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Trama e riassunto di Due anni a prua
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A chi è rivolto
You will enjoy this if you love true sea adventure, vivid storms and ice, close portraits of shipmates, and early California told by an eyewitness.
Che cos’è questo libro
Would you give up your books and your comfortable life to scrub decks, climb icy masts and carry cowhides on your head? In 1834 Richard Henry Dana did exactly that. A Cambridge student with weak eyes, he boarded the brig Pilgrim in Boston to sail round Cape Horn to California as an ordinary sailor.
Two Years Before the Mast is his account, built from a journal he kept at the time and printed in 1840. Earlier sea books came from officers or passengers, so a voice from the forecastle had hardly been heard. You get a first-hand tour of a merchant ship, a portrait of Mexican California before the gold rush, and a plain case for fairer treatment of seamen.
In questo riassunto
- 1A scholar with weak eyes goes to seaFree
- 2The sea teaches through sickness and hard work
- 3A ship's work never ends, and everyone has a place
- 4Discipline, a lost command and a gale on the way south
- 5Cape Horn tests the crew and takes a shipmate
- 6California arrives, with surf, hides and strange trade
- 7A flogging at San Pedro changes Dana's purpose
- 8Life on the beach among Kanakas and hides
- 9The Alert arrives, and Dana finds a better ship
- 10The long road home, and what Dana did with it
Punto chiave 1 di 10
A scholar with weak eyes goes to sea
Dana leaves Cambridge for a hard reason. His eyes are weak, and he decides that a complete change of life, far from books, may cure them. So on August 14 he boards the brig Pilgrim, bound from Boston round Cape Horn to the western coast of North America.
He puts on loose duck trousers, a checked shirt and a tarpaulin hat, and thinks he looks like a real sailor. Every man aboard knows at once that he is a landsman. His hands are too soft, his walk is wrong, and his neckerchief is badly knotted. Dana tells the joke on himself with good humor.
Then the wind turns fair, and the captain orders all hands called. Orders he cannot understand fly around him, and ropes and sails seem to move without sense. He calls it the most helpless sight in the world, a landsman beginning a sailor's life. Real learning starts when you admit you know nothing and watch those who do.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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About 11 h 20 min to read.Inizia 90 giorni gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 157,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 11 h
Questions about Due anni a prua
What is Two Years Before the Mast about?
It tells of a Harvard student who ships as a common sailor on the brig Pilgrim in 1834, sails round Cape Horn, spends months on the California hide coast, and returns home on the ship Alert.
Is Two Years Before the Mast a true story?
Yes, it is a factual account based on a journal Dana kept at sea. He published it in 1840 with a concluding chapter and later added an account of his return to California.
What does before the mast mean?
It refers to the forecastle, the sailors' quarters at the front of the ship, in front of the mast. Ordinary sailors lived there, while officers and passengers lived aft.
Why did Richard Henry Dana go to sea?
His eyes were weak, which forced him to leave his studies at Cambridge. He hoped that a long voyage, far from books, would heal them.
Do you need to know sailing to follow it?
No. Dana says plain facts about unfamiliar work reach the imagination, and his scenes of storms, watches and trade are clear enough to enjoy without knowing the name of a single rope.
Cite this edition
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years Before the Mast. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-years-before-the-mast.
Dana, R. H., Jr. (2026). Two years before the mast. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-years-before-the-mast (Original work published 1840)
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. Two Years Before the Mast. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-years-before-the-mast.
@book{dana2026two,
author = {Dana, Richard Henry, Jr.},
title = {Two Years Before the Mast},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-years-before-the-mast},
note = {First published 1840}
}
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