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Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled fifteen-year-old son of an American railway millionaire, falls overboard from a liner off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and is…
Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled fifteen-year-old son of an American railway millionaire, falls overboard from a liner off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and is picked up by a small fishing schooner, the We're Here. Its captain, Disko Troop, does not believe a word about his riches and will not turn back for months, so Harvey must work as a ship's boy for a small wage. Among fishermen of many nations, through fog, storms and the cod season, he slowly learns to be a man.
Context and significance
Published in 1897, it is Rudyard Kipling's only novel set entirely in America, written while he lived in Vermont; he studied the Gloucester fishing fleet in detail with the help of his friend Dr James Conland. Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for the 1937 film. Compare Kim, another story of a boy's education, and see his life.
About the author
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in Bombay, sent to England at five to an unhappy foster home, and returned to India at sixteen to work as a journalist in Lahore. His stories of Anglo-Indian life made him famous in London in his twenties.
The Jungle Book, written in Vermont, Kim and Just So Stories became classics, and in 1907 he became the first English-language writer to win the Nobel Prize. His poem 'If—' is still widely quoted, though his support for empire makes him a controversial figure today. His only son was killed in the First World War.