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Audiobook edition · 5 h 24 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your chance to escape ruin asks you to sink even lower?
On the waterfront at Papeete, three men have almost nothing left. Robert Herrick is educated, ashamed and desperate to escape himself. Captain Davis wants to recover the name he loses through drink. Huish wants money, whatever the cost. When the schooner Farallone needs a crew, these stranded drifters see a way out of failure. But opportunity brings a hard moral test.
In The Ebb-Tide, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne turn a South Seas adventure into a sharp study of conscience. A ship, a stolen cargo and a lonely island draw the men into deeper danger. Each carries a different kind of failure, and each wants something different from escape. The plot moves quickly, while one question presses closer: what will they do to save themselves?
What you’ll discover
- Three faces of failure Meet men whose shame, pride and greed give desperation a painfully human shape.
- A chance at sea Follow the Farallone as the promise of escape becomes a test of conscience.
- Adventure without easy comfort Enter a South Seas tale where danger offers no simple escape from moral choices.
- Ruin by small steps Explore moral collapse as a process, rather than a single terrible act.
- A darker Stevenson Discover a tense, unsentimental story that trades sunny confidence for hard questions.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy sea stories with real moral weight, characters who argue with their own conscience, vivid South Sea settings, and short novels where every scene tightens the pressure.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Failure brings three strangers together
- Rescue comes with a criminal bargain
- The stolen ship exposes their weaknesses
- The false cargo destroys their plan
- Attwater turns refuge into a trap
- Grace becomes a threat in Attwater's hands
- Violence closes the paths of escape
- Clear scenes make guilt visible
- Small excuses carry men toward wrongdoing
Who’s who
- Robert HerrickAn Oxford man ruined by weakness and shame, living under a false name in Tahiti, he has abandoned hope of helping his family and seeks a pleasant failure.
- John DavisAn American sea captain who lost his ship through drink, he wants to win a fortune for the children he loves and the daughter he cannot face.
- HuishA sickly, spiteful Cockney clerk with fearless nerve, he wants money, comfort and revenge on anyone who looks down on him.
- AttwaterA giant Cambridge man and pearl trader on a hidden island, he wants to guard his fortune and bring sinners to repentance.
- Uncle NedAn old Hawaiian sailor whose true name is Taveeta, he wants only to do his work and keep his faith.
- Sally DayA dark, lean island sailor with a kind heart, he wants to be treated fairly and quickly befriends the mate.
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The Ebb-Tide
by Robert Louis Stevenson; Lloyd Osbourne · 1894
Three starving outcasts in Tahiti steal a ship and sail toward a pearl island ruled by a man with a Winchester.
Easy read2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Can a man fall so far that a crime looks like rescue? That is the question at the heart of The Ebb-Tide, a short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne.
The Ebb-Tide at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 10 min2 h 30 min fast, 3 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 44,700 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1894by Robert Louis Stevenson; Lloyd Osbourne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Three nameless outcasts share a cold Papeete beach
The story begins with failure, told in close detail. Three white men sit under a tree in Papeete, shivering in thin cotton clothes while influenza coughs along the shore. The islanders have a phrase for their state: on the beach. It means broke, homeless and finished.
Robert Herrick is an Oxford man with a worn copy of Virgil in his pocket. His father's firm collapsed, and Robert drifted through clerkships, dismissed from each as hopeless. He took a false name and a ticket to the islands, hoping for a pleasant failure. What he finds is a hungry one.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1894
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 30 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Lloyd Osbourne. The Ebb-Tide. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ebb-tide.
Stevenson, R. L., & Osbourne, L. (2026). The ebb-tide. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ebb-tide (Original work published 1894)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Lloyd Osbourne. The Ebb-Tide. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ebb-tide.
@book{stevenson2026ebbtide,
author = {Stevenson, Robert Louis and Osbourne, Lloyd},
title = {The Ebb-Tide},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ebb-tide},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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What is The Ebb-Tide about?
It follows three broke men in Tahiti, an Oxford clerk, a sea captain and a Cockney clerk, who take a plague-struck schooner, sail to a hidden pearl island and meet a strange, frightening man named Attwater.
Who wrote The Ebb-Tide?
Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne wrote it together. Stevenson, who died in 1894, also wrote Treasure Island and Kidnapped, and he lived in the Pacific in his last years.
What does the title The Ebb-Tide mean?
The epigraph, about a tide in the affairs of men, hints at it. The ebb-tide is the falling, outgoing tide, and it stands for a life that is slipping away into ruin and moral decline.
The author
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850–1894 · Scottish novelist and poet
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist and poet, born in Edinburgh in 1850. He wrote Treasure Island (1883), A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), and Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). He settled in Samoa in 1890 and died there in 1894.
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