William Henry Giles Kingston (1814–1880)
Author of Companion Library: Robinson Crusoe / The Swiss Family Robinson
About the Author
Works by William Henry Giles Kingston
Manco: the Peruvian chief; or, An Englishman's adventures in the country of the Incas (1910) 10 copies
Blow the Bugle, Draw the Sword: The Wars, Campaigns, Regiments and Soldiers of the British & Indian Armies During the… (2007) 3 copies
Adventures among the Indians 2 copies
Owen Hartley; or, Ups and Downs 2 copies
The Secret of the Island 2 copies
The Young Whaler 2 copies
Ernest Bracebridge School Days 2 copies
America First 2 copies
Archie's Mistake 2 copies
Boy With the U. S. Survey 2 copies
Anxious Audrey 2 copies
True Blue 2 copies
Adventures in India 1 copy
Salvos do Mar e do Deserto 1 copy
Schoolboy Days 1 copy
Abandoned (A Sci Fi Novel) 1 copy
VIRGINIA: A CENTENNIAL STORY 1 copy
The rival Crusoes 1 copy
Man Overboard. (short story) 1 copy
STORIES OF ANIMAL SAGACITY 1 copy
Ernest Bracebridge 1 copy
Victoria's Blue Jackets & Marines: The Royal Navy During Queen Victoria's Reign 1839-1901 (2010) 1 copy
Wonders of the Ocean 1 copy
The Trapper's Son 1 copy
Waihoura, the Maori Girl 1 copy
Count Ulrich of Lindburg 1 copy
The Rival Crusoes 1 copy
True Blue 1 copy
In the Forest 1 copy
Salvado del mar 1 copy
Associated Works
Cetus Insolitus: Sea Serpents, Giant Cephalopods, and Other Marine Monsters in Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy (2008) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kingston, William Henry Giles
- Birthdate
- 1814-02-28
- Date of death
- 1880-08-05
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- England
UK - Birthplace
- Harley Street, City of Westminster, Middlesex, England, UK
- Place of death
- Willesden, Middlesex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Oporto, Portugal
- Education
- University of Cambridge (Trinity College)
- Occupations
- adventure writer
editor - Relationships
- Kingston, Agnes Kinloch (wife)
- Awards and honors
- Donna Maria da Gloria (1842)
Members
Reviews
A short novel filled with sea adventures by 19th century adventure writer W. H. G. Kingston. This author is mostly forgotten nowadays, but was rather popular at the time. In fact, he is one of the three writers cited by Robert Louis Stevenson in the epigraph at the beginning of Treasure Island, along with R. M. Ballantyne and Fenimore Cooper:
TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:
--So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!
Anyway, this is the first Kingston story I have read, and I enjoyed it. A previous reviewer in goodreads says that this book is not among the author's best novels. I can't comment on that, as I haven't read any other to compare it with. However, I feel that the two previous reviews are harsher than the story deserves.
Plot (adapted from https://www.historicnavalfiction.com): Several families have met together to have a picnic on a pleasant local beach. To everyone's delight they are joined by Harry Merryweather, a midshipman home on leave. Harry and another youth, David Moreton, go for a wander round the rocks, but are cut off by the strong tide. The weather then turns very nasty, but the boys are able to swim to a passing boat containing an old man, Jefferies, and his young grandson, Tristram. The weather is now so bad they can't get back to the local harbour at Penmore. From there, a succession of adventures and tragedies befall the young heroes, including terrible storms, abandoned wrecks, rafts, French privateers, sinking ships, deserted islands...
Let's see: This is a very short novel (41K words, barely longer than a novella). It is certainly not boring, which is the first thing we require of an adventure story: it is fast-paced and a lot of stuff happens. I think it's entertaining and good at making the reader feel the dangerous plight of the two main characters.
On the other hand, the story is probably too short for all the things that happen. Sometimes giving the reader time to breathe is a good thing in an adventure story. When you get to share quiet time with the characters you appreciate it more when events speed up.
Also, in the last part of the story it gets convoluted, with too many coincidences. The characters continually encounter French privateers, and also the ship where the midshipman character serves, plus an abandoned ship, a desert island... the girl one of the characters likes makes two sea voyages with her father, and both times their ship is attacked by French privateers, and both times the main characters happen to be around by chance... it just makes the sea seem too small with all the chance encounters. This is mostly an issue in the last part, as I said, because until then it was fine.
There are religious references that might surprise some modern readers, from the characters praying and taking comfort in religion to a character who is introduced as non-believer and because of that is presented as prone to despair.
The British characters tend to be presented in a positive light while most of the enemies (French) are presented in a negative light. Not all of them, and it's justified by the fact that the French characters we see are privateers, but it does come across as a bit jingoistic.
Despite these issues, the novel is a rather entertaining sea adventure. Not a big classic of the genre, but a very serviceable story for those of us who enjoy 19th century adventure novels.… (more)
TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:
--So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!
Anyway, this is the first Kingston story I have read, and I enjoyed it. A previous reviewer in goodreads says that this book is not among the author's best novels. I can't comment on that, as I haven't read any other to compare it with. However, I feel that the two previous reviews are harsher than the story deserves.
