The blog
Sea novels, recreational or technical marine books…
For this time I am introducing you to a book that I have just ordered, so not yet read, seduced as I was by The dithyrambic article from Olivier Chapuis on his webblog.
I have pleasure to send you read it and leave you alone judges. There you go 1088 pages that will occupy my next days at sea !
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all ! Read more …
Christmas is coming and, whether the celebration is religious or pagan, so traditional gifts.
You've no doubt guessed my passion for marine charting, but before electronic charts, I hold a special attachment to paper charts. I started sailing with SHOM charts in black and white, assorties de jolies gravures calligraphiées représentant des caps remarquables, des alignements. Then appeared the colored charts, à plat, difficiles à ranger dans un voilier de 8 meters high. I bought charts from the British Admiralty, encore plus colorées, de formats impossibles, avec des pliages et des découpages compliqués sous forme de cartouches. Finally I discovered the West Indies charts Imray charting, d’un format réduit, plastifiées et pliées dans des enveloppes de protection en plastique, a revolution on chart tables. Then SHOM also produces folded charts, « P » pour Plaisance, que j’ai vendues pendant plusieurs années.
Mais ceci ne représente globalement que les 35 dernières années de la cartographie marine.
J’ai donc été particulièrement fasciné par les deux ouvrages qui suivent, maybe you already know because not recent, mais qui valent vraiment de profiter de cette période de fête pour se les faire offrir, if you did not yet got. Read more …
Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse
Antoine de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
We know well, today, The fate of the expedition of the captain of the ship Jean-François de La Pérouse, lost with all hands in the Solomon Islands in 1788. What we know much less well, on the other hand, This is the story of the Admiral Antoine de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux gone for his search in 1791 at the request of Louis XVI, and whose fate was scarcely more enviable.
It is about this unknown expedition Jean-Pierre Ledru wrote, in the pictorial language of the sailors of the time, Through the eyes of a Norman "pilotin" embarked for better or for worse (¹). Read more …
At the end of summer, I let the sea novel thriller to tell you about a novel, Published in 2009 published by Michel LAFON, Based on recently updated historical facts (*).This book recounts the tragic journey of the French ship "L'Utile", a 800 barrels carrying a clandestine cargo of Malagasy slaves bound for the Ile de France, today Mauritius. The boat ran aground in 1761 on a tiny block of coral lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Devastated by storms : the island of Tromelin. Some 160 Slaves abandoned on this desert island by the white crew, 8 survivors were only discovered, 15 years after the shipwreck, by the corvette "La Dauphine" commanded by Ensign De Tromelin (whose name was given to the island). Read more …
Summer is a time for relaxation, it is also that of reading. This time I'm taking you to the coast of Spain for a treasure hunt…
La Carta Esférica was published in Spain in 2000, and in March 2001 for the French translation by François Maspero published by Editions du Seuil. Read more …
Published in 1939, " The Mystery of Swordfish Reef ” n’a été édité en France qu’en l’an 2000 by Editions 10/18, translated from the English by Michèle Valencia.
Arthur Upfield, born in England in 1888, was sent at the age of nineteen years by his parents in Australia. Il y passera toute sa vie, except the period of the 14-18. war. He will discover the wildlife outback Australian outback, will cross for years throughout the continent, vivant de petits boulots et métiers de fortune. He will meet in 1927 a mixed aboriginal, « traqueur » de la police du Queensland, who will inspire the character of Detective Napoleon Bonaparte, and reveal with him a great talent for writing novels. He will publish its first thriller in 1928, et ne cessera plus jusqu’à sa mort en 1964, au rythme de près d’un roman par an. Il est aujourd’hui reconnu comme le père du « polar ethnologique » (*).
With 30 romans policiers écrits par Arthur Upfield, a single has the action at sea, loin du outback et des aborigènes : c’est « Le Récif aux Espadons ”. Read more …
The authorNé en Suède en 1953, Full Professor of French Literature at the University of Lünd in Sweden, his first novel, "Long John Silver", published in 1992, quickly achieved real success. Danish Translator, English and French, philologist and criticist, il a été à de nombreuses reprises invité au Festival « Etonnants Voyageurs » de Saint-Malo. Read more …
HistoricalPublished in 1978 à New York sous le titre « The Shipkiller ”, this maritime thriller has been translated in France by Grasset & Fasquelle under the title "The Killer of the Seas" in 1979, puis est passé en édition Livre de Poche sous le n° 5399 in 1980. Read more …
This blog, All in all, quite technical, seems to me to be cruelly lacking in poetry ! So I decided to bring it to the table., from time to time, A little distraction by sharing with you my favorite "maritime" reads. This may be the source for some of you ideas to spend the long sailing days – that many landowners imagine so boring – and for others long winter evenings spent on shore awaiting the come-back of spring time.
Je n’ambitionne nullement de me poser en critique littéraire. Simplement de faire découvrir à ceux qui ne les connaissent pas déjà les quelques ouvrages, romanesques ou techniques, que j’affectionne particulièrement.
En retour, je suis preneur de toute découverte littéraire, peu ou prou maritime, dont je serais ignorant, il doit y en avoir un paquet !