Name: The Merry Men
SKU: 59812839
Price: 834.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Stevenson, Robert Louis
ISBN: 9781491046838

Type

Physical Book

Author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

172

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x1 cm

Weight

0.26 kg.

ISBN13

9781491046838

Synopsis "The Merry Men"

The narrator, Charles Darnaway, a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh travels to the remote island of Aros off the north-west coast of Scotland. Aros is the home of his uncle, Gordon Darnaway, a hard-hearted and alcoholic Presbyterian. Charles has come in search of sunken treasure, as he believes a ship of the Spanish Armada sank in the bay under his uncle's home long before. Charles hopes to use the treasure to restore the Darnaways' fortunes and marry Gordon's daughter (and Charles' cousin) Mary Ellen. Charles is rowed out to the promontory by the only other inhabitant, Gordon's servant Rorie. Charles is surprised to find both Rorie and Gordon anxious and full of foreboding, though both furtively evade his questions. He is further surprised to find his uncle's austere home decorated with expensive lamps and rugs. He realizes at once they must have come from a shipwreck, and feels uneasy about this looting of the dead. His cousin Mary Ellen confirms that a ship was recently cast away nearby, having been driven by a storm into the dreadful breakers around the promontory, breakers that roar a hundred feet high around the rocks and are called "the Merry Men" due to the vast noise they make, like shrieking laughter. Charles goes down to the shore on his treasure-hunt. While there he sees the shattered hull of the wrecked ship, and also a fresh grave. He realizes the grave must be for the body of a mariner washed ashore. He takes this as a bad omen, but still sets out to the point where he thinks the Spanish ship must be. His first dive locates a weed-grown structure which appears to be the sunken ship, but a second dive shows it to be only a rock formation. He hauls himself along the weed-grown rocks, looking for signs of the wreck, until the signs of an approaching storm warn him to return to shore. As he makes for the surface his handhold breaks off in his grip; when he pulls himself on shore he looks at it and is horrified to recognize a human leg bone. He lays the bone on the sand, resolving to do no more hunting for the wreck.

Robert Louis Stevenson

(Author)

View Author's Page

(Edinburgh, 1850 - Samoa, 1894) British novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of sixteen to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lighthouse engineer, a career he would later abandon. His nautical studies allowed him to come into contact with seafaring people and customs, key ingredients in some of his most famous works. His renowned work, Treasure Island, was published under the pseudonym Captain George North in 1881. In 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one of the great classics of literature, was released. He died on the island of Samoa, at his home, Vailima.

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