-
Two Years Before the Mast
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Adventurers, Explorers & Survival
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $27.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Rocket Men
- The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter, Robert Kurson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the moon - in just four months.
-
-
The Men Who Saved 1968
- By Gillian on 04-04-18
By: Robert Kurson
-
Cape Horn to Starboard
- By: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Legendary account of the author's voyage around Cape Horn in a 32-foot sailboat, sailing east to west (thus the Horn is to starboard, or on the right). This is a notoriously difficult and dangerous passage, especially in a boat this size.
-
-
A Sailing Classic
- By T. Adams on 09-24-20
By: John Kretschmer
-
Thomas Cromwell
- The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
- By: Tracy Borman
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As Henry VIII's right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation, secured Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and plotted the downfall of Anne Boleyn, and upon his arrest, was accused of trying to usurp the King himself. But here Tracy Borman reveals a different side of one of the most notorious figures in history.
-
-
"Behind the Scenes" of Wolf Hall!
- By JMP on 11-23-16
By: Tracy Borman
-
A Great and Terrible King
- Edward I and the Forging of Britain
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks", conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.
-
-
Narrator and Book are Both Very Good
- By horoscopy on 04-20-15
By: Marc Morris
-
The Wright Brothers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why?
-
-
Great book
- By S. Thurman on 06-17-15
By: David McCullough
-
The Frontiersmen
- A Narrative
- By: Allan W. Eckert
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 30 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The frontiersmen were a remarkable breed of men. They were often rough and illiterate, sometimes brutal and vicious, often seeking an escape in the wilderness of mid-America from crimes committed back east. In the beautiful but deadly country which would one day come to be known as West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, more often than not they left their bones to bleach beside forest paths or on the banks of the Ohio River.
-
-
Awsome Book
- By Richard on 09-23-11
By: Allan W. Eckert
-
Rocket Men
- The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter, Robert Kurson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the moon - in just four months.
-
-
The Men Who Saved 1968
- By Gillian on 04-04-18
By: Robert Kurson
-
Cape Horn to Starboard
- By: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Legendary account of the author's voyage around Cape Horn in a 32-foot sailboat, sailing east to west (thus the Horn is to starboard, or on the right). This is a notoriously difficult and dangerous passage, especially in a boat this size.
-
-
A Sailing Classic
- By T. Adams on 09-24-20
By: John Kretschmer
-
Thomas Cromwell
- The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
- By: Tracy Borman
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As Henry VIII's right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation, secured Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and plotted the downfall of Anne Boleyn, and upon his arrest, was accused of trying to usurp the King himself. But here Tracy Borman reveals a different side of one of the most notorious figures in history.
-
-
"Behind the Scenes" of Wolf Hall!
- By JMP on 11-23-16
By: Tracy Borman
-
A Great and Terrible King
- Edward I and the Forging of Britain
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks", conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.
-
-
Narrator and Book are Both Very Good
- By horoscopy on 04-20-15
By: Marc Morris
-
The Wright Brothers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why?
-
-
Great book
- By S. Thurman on 06-17-15
By: David McCullough
-
The Frontiersmen
- A Narrative
- By: Allan W. Eckert
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 30 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The frontiersmen were a remarkable breed of men. They were often rough and illiterate, sometimes brutal and vicious, often seeking an escape in the wilderness of mid-America from crimes committed back east. In the beautiful but deadly country which would one day come to be known as West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, more often than not they left their bones to bleach beside forest paths or on the banks of the Ohio River.
-
-
Awsome Book
- By Richard on 09-23-11
By: Allan W. Eckert
-
Sailing to the Edge of Time
- The Promise, the Challenges, and the Freedom of Ocean Voyaging
- By: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Matthew Kevin Anderson
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Kretschmer is sailing’s practical philosopher - as much a doer as a thinker. And that is the overarching theme of this chronicle of a sailing life. Often amusing, sometimes poignant, occasionally terrifying but always inspiring, his deeply personal account is a welcome reminder of the good life waiting at sea. With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John’s adventures have taken him several times around the world.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Worldoceans on 03-07-20
By: John Kretschmer
-
Endurance
- Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
-
-
Superb in so many ways
- By David on 01-19-14
By: Alfred Lansing
-
Sailing a Serious Ocean
- Sailboats, Storms, Stories and Lessons Learned from 30 Years at Sea
- By: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance, and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English-speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his often challenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John - at a lesser cost - and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.
-
-
Fantastic book on ocean sailing
- By Aleksander Styrvold Kristoffersen on 05-09-19
By: John Kretschmer
-
Across Islands and Oceans
- A Journey Alone Around the World By Sail and By Foot
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Spencer King
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Across Islands and Oceans is the memoir of 25 year-old James Baldwin and his epic two-year, solo circumnavigation in Atom, his trusty but aging 28-foot sailboat.
