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Erskine Childers
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The Riddle of the Sands Kindle Edition

by Erskine Childers (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,400 ratings
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In the rough waters of the North Sea, two sailors fight to save Britain

Charles Carruthers is languishing in the crushing heat of a London summer when an old university chum named Davies throws him a lifeline, inviting him on a yachting expedition in the North Sea. It sounds like a lark, but Carruthers finds that the Dulcibella is hardly a yacht, and Davies’s trip is no pleasure cruise. Off the coast of the mysterious Frisian Islands, he has spotted a German fleet, supposedly engaged in hunting for buried treasure. Battling the elements, the two Englishmen find themselves surrounded by the German navy, which is using the fogs of the North Sea to disguise something monstrous—the Kaiser’s plot to launch a sneak attack on the British Isles.

Published more than a decade before World War I began, this groundbreaking spy novel inspired a young Winston Churchill to reinvigorate Britain’s naval defenses, and it remains just as stirring today.

This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    393 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
  5. Publication date
    December 30, 2014
  6. File size
    1836 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erskine Childers (1870-1922) was born in England to an Anglo-Irish family. After military service in the Boer War and WWI, he joined the Republican side in the Irish Civil War and was executed by a firing squad of the Free State.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00QR7I5SE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (December 30, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 30, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1836 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 393 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,400 ratings

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Erskine Childers

Erskine Childers

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
1,400 global ratings
Well bound book, excellent reading
5 Stars
Well bound book, excellent reading
The book is physically beautiful. Small hardback with gilded lettering on the cover and gilt edges of each page make it a treasure to hold.The story itself is written with skillful use of the English language and it’s very rich descriptive capabilities. The structure of the novel is well laid out and a joy to unfold. If you enjoy being on the water, this story has the additional attraction of masterful seamanship. Listening to my own boat creak at its mooring in the dark is a great backdrop to read by.Being written 15 years before the Great War lends an interesting foreshadowing unknown to the author at the time.Fun & exciting story. Buy it.
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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well bound book, excellent reading
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2021
Verified Purchase
The book is physically beautiful. Small hardback with gilded lettering on the cover and gilt edges of each page make it a treasure to hold.

The story itself is written with skillful use of the English language and it’s very rich descriptive capabilities. The structure of the novel is well laid out and a joy to unfold. If you enjoy being on the water, this story has the additional attraction of masterful seamanship. Listening to my own boat creak at its mooring in the dark is a great backdrop to read by.

Being written 15 years before the Great War lends an interesting foreshadowing unknown to the author at the time.

Fun & exciting story. Buy it.
Customer image
Placeholder
5.0 out of 5 stars Well bound book, excellent reading
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2021
The book is physically beautiful. Small hardback with gilded lettering on the cover and gilt edges of each page make it a treasure to hold.

The story itself is written with skillful use of the English language and it’s very rich descriptive capabilities. The structure of the novel is well laid out and a joy to unfold. If you enjoy being on the water, this story has the additional attraction of masterful seamanship. Listening to my own boat creak at its mooring in the dark is a great backdrop to read by.

Being written 15 years before the Great War lends an interesting foreshadowing unknown to the author at the time.

