Best books set in the sea

The relationship between literature and the sea goes a long way. And there is something about the beaches, the immensity of the ocean and its hidden worlds that for centuries has fallen in love and challenged great writers to delve into its secrets. These best books set in the sea They propose different trips through the waves taking advantage of the imminent summer months. Are you coming to take a dip?

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

Considered as the first english novel, Robinson Crusoe it was published in 1719 forever changing the world of literature and the concept of "castaway" as a frequent resource in adventure books for years to come. X-ray of a time, the famous sailor arrived on an island off the coast of South America and his instruction to the indigenous Friday of the exploits of the West is a brilliant and subtle representation of the colonial times of the eighteenth century.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

If there is a novel that evokes like few others the eternal struggle between man and nature, it is Moby Dick, the famous story of the ship whose crew faces a huge white sperm whale. The novel, full of symbolism and allegories, has protagonists from different parts of the world who represent humanity itself, while the existence of Moby Dick goes back not only to Memories as a sailor from Melville but to the existence of two famous events that occurred in the 1820th century: the attack on the Essex fishing boat by a white sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1851 and the existence of a famous albino sperm whale that haunted the Chilean island of Mocha and which everyone called Mocha Dick. The novel, despite its limited success after its publication in XNUMX, ended up becoming a benchmark in American literature.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

Released for the first time in the French magazine Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation between 1869 and 1870, Twenty thousand leagues of underwater travelIt was a revolution after its publication by taking the reader into underwater worlds barely existing until then in literature. An epic story whose starting point recounts the immersion of the biologist Pierre Aronnax in the Nautilus, a submarine captained by the mysterious Captain Nemo, a character who represents the ideology of a Jules Verne charged with anger and revenge against humanity in the XNUMXth century.

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

In the XNUMXth century, man had already traveled part of the world's oceans. However, the fantasy to discover those still unknown islands where treasures fed by myths and legends awaited. A premise that served as the basis for one of the most influential adventure novels of all time. Written by Scottish Stevenson, The island of the treasure follow the adventures of Jim hawkins, a young crew member of the ship La Hispaniola who follows the clues on the map that would reveal the location of Captain Flint's famous treasure. A whole classic.

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

The relationship between Hemingway and Cuba resulted in what is considered by many to be the best work by the author of Fiesta. Published in 1952, The old man and the sea tells the story of an elderly fisherman who goes out to sea to catch the biggest fish his community has ever known. Written by Hemingway in his favorite Playa del Pilar, in Cayo Guillermo, El viejo y el mar is not only an ode to that great blue with which the author lived in love, but also to pride and hope as a candle in the middle of a nature unpredictable. Considered as one of the flagship books of the XNUMXth century, the work returned Hemingway to his old success, coinciding with two Pulitzer and Nobel prizes received in 1953.

Story of a castaway, by Gabriel García Márquez

Gabo was always a great writer, but also a talented journalist. Proof of this was the publication in 1055 of this story for 14 consecutive days in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador to be published as a book in 1970. The story tells the ten days at sea that the sailor Luis Alejandro Velasco spent, the sole survivor of the ARC Caldas, a freighter that left the city of Mobile in Alabama loaded with contraband material. The true story, worthy of an unpublished episode of Robinson Crusoe or Lord of the Flies, made Velasco a national hero, a survivor to whom Gabo transferred all the rights to his work after publication.

Would you like to read Story of a castaway?

Jaws, by Peter Benchley

Months before it was published in 1974, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown read the draft of the novel by Shark and they did not hesitate for a second to buy the rights to the story for its film adaptation. The arrival of a huge white shark that wreaks havoc on a small island community was accompanied by part of its success thanks to Steven Spielberg's movie released in 1975, which would change the Hollywood industry forever by becoming the highest grossing film until its release year. As mythical as it is entertaining.

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

After a failed novel set in Portugal, Canadian Yann Martel decided to go to India in search of a story. And it would be there, in a cafeteria, where the story of a man would be told. Rather that of a boy named Pi who was forced to survive alongside a tiger named Richar parker after the sinking of the ship in which his family wanted to move a zoo to America. Full of symbolism and fantasy, life of Pi is a novel about faith, about the ability to believe and see hope rewarded in the form of islands of seaweed and flying fish. One of the most widely read novels of the XNUMXth century which, in turn, inspired a critically and acclaimed adaptation in 2012.

What are the best books set in the sea?