-
-
A true sailor' s quest
- By ThunderInTheSun on 10-08-18
By: James Baldwin
-
Bound for Distant Seas
- A Voyage Alone to Asia Aboard the 28-Foot Sailboat Atom
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Nick O'Kelly
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bound for Distant Seas begins sailing author James Baldwin's epic tale of his second circumnavigation. His story is seasoned by his adventures during his first circumnavigation in 1984-86 as told in Across Islands and Oceans. Alone with little money aboard Atom, his now-engineless 28-foot sailboat, James embarks on his odyssey without the comforts and equipment most sailors consider essential.
-
-
Cool sailing story
- By R Robins on 05-25-16
By: James Baldwin
-
Sailing Alone Around the World
- By: Joshua Slocum
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.
-
-
Awesome
- By Anniebligh on 04-21-13
By: Joshua Slocum
-
Sailing, Yachts and Yarns
- By: Tom Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Tom Cunliffe
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sailing, Yachts and Yarns is a selection of Tom Cunliffe’s funniest, wisest and most thought-provoking writing from the pages of Yachting Monthly. Tom’s love of language and sense of humour shine through as he recalls the wealth of sinners and saints he has met on docksides from Southampton to South America, Greenwich to Greenland and Newtown to New York. He has a gift for capturing the magic of sail and finding pearls of practical wisdom in the most unlikely nautical adventures.
-
-
A jolly good collection!
- By Jimmy R. Stewart on 02-19-15
By: Tom Cunliffe
-
At the Mercy of the Sea
- The True Story of Three Sailors in a Caribbean Hurricane
- By: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Patrick Conn
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The tale of Carl Wake and the hurricane that was waiting for him goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea stories: they are not about man against the sea, but man against himself. John Kretschmer's audiobook is as perfectly shaped and flawlessly written as such a story can be. In addition to being the best depiction I have ever listened to of what it is like to be inside a hurricane at sea, At the Mercy of the Sea is as moving a story of a man's failure and redemption as can be found anywhere in the literature of the sea. This audiobook is surely destined to become a classic."
-
-
Great writer, distractingly unsupervised performance
- By AJay on 07-16-19
By: John Kretschmer
-
Two Years Before the Mast
- By: Richard Henry Dana
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two Years Before the Mast is an American classic published in 1840. This is the account of Richard Henry Dana’s two-year adventure as a sailor. Throughout his time sailing around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim, Dana kept a diary, and on his return to Massachusetts, he wrote this now-loved classic. While attending Harvard College, Dana was stricken with measles, which would ultimately have a detrimental effect on his eyesight.
-
-
Brilliant
- By scott m on 03-12-19
-
The Journey of Crazy Horse
- A Lakota History
- By: Joseph M. Marshall III
- Narrated by: Joseph M. Marshall III
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most of the world remembers Crazy Horse as a peerless warrior who brought the U.S. Army to its knees at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But to his fellow Lakota Indians, he was a dutiful son and humble fighting man who, with valor, spirit, respect, and unparalleled leadership, fought for his people's land, livelihood, and honor. In this fascinating biography, Joseph Marshall, himself a Lakota Indian, creates a vibrant portrait of the man, his times, and his legacy.
-
-
excellent
- By William on 05-31-05
-
The Heart of Everything That Is
- The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the American government to sue for peace in a conflict named for him. At the peak of their chief’s powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States. But unlike Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or Geronimo, the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, his incredible story can finally be told.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By Joel Toppen on 11-23-13
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
Bourbon Empire
- The Past and Future of America's Whiskey
- By: Reid Mitenbuler
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unraveling the many myths and misconceptions surrounding America's most iconic spirit, Bourbon Empire traces a history that spans frontier rebellion, Gilded Age corruption, and the magic of Madison Avenue. Whiskey has profoundly influenced America's political, economic, and cultural destiny, just as those same factors have inspired the evolution and unique flavor of the whiskey itself.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Zach on 04-06-16
By: Reid Mitenbuler
Publisher's Summary
Dana, a law student turned sailor for health reasons, sailed in 1834 aboard the brig Pilgrim on a voyage from Boston around Cape Horn to California. (Hence the city name Dana Point.) Drawing from his journals, Two Years Before the Mast gives a vivid and detailed account, shrewdly observed and beautifully described, of a common sailor's wretched treatment at sea, and of a way of life virtually unknown at that time.
More from the same
What listeners say about Two Years Before the Mast
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Saltaras
- 03-15-08
Great Read!
