Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
Prosper - A Voyage at Sea - cover

We are sorry! The publisher (or author) gave us the instruction to take down this book from our catalog. But please don't worry, you still have more than 500,000 other books you can enjoy!

Prosper - A Voyage at Sea

Simon Leys

Publisher: Black Inc. Short Blacks

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

A big liner, brightly lit, passes us one or two cable-lengths ahead. ‘Ow! They are guzzling champagne but cannot see what's in front of them!’ grumbles Etienne, who has the helm and puts Prosper back on course. Our wooden boat, which one long wave can carry, is a mere cork in the wake of that ship, which crushes three dozen such waves under her uncaring steel plates. How many hundreds of men does she carry? Up there, people laugh, play, dream, eat and sleep … while we, a few feet above the water, surrounded by dancing lights, keep watch till dawn.

One summer, Simon Leys joined the crew of a tuna-fishing boat in Brittany, one of the last boats working under sail. In this exceptionally beautiful and elegiac essay, he evokes the traditions, hardships and dangers of the oldest and finest form of seamanship.

Short Blacks are gems of recent Australian writing – brisk reads that quicken the pulse and stimulate the mind.

Simon Leys is the pen-name of Pierre Ryckmans, who was born in Belgium and settled in Australia in 1970. He taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University and was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney from 1987 to 1993. His writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Le Monde, Le Figaro Littéraire, Quadrant and the Monthly, and his books include The Hall of Uselessness, The Death of Napoleon, Other People’s Thoughts and The Wreck of the Batavia & Prosper. In 1996 he delivered the ABC’s Boyer Lectures. His many awards include the Prix Renaudot, the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, the Prix Guizot and the Christina Stead Prize for fiction.
Available since: 09/23/2015.

Other books that might interest you

  • Bison - Portrait of an Icon - cover

    Bison - Portrait of an Icon

    Chase Reynolds Ewald

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The first of its kind, Bison: Portrait of an Icon tells the story of this distinctly American species—its history, majesty, cultural significance, and comeback story—through stunning, dramatic photography and the voices of ranchers, policy makers, artists, and Native American tribal herd managers throughout the Great Plains and Mountain West. 
    Show book
  • American Notes - cover

    American Notes

    Charles Dickens

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In 1842, Charles Dickens visited America. His reception was somewhat colder than that which usually greeted him – already a successful author in both Britain and the U.S. This lack of enthusiasm from the Americans was partly due to his criticism of the pirating of English books in that country and partly due to his outspoken distaste for the custom of slavery in the southern states.  
    He wrote in the preface to American Notes, "Prejudiced I am not, and never have been, otherwise than in favour of the United States. I have many friends in America. I feel a grateful interest in the country. I hope and believe it will successfully work out a problem of the highest importance in the whole human race. To represent me as viewing America with ill nature, coldness or animosity is merely to do a very foolish thing, which is always a very easy one!"  
    Despite this placatory tone, one American reviewer spoke thus of American Notes: "The most trashy... the most contemptible... the essence of balderdash, reduced to the last drop of silliness and inanity."  
    Listen to the journals and judge for yourself.
    Show book
  • National Trust Histories: Wessex - cover

    National Trust Histories: Wessex

    Humphrey Welfare

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The name 'Wessex' is full of echoes of the ancient past - of Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill - and of the regional novels of Thomas Hardy 'The ploughing up of traditional downland pastures and the removal of ancient hedgerows, woodlands and wetlands from the vales have changed some of Hardy's 'windswept' grasslands and dairy-rich lowlands. Even so, Wessex contains some fine countryside and a wealth of monuments of different ages. Besides the glories of the prehistoric legacy, there is much else to absorb in the later landscape: the great churches of Salisbury Cathedral and Sherborne Abbey; famous mansions such as Wilton and Longleat; remarkable castles such as Portland and Corfe; the picturesque villages of Lacock and Milton Abbas; as well as important industrial monuments in Bradford-on-Avon and Swindon. In this lavishly illustrated book, one in a series of four National Trust histories, Humphrey Welfare explains the creation of the Wessex landscape and introduces the region's rich heritage of buildings and archaeological sites, some of them well-known and hugely popular, while others that are virtually overlooked.
    Show book
  • On the Trail of the Last Human Cannonball - And Other Small Journeys in Search of Great Men - cover

    On the Trail of the Last Human...

    Byron Rogers

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    From “a great journalist of the older school,” travel essays chronicling the author’s search for incredible stories about extraordinary people (The Guardian). 
     
    Byron Rogers’ latest collection of travel pieces follows the winning formula of his previous book, An Audience with an Elephant, as he goes in search of a remarkable array of quirky, whimsical, and singular individuals. But in addition to meeting a pensioner on a holiday who decided to swim across the Amazon, this book sees Rogers meeting a number of undeniably famous people. But as one might expect, Rogers’ encounters with celebrity have their own unexpected outcomes. Burt Lancaster rants to him about transsexuality, Rita Hayworth is most worried about her neighbor’s TV aerial, and a retired star of the silent screen turns out to live in Henley-on-Thames. 
     
    “It is with the delicacy and determination of an archaeologist—and the wit of a publican and far-sightedness of a dreamer—that Rogers excavates people and places.” —Daily Telegraph 
     
    “A wonderful writer. Droll, poignant and dreamy.” —New Statesman
    Show book
  • Thomas Steinbeck son of famed writer John Steinbeck - An interview about his life his novels his father - cover

    Thomas Steinbeck son of famed...

    Patricia L. Lawrence

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Audio Journeys from Travel Radio International, Exploration into Destinations around the World.  Thomas Steinbeck, son of famed writer and Pulitzer Prize recipient John Steinbeck, sits down with Patricia Lawrence for a casual conversation about his life, his published short stories “Down to a Soundless Sea”, fictional accounts of life around Monterey Bay California...and his Father!
    Show book
  • Learn Spanish for beginners - Illustrated step by step guide for complete beginners to understand Spanish language from scratch - cover

    Learn Spanish for beginners -...

    White Belt Mastery

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The book you were waiting for to learn Spanish ! 
    100% Beginners centeredHints & TipsReal life situations dialoguesStep by step approach to understand basics concepts to more advancedConjugation and GrammarVocabulary and Glossary of irregular verbsCommon expressions 
    So don't wait any longer and get this comprehensive guide to learn Spanish now !
    Show book