Moonfleet in Never too Late to Read Classics

Apr 16, 2023 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: kids, flora, relationships, italy, audible-uk, mystery, life-stages, england, hf, classics

If you never read this adventure tale as a kid, read it now. It's as good for adults as for kids. I am not into tales of adventure, and still I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks, Cleo and Rosemarie for encouraging me to pick this up.

Read and discussed with Gundula--see comments below. You and I always have fun discussing books. Thank you for the shared experience.

This book surprised me. Adventure tales are usually not my cup of tea. This story grabbed me and did not let me go.

How is this achieved?

T ...more

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Apr 25, 2023 Manybooks rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens-literature, book-reviews, historical-fiction, adventure, historical-piracy, magical-landscapes-descriptions, smuggling, superb-sense-of-time-place

I am not generally all that much a fan of treasure hunting or piracy types of adventure stories (and yes, this would definitely also be including smuggling as a theme, since smuggling is for me totally and utterly a form of piracy). Because and to be brutally honest, for me with treasure hunting, with piracy, and with in fact the majority of adventure types of tales, far too often, thematics and contents seem to focus too much and too heavily on events, on what is happening, on specific external I am not generally all that much a fan of treasure hunting or piracy types of adventure stories (and yes, this would definitely also be including smuggling as a theme, since smuggling is for me totally and utterly a form of piracy). Because and to be brutally honest, for me with treasure hunting, with piracy, and with in fact the majority of adventure types of tales, far too often, thematics and contents seem to focus too much and too heavily on events, on what is happening, on specific external plot elements and not at all sufficiently on questions of writing style, on description, milieu and background. However, John Meade Falkner's 1898 novel Moonfleet is rather a shining and glowing exception for me (and definitely rises above most adventure stories I have read to date). For yes and indeed, Falkner's sense of time (the 18th century) and geographic place (Dorset, England and seaside smuggling escapades), they are superbly rendered in Moonfleet, they are beautifully and authentically, believably penned and with so much written magic and observational power of description shown by the author, by John Meade Falkner (and by extension of course and equally by his youthful first person narrator and main protagonist John Trenchard) that the necessary for adventure books elements of skulduggery, smuggling, hidden treasure, greed, treachery, and of course true love (all the ingredients for a good yarn to be sure, but also potentially annoying for someone who is not an adventure tale buff, like myself), well, with both my adult self and also my inner child totally adoring the descriptive magic of Moonfleet, I am almost able to forget that I personally do not really enjoy stories with adventure and piracy/smuggling themes and that my reading experience with Moonfleet has definitely been one of major descriptive joy, that even the exciting and tense plot elements I would usually not find all that engaging and all that readable theme-wise, they have been made both readable and also quite delightfully enjoyable by John Meade Falker's simply wonderful and magical descriptions and how Falkner sets up the scenes and shows the land and the seascapes etc. of 18th century Dorset England in Moonfleet.

And while I pretty much raced through Moonfleet really quickly last night and early this morning, and am already kind of forgetting many specifics of plot, yes, my memories of John Meade Falkner's delightful and gorgeous writing style and of his (and main character John Trenchard's) atmospheric descriptions of both the land and the sea, these all and sundry will definitely remain with me and will linger in my memory long after everything else regarding Moonfleet has dwindled and faded. So most definitely, a very solid four star rating with regard to descriptiveness for Moonfleet (and a story that I found exciting enough in general and also quite nicely readable, but equally like almost all adventure tales rather quickly forgettable, but with landscape, with the author's brilliant sense of time and place making Moonfleet totally marvellous and memorable for me, and yes, even with contents and thematics I generally rather do dislike for my reading materials, and with any dated elements regarding gender and class structure due to the 1898 publication date of Moonfleet also not at all negatively influencing my adoration of description and John Meade Falkner's penmanship). ...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-ya

First published in 1898, Moonfleet is a tale of smuggling . The book was extremely popular among children worldwide up until the 1970s, mostly for its themes of adventure and gripping storyline. It remains a popular story widely read and is still sometimes studied in schools. It recounts the adventures of John Trenchard, an orphan who lives with his aunt, Miss Arnold, and his adventures with smuggling, fraud and robbery, as well as his love for Grace Maskew

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