It is set mostly on the Atlantic Ocean over the Grand Banks, fishing grounds off the southeast coast of Newfoundland, although later parts of the text take place in the fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and on the West Coast of the United States. The title comes from one of Kipling’s favorite ballads, “Mary Ambree.” Captains Courageous is a story of maturation and redemption, a pattern of action that recurs throughout Kipling’s work. What Kipling described as a “boy’s story” was first published in serial form in McClure’s Magazine in the United States and in Pearson’s Magazine in Britain, and in book form by Macmillan in 1897.
This short novel is one of the products of Rudyard Kipling’s residence in the United States from 1892 to 1896. Therefore, I didn’t waste too much time listening to this book and could move on to different books that much quicker.Ī classic that probably hasn’t aged well with time, I give Captains Courageous 2.5 stars out of 5.Analysis of Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous Secondly, while I didn’t understand what was going on for most of the time I was listening to this audiobook, it was still a short book. While I likely would have just read the lyrics of these sea shanties in the book with no understanding of how the tune would go, the narrator sang these songs, thus allowing me to appreciate them more than just the words would have provided.
The two aspects I did enjoy as part of this audiobook were the songs and the length. Furthermore, the amount of sailing/fishing jargon this book had completely lost me at times, as I have no experience or knowledge of this profession to understand what the characters are talking about. While I would usually love this attention to detail, more than half the time, I could hardly understand what was being said. Not only did the narrator have a bit of an accent, but she did all the different dialects of the various characters based on their ethnic origins. Part of me wonders if the audiobook version of this classic was to blame. The series of fishing adventures seem to be loosely tied together, and the overarching plot was weak at best. Sure, the main character was picked up by a fishing vessel, and eventually, they learned how to deal with the harsh job of being a fisherman, but that’s pretty much it. And yet, I don’t know if I could tell you what happened in this book.
I got the sense it was about being at sea, probably in the same vein as Moby-Dick or Treasure Island. Captains Courageous is one of those classics that I just haven’t read, for whatever reason.
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