Plot (adapted from https://www.historicnavalfiction.com): Several families have met together to have a picnic on a pleasant local beach. To everyone's delight they are joined by Harry Merryweather, a midshipman home on leave. Harry and another youth, David Moreton, go for a wander round the rocks, but are cut off by the strong tide. The weather then turns very nasty, but the boys are able to swim to a passing boat containing an old man, Jefferies, and his young grandson, Tristram. The weather is now so bad they can't get back to the local harbour at Penmore. From there, a succession of adventures and tragedies befall the young heroes, including terrible storms, abandoned wrecks, rafts, French privateers, sinking ships, deserted islands...
Let's see: This is a very short novel (41K words, barely longer than a novella). It is certainly not boring, which is the first thing we require of an adventure story: it is fast-paced and a lot of stuff happens. I think it's entertaining and good at making the reader feel the dangerous plight of the two main characters.
On the other hand, the story is probably too short for all the things that happen. Sometimes giving the reader time to breathe is a good thing in an adventure story. When you get to share quiet time with the characters you appreciate it more when events speed up.
Also, in the last part of the story it gets convoluted, with too many coincidences. The characters continually encounter French privateers, and also the ship where the midshipman character serves, plus an abandoned ship, a desert island... the girl one of the characters likes makes two sea voyages with her father, and both times their ship is attacked by French privateers, and both times the main characters happen to be around by chance... it just makes the sea seem too small with all the chance encounters. This is mostly an issue in the last part, as I said, because until then it was fine.
There are religious references that might surprise some modern readers, from the characters praying and taking comfort in religion to a character who is introduced as non-believer and because of that is presented as prone to despair.
The British characters tend to be presented in a positive light while most of the enemies (French) are presented in a negative light. Not all of them, and it's justified by the fact that the French characters we see are privateers, but it does come across as a bit jingoistic.
Despite these issues, the novel is a rather entertaining sea adventure. Not a big classic of the genre, but a very serviceable story for those of us who enjoy 19th century adventure novels.… (more)
Arctic Adventures was written in 1882 and is very much a novel of its time. It follows the journey of a handful of sailors on the Hardy Norseman, a whaling ship that sets off to the Arctic, specifically the Spitsbergen region in search of whales, seals & their missing brother who sailed the year prior.
The main thing I took away from this novel was how much waste was common place, in the first part of the book they kill three whales yet only make use of part of one, casting the rest loose as they run out of time before a storm comes. Throughout the book numerous walruses are killed, there's a bit seal clubbing and numerous bears are shot. All in the spirit of adventure.
It's certainly an interesting look into Arctic travel in the period of the late 1800s even if fictionalised and it's a pretty quick read at 192 pages for the 1885 edition published by George Routledge, London that I read.… (more)
The main thing I took away from this novel was how much waste was common place, in the first part of the book they kill three whales yet only make use of part of one, casting the rest loose as they run out of time before a storm comes. Throughout the book numerous walruses are killed, there's a bit seal clubbing and numerous bears are shot. All in the spirit of adventure.
It's certainly an interesting look into Arctic travel in the period of the late 1800s even if fictionalised and it's a pretty quick read at 192 pages for the 1885 edition published by George Routledge, London that I read.… (more)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 211
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 956
- Popularity
- #26,957
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 23
- ISBNs
- 125
- Languages
- 2
The other books in the series are The Three Lieutenants, The Three Commanders and The Three Admirals. Although they follow the same characters as they are promoted, they can be read independently, because they are more or less episodic. In this first book, the characters are midshipmen, the most junior officers, being barely out of childhood, and the book ends with their promotion to lieutenants.
This is the second book by W. H. G. Kingston that I read, the previous one being Adrift on a Boat. this novel is much longer than Adrift on a Boat, but my impression is somewhat similar. Kingston's strengths are a fast pace, always full of action and heroism, and a readable style.
On the other hand, his stories seem to be superficial. He doesn't give his characters much individuality, which makes it difficult to care for what happens to them. Murray is a bit more thoughtful and religious, but mostly the three heroes are interchangeable. The characters are all brave and go into battle cheerfully. Apart from a few moments of comic relief, the fast pace doesn't allow for much quiet time to appreciate what it is like, living in a navy ship.
Since the characters are not in command of their ships, the occasion for them to distinguish themselves is when on independent missions, either on a boat that they may command or on land. Because of this, most of the novel is one of these independent mission after the other. They are always on a boat, boarding some enemy, or pirate or slaver ship, or on land assaulting some fortification or rescuing prisoners. The action really is continuous.
Kingston's writing is also quite jingoistic. In his stories, the British Navy is idealized, and its seamen are noble and brave, and foreigners are usually uncivilized and/or ridiculous.
All in all, a story that did well enough to entertain its young audience in the second part of the 19th century, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to modern readers, unless they are very keen on Victorian naval adventure novels. I think there are other adventure novels of the same time that have stood the test of time better.
In his Foreword to Treasure Island (a better novel than this one), Robert Louis Stevenson cited Kingston among his predecessors, along with R. M. Ballantyne and James Fenimore Cooper:
I'm not sure whether the wise youngsters of the 21st century still read Stevenson, or if they read at all, but I'm sure Kingston is mostly forgotten, as the vast majority of our current young adult literature will be forgotten in turn. This book is fine for what it is, but it's not high in the list of old novels that merit rediscovery by new generations.… (more)