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Cargando... Swallows and Amazons (edición 2001)por Arthur Ransome (Autor)
Información de la obraVencejos y Amazonas por Arthur Ransome
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. The Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) are on school holiday in the Lake District and are sailing a borrowed catboat named "Swallow," when they meet the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy), who sail the boat, "Amazon." The children camp together on Wild Cat Island where a plot is hatched against the Blackett's Uncle Jim who is too busy writing his memoirs to be disturbed. Fireworks--literally--ensue along with a dangerous contest, a run-in with houseboat burglars, and the theft of Uncle Jim's manuscript. How all this is resolved makes for an exciting and very satisfying story. The Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) are on school holiday in the Lake District and are sailing a borrowed catboat named "Swallow," when they meet the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy), who sail the boat, "Amazon." The children camp together on Wild Cat Island where a plot is hatched against the Blackett's Uncle Jim who is too busy writing his memoirs to be disturbed. Fireworks--literally--ensue along with a dangerous contest, a run-in with houseboat burglars, and the theft of Uncle Jim's manuscript. How all this is resolved makes for an exciting and very satisfying story. The four Walker children are staying on a farm in the Lake District of England with their mother and baby sister for the summer while their sailor father is away. After staring at an island in the lake for several days, they get permission from their parents to take the sailboat, The Swallow, out and camp on it. The kids, who range in age from 8 to probably 12 or 14, plan what they will need, load the boat, and sail off. Mom rows over the first night to check on them, but then the kids are on their own. Every morning they row to the nearest farm, where their mother has arranged for them to get milk and other staples (and also allows her to keep a secondhand eye on them), and spend the rest of the day exploring, charting the "high seas", and fishing for sharks (i.e. perch). One day two pirates (Nancy and Peggy) appear in another sailboat, the Amazon, and request a parlay. They agree to a war and whoever succeeds in capturing the other's sailboat will get to be the flagship, and the captain a commodore. The race is on! I loved this book, with highly imaginative children allowed the responsibility and freedom of summer adventures free of adult hovering. They sail, swim, camp, fish, all the while problem-solving and working together. Although First Mate, Susan, does have to do all the cooking (apropos of the 30s), she is also a first-rate sailor, and Nancy and Peggy are incorrigible, getting into all sorts of scrapes (such as setting off a firecracker on the roof of their uncle's houseboat). If you like sailing or independent kids, I highly recommend this book.
It taught me all I know about survival. It is easily imaginable that "Swallows and Amazons" attained its special quality of happiness in its author's mind when, as correspondent to the London Daily News and the Manchester Guardian, he was living through the tragedies of the Front or exploring the chaos of revolutionary Russia. For here is everything that the Front was not and that Russia is not - peace, innocence, family life at its loveliest, laughter and security. The story is plotted so slightly that the American boy, weaned on "westerns," may turn up his nose at such a low-pitched tale. It will be his loss. Four children go camping on an island in one of the English lakes. Two rival campers - girls, at that - appear, and joyfully agree on war. But Mr. Ransome has marshalled many aides. First, a reality of scene. As in Defoe, no detail is too insignificant to gloss over, yet the itemizing never grows wearisome, and a store of handy things to know about sailing is secreted in the pages. Second, a reality of characters. They are born alive and do not have to be described. "Swallows and Amazons" will gain by being read aloud. The child who hears will live gaily, whether on Wild Cat Island or in Octopus Lagoon, while the parent who reads will remember idyllic hours. For this book is both silvery present and golden retrospect. ... Pertenece a las seriesPertenece a las series editorialesContenido enContieneTiene la adaptaciónInspiradoTiene como guía/complementario de referencia aTiene como estudio aPremiosListas de sobresalientes
Classic Literature.
Juvenile Fiction.
Juvenile Literature.
HTML: The classic English series begins with a tale of two families of children uniting against a common foe: an uncle who claims he's too busy for his nieces. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)823.912Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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I grew up with Enid Blyton's books, where a group of young children went on holidays on their own, came across some strange going-ons and had adventures, outwitting some hapless criminal gang. I just loved the sense of freedom of those kids, allowed to organize a holiday on their own, their friendship, the thrill of an adventure without adults. Blyton was already writing in 1930, when this book was published, but she still had not started writing adventure books like the ones I have described. I have no doubt that this book influenced her.
However, despite the similarities the style here is different. Swallows and Amazons is written in more complex language, and it describes a more idyllic childhood holiday. It's really enchanting and timeless.
The story begins with a group of siblings vacationing with their mother, their baby sister and the baby's nurse in a house by a lake. Using a spyglass from a nearby hill, the Walker children watch wistfully a small desert island in the middle of the lake. They have asked their mother for permission to take their boat and camp there on their own, and she has agreed provided their father also gives permission. Shortly afterwards, the father's reply comes by telegram, giving permission in this way: "Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown."
So the children cheer and start preparing. Twelve-year-old John will be the captain; ten-year-old Susan will be ship's mate; eight-year-old Titty will be able-seaman; and seven-year-old Roger will also be allowed to go as ship's boy, provided he listens to his older siblings. Soon afterwards they are sailing in their small sailboat, the Swallow, towards the island. They establish their camp, and soon afterwards they meet a couple of girls who have their own sailboat, the Amazon. Rivals at first, they start a friendly war. The side that is able to capture the enemy's ship wins, and the winning captain will lead the joint navy in a war against the retired pirate who lives on a houseboat on the lake.
The story is filled with the magic, innocence and the joy of childhood. The children are responsible and self-sufficient in their outdoors adventures, but they live in a world of fantasy and games. They are pirates or explorers, as required, and their fantasy world is more real to them than the world of the adults (whom they call "the natives"). They explore their lake, play, learn and have a great time. Nothing much happens apart from their games, although there is a real burglary, but in their minds they have lived the greatest adventures.
The story is a bit slow to begin with, with some difficult sailing vocabulary, but it soon gets very interesting once the competition between the "swallows" and the "amazons" begins. We watch the children making their plans and being outwitted by the other side, only for the competition being decided by a daring and clever action.
Can be enjoyed by children, if it's not too old-fashioned for them, with the freedom given to children and the absence of smartphones, and by adults, who will remember their childhood with nostalgia. ( )