The Lit List – Sea voyages and river cruises

Top 10: nautical fiction

Whether you’re into mutineers and buccaneers, or murder and madness, all aboard for high seas adventures with this top ten.

1. Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor. Escaping famine in Ireland for refuge in America, the passengers of the Star of the Sea soon realise a murderer is in their midst.
2. The Odyssey by Homer. Greek hero’s return from the Trojan war.
3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Captain Ahab seeks vengeance against the whale that made a meal of his leg during a previous encounter.
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Shipwrecked and stranded on a lifeboat in the company of a Bengal tiger, a boy contemplates metaphysics and spirituality.
5. English Passengers by Matthew Neale. Reverend Geoffrey Wilson unwittingly charters a smuggling vessel in search of the Garden of Eden, which he believes is in Tasmania.
6. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Buccaneers and buried gold. Arrr, Jim, lad!
7. Death on the Nile Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot’s Egyptian cruise is interrupted by the murder of an heiress. 
8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huck escapes his abusive father via a raft on the Mississippi.
9. The Sea Hawk by Raphael Sabatini. Swashbuckling tale of betrayal, enslavement and Barbary pirates.
10. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. Pre-WW1 espionage.

Bubbling under

1. Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton. Non-fiction.
2. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. Vikings ahoy!
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Imperialism and racism play out deep in the Congo.
4. The African Queen by C S Forester. Down the river we go!
5. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Based on the true story of mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh.

If you liked this literary list, see here for more Lit Lists and book reviews.

Love reading? Want to meet like-minded people? Pop along to the Burton Book Club for novel chat.