Fun & exciting story. Buy it.
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3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, poor packaging
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
It's a great read and that's why I searched high and low for it as a present to a sailing enthusiast. The packaging was poor, a simple though padded envelope, the book arrived bent in half. Would have liked to upload a photo, but Amazon doesn't take it this morning. Will have to look for another copy somewhere and gift the bent copy to the local library.
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John Wagner
3.0 out of 5 stars A seminal book, interesting if flawed
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2012
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Ambler says this book, after Conrad's Secret Agent, is one of the earliest examples of spy fiction that's well-written. He also says that it's the finest book about small-craft sailing ever written. The book is written well enough to be interesting, although it is poorly plotted. Some of the characters are drawn well, and some are not. The tale is a shambling affair; I quite enjoyed it, much like an evening with a ribald and drunken friend. If this were, say, part II of a ten-part series, I would in no way be motivated to buy the others in the series. Once I had read my first of Ambler's books, I went on to buy the rest of his stuff, and that's the difference between a dance and an affair.
2 people found this helpful
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flying squirrel girl
5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book and know it well after many years ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
First of all, I have to say that the Kindle edition is not as satisfactory as having the hardcopy volume. I love this book and know it well after many years of reading and re-reading, although I am not a sailor and care nothing for the sea. I am, however, a follower of the early development of the English spy novel as well as of the mystery novel, and from this point of view, The Riddle of the Sands is not to be missed. Its prose exhibits the fluent literacy of the educated late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Brit to a high degree, moving by turns from deliberately stuffy (in introducing the main character in his early incarnation as "young man of fashion and condition), to wry and darkly humourous, to passionate, poetic and even utilitarian and muscular--a tour de force of changing voices and moods.
Language aside, the Riddle of the Sands rings true because, to a large degree, it is true. The author not only lived the strenuous small-boat life detailed in its pages, but adventures of other and deadlier sort, the final one of which cost him his life. The passionate quest of the fictional characters is real in history if not in all its fictional events. The book is, moreover, a remarkable window onto a time and a social character which is gone, but at which one may still wonder. If one does not have the patience to follow the details of times and tides, or any knowledge of the technicalities of sailing shallow coastal waters, one may still be gripped by the human element of the story and be carried along anyway. When I need to leave my own particular time and place, and be completely absorbed in another, I pick up this book again.
Oh, and I am slamming the Kindle edition because for this book you NEED to refer to the maps, and they are scanned in, for the most part, as they appear in the paperback editions--sideways. You can rotate the paperback to read the map, but no matter how you rotate your e-reader, it preserves the sideways orientation of the map, true to the way it was entered. But I like having the Kindle edition because now I can have this perennial favorite with me on an airplane as a default. That's worth it.
5 people found this helpful
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Kaiser
2.0 out of 5 stars Fits in my shirt pocket ! Not good.
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
Great novel! I read it years ago and wanted a new copy to keep in my library. This book is “tiny”! Readable in excellent light only.
Not much bigger than a pack of filter cigarettes. No chance I’ll re-read this fine novel from this particular example. I learned another hard lesson... now we also need to “verify the size/dimensions” of the books we buy from Amazon.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars A paranoid Yachtsman or a spy?
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
Though I occasionally foundered while reading this book, something drew me in. Two Brits sailing in the Baltic Sea, Davies and Carruthers seem to be ill-suited to each other for weeks on end in a small boat. Davies seems to be obsessed with events that he thinks indicate a German plot against England. He makes very risky choices that out them both in danger as they try to gather evidence. Carruthers is skeptical at first, but finally he, too, is drawn in. Even with little knowledge of sailing, and of nautical terms, the reader participates fully in their escapades. Several times, it seems they are totally wrong, making much out of innocent "coincidences". But then it seems their suspicions are more than plausible. An excellent amateur spy story!
2 people found this helpful
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M. Poller
5.0 out of 5 stars granddaddy of spy stories
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2011
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This is a wonderful read about two Englishmen checking out the waterways in northern Germany a nd is set pre-WW1. The only problem with t he Kindle edition is that it's hard to find the maps which are quite important to the story. The other characters in the book are all German, Danish or a rather shady possibly Emglishman and his family. Good material on yachting at that time and place. Not a historical novel as such but since it's about 100 years old it is definitely good on history of the time and place. It is also a spy story preceding the famous Ambler a nd Greene books. Also this author did not write any other books.
2 people found this helpful
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flatnhappy
3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2023
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Interesting story and one forgets how long this was before WW1. however as a 21 century American it was hard to understand the language well
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Basundhara Roye
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring read
Reviewed in India on May 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
I found the book very boring initially. The author spoke elaborately about nautical experience and the technicality of sailing that was very uninteresting. The actual situation suspense built up rather late... and was not enough
One person found this helpful
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Client d'Amazon
1.0 out of 5 stars The publisher of this edition should be ashamed.
Reviewed in France on July 3, 2017
Verified Purchase
There are typographic and layout errors on almost every page.
It is apparently printed by Amazon.
I will not be buying their groceries - it's rare but not unheard of that people die from typographic errors - if this represents their standards of quality control, it is safer to eat something else.
One person found this helpful
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Roger Marchant
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a famous book
Reviewed in Australia on December 22, 2019
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The story is exciting, but requires some nautical knowledge and a large-scale map, or several line drawings, to understand the whole plot. Worthwhile, but not really a page-turner unless you're a matelot
One person found this helpful
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Urko
3.0 out of 5 stars Muy pesado
Reviewed in Spain on December 19, 2014
Verified Purchase
La parte de intriga es mínima y la parte descriptiva de la geografía de la zona y de navegación excesiva ( soy un gran aficionado a la vela). Puede que en su dia fuera un gran libro, ahora no se lo recomendaría a nadie
One person found this helpful
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SARATI FABIO
5.0 out of 5 stars VALUTAZIONE SERVIZIO
Reviewed in Italy on November 9, 2014
Verified Purchase
Ho acquistato questo libro su suggerimento del mio insegnante di Inglese. Ho optato per un libro usato in quanto ad uso personale (non un regalo) e ho potuto così anche economizzare sull'aquisto.
Mi è pervenuto con 3 giorni di ritardo rispetto alla data prevista.
L'ho trovato in ottimo stato pur essendo di "secoda mano"
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