The complete online text of Poor Jack by Frederick Marryat.

Frederick Marryat was almost fifty and had long completed the work for which he must have imagined he would be remembered when he wrote his first book for children, Masterman Ready (1841-1842). Following a distinguished career of more than twenty years i...

It has been the fate of very few British writers to have their effigies burned on the streets of New York; it may well be that Captain Frederick Marryat is the only one to whom this has happened. Marryat had arrived in New York early in May 1837 and stay...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft on how the death of his greyhound affected him more than he had expected, and perhaps more than it should have done Somebody once said that the English don't really like animals, they just dislike children. It was a good line,...

IN THE nursery tale, a handful of magic beans rescued Jack's family from poverty. In Central America, there are tens of thousands of poor Jacks whose fortunes have been transformed by planting beans; and that is no fairy story. This magic bean is called...