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The Little Savage By: Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) |
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Captain Frederick Marryat was born July 10 1792, and died August 8 1848.
He retired from the British navy in 1828 in order to devote himself to
writing. In the following 20 years he wrote 26 books, many of which are
among the very best of English literature, and some of which are still
in print. Marryat had an extraordinary gift for the invention of episodes in his
stories. He says somewhere that when he sat down for the day's work, he
never knew what he was going to write. He certainly was a literary
genius. "The Little Savage" was published in 1848, the twenty sixth book to flow
from Marryat's pen. It was completed after his death by a member of his
family. It is intended for children, and its religious overtones are in
contrast to Marryat's other works. He was far from irreligious, but
this book is definitely in a different style. This e book was transcribed in 1998 by Nick Hodson, and was reformatted
in 2003, and again in 2005. THE LITTLE SAVAGE, BY CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT. CHAPTER ONE. I am about to write a very curious history, as the reader will agree
with me when he has read this book. We have more than one narrative of
people being cast away upon desolate islands, and being left to their
own resources, and no works are perhaps read with more interest; but I
believe I am the first instance of a boy being left alone upon an
uninhabited island. Such was, however, the case; and now I shall tell
my own story. My first recollections are, that I was in company with a man upon this
island, and that we walked often along the sea shore. It was rocky and
difficult to climb in many parts, and the man used to drag or pull me
over the dangerous places. He was very unkind to me, which may appear
strange, as I was the only companion that he had; but he was of a morose
and gloomy disposition. He would sit down squatted in the corner of our
cabin, and sometimes not speak for hours, or he would remain the whole
day looking out at the sea, as if watching for something, but what I
never could tell; for if I spoke, he would not reply; and if near to
him, I was sure to receive a cuff or a heavy blow. I should imagine
that I was about five years old at the time that I first recollect
clearly what passed. I may have been younger. I may as well here state
what I gathered from him at different times, relative to our being left
upon this desolate spot. It was with difficulty that I did so; for,
generally speaking, he would throw a stone at me if I asked questions,
that is, if I repeatedly asked them after he had refused to answer. It
was on one occasion, when he was lying sick, that I gained the
information, and that only by refusing to attend him or bring him food
and water. He would be very angry, and say, that when he got well
again, he would make me smart for it; but I cared not, for I was then
getting strong, whilst he was getting weaker every day, and I had no
love for him, for he had never shown any to me, but always treated me
with great severity. He told me, that about twelve years before (not that I knew what he
meant by a year, for I had never heard the term used by him), an English
ship (I did not know what a ship was) had been swamped near the island
in a heavy gale, and that seven men and one woman had been saved, and
all the other people lost. That the ship had been broken into pieces,
and that they had saved nothing that they had picked up among the rocks
pieces of the wood with which it had been made, and had built the cabin
in which we lived. That one had died after another, and had been buried
(what death or burial meant, I had no idea at the time); and that I had
been born on the island (how was I born? thought I); that most of them
had died before I was two years old; and that then, he and my mother
were the only two left besides me... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Fiction |
Teen/Young adult |
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Wikipedia – Frederick Marryat |
Wikipedia – The Little Savage |
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