Japhet in Search of a Father, by Captain Marryat.
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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.
"Japhet in Search of a Father" was published in 1836, the seventh book
to flow from Marryat's pen. It was the first of Marryat's books not to
have a nautical setting. It is a brilliantly written book, giving us
insights into aspects of nineteenth century life that we cannot easily
get elsewhere. There is a sustained and fascinating magical quality
about the book, which makes it very compelling reading. For many people
it will be their favourite book among Marryat's works, and certainly it
ranks as one of the greatest books in British literature.
This e-text was transcribed in 1998 by Nick Hodson, and was reformatted
in 2003, again in 2005, and, working from a different edition, again in
2008.
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