This is Joseph Conrad's last novel. Citizen Peyrol returns to his native France against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. The arrival of young Lieutenant Real necessitates another mission of danger, patriotism and heroism from Peyrol. Summary by kathrinee

The eight short stories that comprise South Sea Tales are powerful tales that vividly evoke the early 1900’s colonial South Pacific islands. Tales of hurricanes, missionaries, brotherhood and seafaring are intertwined with enslavement, savagery, and lawless trading to expose the often-barbarous history of the South Pacific islands. You will also gain unsparing insight into the life, culture and relations between natives and Westerners during this period. If you like nautical and sea adventures, if you are interested in the history of the South Pacific islands, and especially if you want to read gripping tales set in the exotic lands, then this book will be perfect for you...

Volume 2 begins as our hero winds up his story. But the question remains, what happened to the other boat? Hugh and Helga have been picked up by a small boat, which is, apparently, headed for Australia against all seafaring wisdom. Too far from the coast to backtrack, the couple set out on an unanticipated journey.

Pinafore’s sublimely silly story is made even sillier by this 1908 story version of the 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Gilbert, the author of the operetta’s lyrics, writes this version of the story with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Most adults and children will find this version vastly amusing. - Summary by David Wales

This novel opens in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars between England and France. A retired sailor, Captain Acton, reminisces about his time at sea now he lives on shore and wonders about a ship seen burning at sea the previous night. But there is one more voyage for the Captain, this time taking his daughter Lucy. As all sailors know, a woman on board brings bad luck.

This book was published in 1897. When cabin passenger Mr. Catesby climbs into the rigging of the Ruby in search of cooler air, he is struck full in the face and chest by an errant seabird bearing a sealed tin box tied about its neck. What he finds in that box leads him to unexpected encounters with a wrecked ship, chests of gold, thirst, desperation, and some curiously courteous cutlass-carrying cutthroats . It projects a rather different take on the familiar bloodstained swashbuckling sea story. - Summary by Steven Seitel

Any one who knows the coast of New England will know also the Island of Appledore and just where it lies. Such a person can tell you that it is not exactly the place described in this book, that it is small and bare and rocky with no woods, no meadows, no church, or mill, or mill-creek road. Perhaps all that the story tells of it that is true is that there the rocks give forth their strange deep song, “the calling of Appledore,” as warning of a storm, that there the poppies bloom as nowhere else...

The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Victor Hugo spent 15 years in exile. Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to convert seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest caliber. Set just after the Napoleonic Wars, Toilers of the Sea deals with the impact of the Industrial Revolution upon the island. The story concerns a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner, Mess Lethierry. When Lethierry's ship is wrecked on a perilous reef, Deruchette promises to marry whoever can salvage the ship's steam engine...