This book really takes you back in time an teaches you the ways and lives of common sailors. Plus you get a rare look at California before it was fully settled. Exciting from start to finish. And its all real! Just an amazing work.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Timothy
- 07-02-10
Two Years Before the Mast
An audiobook is unique in that a review requires two parts - a review of the book itself, as well as commentary on the audio delivery. In this case I would rate both as excellent.
As a California native, I consider Richard Henry Dana's accounting of life in early California as a must read. His narrative covers many aspects of life in California in the mid-1800's. He describes the coast, and its settlements in sufficient detail to make them recognizable. His descriptions of the daily life he encountered brings the book to life....you can visualize how things were, compared to our modern world.
Bernard Mayes does a fine job on the audio side. As the book is actually non-fiction documentary, there is minimal conversation, but he handles what there is well.
Experienced sailors and ship history buffs might notice that he uses the written pronunciations of the many maritime terms, as opposed to the actual working pronunciations, but that is a minor point, and doesn't detract from the reading.
All in all, an excellent way to spend an afternoon!!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jefferson
- 05-24-13
The Uncommon Common Sailor in the Age of Sail
Two Years Before the Mast (1840/1869) is a slow-paced and absorbing book. In it Richard Henry Dana, Jr. recounts with the aid of his diary entries how he went to sea in 1834 on an American merchant ship called The Pilgrim, sailing south from Boston, going around Cape Horn, and then north to work in the cow-hide trade off the coast of California. He'd left his studies at Harvard University (and his status as scion of an elite Boston family) to work as a novice common sailor to improve his measles-weakened eyes.
Rather than a ripping sea adventure yarn (the only naval action ala Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin being a suspenseful moment when the Pilgrim eludes a suspicious ship flying no colors), Dana intended to fill a void in the sea literature of his day by authentically showing what it was like to be a "Jack before the mast" on a merchant ship in the age of sail, because the norm then was fictional and inaccurate accounts penned by former naval officers and civilian passengers. His “design,” as he puts it, "is to present the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is, -- the light and the dark together." So he devotes much of his narrative to detailing the workings of a ship in fair weather and foul on weekdays and Sundays, including accounts of the work done (reefing, furling, and maintaining the various masts, yards, sails, and lines, as well as keeping watch, cleaning the decks, mending clothes, stowing hides, etc.), the food and drink consumed, the power hierarchy obeyed, the indelicate masculine culture endured, the few leisure activities enjoyed, and so on. He also depicts the changing features of the lands, oceans, and climates of the different latitudes and longitudes through which he sailed during his two-year sojourn.
I confess to being unable to clearly visualize Dana's detailed accounts of managing the different parts of the ship's rigging (topgallants, studdings, royals, mizzens, hawsers, cleats, tackles, yards, etc.) and to daydreaming through them. I still don’t have a clue as to what a clew line is, but it's not really necessary to follow all the nautical details, because Dana so vividly conveys the challenging, skilful, and crucial nature of the work.
In addition to giving such factual information, Dana achieves by turns a sublime poetry (from endless oceanic vistas to gargantuan ice bergs), a comic touch (for human foibles and salty phrases), a suspenseful flair (during cataclysmic storms involving rain, hail, snow, ice, thunder and lightening, driving winds, and vast swells), and a sanely indignant tone (at the abuses of power by the captains directed at the sailors). And he believes that "We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight paths, for the byways and low places of life, if we would learn truths by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice." Indeed, Dana’s younger self was open-minded, admiring uneducated but brilliant, handsome, or interesting shipmates and making fast friends with the Hawaiians who lived on the California coast to sell their services to the ships plying the cow hide trade there.
As a native of California, I was fascinated by Dana’s description of its coast in the first half of the 19th century. Places like San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, Los Angeles, and San Diego were all so different from what they are today, being sparsely populated, undeveloped, and colorfully and sleepily California-Spanish-Mexican. I'd always regretted America grabbing California from Mexico by war, but Dana reveals some unappealing aspects of Mexican-Californian culture, how it rigidly divided classes according to skin-color, with the aristocrats at the top being those with “purest” Spanish blood and the Indian serfs (at best) at the bottom doing all the hard and dirty work in return for poor food and shabby loincloths. Not to mention the related unfair application of justice, the need to convert to Catholicism to be able to live there, and the brutal use of horses and avid bull and cock fighting.
Two Years Before the Mast was first published in 1840, but this audiobook is the 1869 revised edition that includes a long epilogue in which Dana revisits California 24 years after he was there as a young man, describing the explosive growth of San Francisco and his feeling of nostalgia for the demise of the California cow-hide trade he loathed so much when he had to labor in it and bringing us up to date on the lives and fates of the ships he sailed on and the men he sailed and worked with.
