
Contents
The wreck of the golden Mary — The wreck by Charles Dickens,
The Beguilement in the boats: “The armourer’s story” by Percy Fitzgerald;
“Poor Dick’s story” by Harriet Parr;
“The supercargo’s story” by Percy Fitzgerald;
“The Old sailor’s story” by Adelaide Anne Procter;
“The Scotch boy’s story” by Reverend James White —
The deliverance by Wilkie Collins.