I really liked Bernard Mayes' reading of Herodotus' Histories, as his gravelly, thin, and dry voice aptly evoked a witty and aged Herodotus, so I was looking forward to listening to his reading of Two Years Before the Mast, but I found myself at times wishing for a younger man's voice for this book, for Mayes' tended to crack and quaver when shouting ship-board orders. But he is in fine form through most of the book and in moments like when an enraged captain flogs two men, roaring with peevish tyranny, "If you want to know what I flog you for, I'll tell you. It's because I like to do it!-because I like to do it!-It suits me! That's what I do it for!"
There are two flaws in this audiobook: it lacks Dana's interesting footnotes and offers occasional faint microphone bumps.
Finally, brief remarkable moments like when Dana observes the white sails of his ship full of quiet breeze like a marble pyramid on a starry night or when he watches a solitary albatross asleep with his head under his wing, rising and falling slowly up and down the heavy swell of the waves make Two Years Before the Mast a classic.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- James
- 02-24-10
The Most Amazing Read Ever
I have read this book at least 10 times. The history is pure time travel. The reader, Bernard Mayes, is in perfect pitch at all times. The human courage recorded here is almost unbelievable.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Robert
- 09-07-08
Two Years Before The Mast
What a great book describing the early days of California and life on the sea.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott
- 04-26-12
Not Bad For a Non-Fiction Story
What did you like best about Two Years Before the Mast? What did you like least?
It's hard to be completely fair to Two Years Before the Mast. Most of my "sea-faring" reading has been the likes of Patrick O'Brian and the Aubrey-Maturin series. That's obviously not a fair comparison since O'Brian's works of fiction and he was an author by trade while Dana was not.
There are parts of the book that are very interesting. The accounts of California in the 1830s are fascinating. At the end of the book he takes a return journey to California in 1859 and describes how many of the places had changed so dramatically in the short time-span. That too was fascinating.
Likewise, the descriptions of the peril and hardships of a seaman's life were sobering. The helplessness of a common sailor with respect to an overbearing and abusive captain is particularly striking.
Having said all that, at times the book drags a bit. As much as the peril and hardship I was impressed with the monotony of a sailor's life. In this case it wasn't just the sailing, but the mercantile act of gathering hides for years on end along the coast of California before returning home. As far as the sailing goes, for me it all started to run together. One rounding of Cape Horn sounded very much like the last, treacherous both times as it was.
Also, I would say a word about the narration. It was good, but not exceptional. I wouldn't seek out another book simply because of the narrator, but I probably wouldn't avoid the book because of the narrator either. I did notice more odd background "bumps" (like someone had hit the microphone) on this recording than I ever recall noticing before. It wasn't bad, but it was unusual in my experience.
All-in-all, I'm glad I listened to it. I don't think I would have made it all the way through in print. I don't know that I'll be queueing it up to re-listen to in near future but I imagine I will at some point.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bookoholics Anon
- 01-23-12
Great as an audiobook, recording has issues
This book, a long favorite of mine, is even better as an audiobook. Somehow, rigging and reefing the top'sls makes more sense when read outloud--you can realize what action is taking place aloft. The story--well, it's amazing. And it's American history in a capsule that is incomparable; from the time of Andrew Jackson to the start of the Civil War and the founding of California. It is amazing to realize that from the 1830's to the 1850's, California went from a frontier to a vigorous, urbanized society --in 20 years! Astonishing. Dana covers the changes in his afterward written 24 years after his sea voyage as a youth. The only problem with Mayes' recording is that there is a lot of technical sloppiness--one part has background over-recording of some other voices, and in one part, the recording markers, to be removed, are left in. Mayes has a kind of fruity, British voice, yet he gets excited during the worst tales of storms and conveys the words of the author with emotion.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- PerryS
- 05-20-20
Nautical Dictionary required
A very important work that informed so much about the history of California. Keep a nautical dictionary at hand to be able to follow some of the more exciting parts.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 05-17-20
My Most Favorite Audible Book
I may have listened to this ten times by now over 20 years. I know all the places mentioned from my youth and remember them even more foundly. Yet the work is just as valuable to a scholar.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Butler
- 03-11-20
Two years before the Mast
While spending time to listen my mind wandered to things I’ve done similar to what Mr Dana did as a youth. Also, I’ve read other history of California and New England, spending a summer as a young lad in the former and latter. My father would tease me for being smitten by several college girls a number of years my senior who worked at the resort the family stayed during that summer of enlightenment. There is a Two years before the Mast in every lad’s growing to manhood. Well worth the listen- db