Cover of The Beach of Dreams: A Romance

The Beach of Dreams: A Romance

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 37 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"The Beach of Dreams: A Romance" by H. De Vere Stacpoole is a novel written in the early 20th century. The narrative unfolds on the high seas, focusing on a group of sailors aboard the ship Albatross and a lavish yacht, the Gaston de Paris. The story examines themes of adventure and survival, highlighting characters like Raft, an experienced sailor, and Cléo de Bromsart, a young girl caught in the turmoil of fate as she navigates a shipwreck and the wild environment of Kerguelen. The opening of the book introduces us to the crew of the Albatross, particularly Raft, who has a rugged past marked by hardship and the sea. As the ship sails towards Kerguelen, discussions among the sailors reveal their frustrations with life and labor, illustrating the harsh realities they face. Interspersed with their conversations, we learn about Prince Selm, the owner of the Gaston de Paris, who seeks to explore distant waters and is accompanied by engaging characters. Just as tensions build and events take a disastrous turn with a collision, the narrative sets the stage for survival in a wild, unfamiliar landscape, launching Cléo and the surviving crew into an uncertain struggle against nature and their own fears.

Read free now No app, no sign-up. Your place is saved automatically. Or download for your e-reader ↓
  • Shipwreck survival
  • Adventure stories
  • Castaways
  • Kerguelen Islands

Read the opening

Chapter II

NORTH-WEST

The Albatross, bound from Cape Town to Melbourne, had been blown out of her course and south of the Crozet Islands; she was now steering north-west, making towards Kerguelen, across an ice-blue sea, vast, like a country of broken crystal strewn with snow. The sky, against which the top-gallant stay-sails shewed gull-white in the sun, had the cold blue of the sea and was hung round at the horizon by clouds like the white clouds that hang round the Pacific Trades.

Raft was at the wheel and Captain Pound the master was pacing the deck with Mason the first officer, up and down, pausing now and then for a glance away to windward, now with an eye aloft at the steadfast canvas, talking all the time of subjects half a world away.

It was a sociable ship as far as the afterguard was concerned. Pound being a rough and capable man of the old school with no false dignity and an open manner of speech. He had been talking of his little house at Twickenham, of Mrs. Pound and the children, of servants and neighbours that were unsociable and now he was talking of dreams. He had been dreaming the night before of Pembroke docks, the port he had started from as a boy. Pembroke docks was a bad dream for Pound, and he said so. It always heralded some disaster when it appeared before him in dreamland.

Keep reading The Beach of Dreams: A Romance →

Contents

Show all 37 chapters
  1. Front Matter
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Part II
  9. Chapter VIII
  10. Chapter IX
  11. Chapter X
  12. Chapter XI
  13. Chapter XII
  14. Chapter XIII
  15. Chapter XIV
  16. Chapter XV
  17. Chapter XVI
  18. Chapter XVII
  19. Part III
  20. Chapter XVIII
  21. Chapter XIX
  22. Chapter XX
  23. Part IV
  24. Chapter XXI
  25. Chapter XXII
  26. Chapter XXIII
  27. Chapter XXIV
  28. Chapter XXV
  29. Chapter XXVI
  30. Part V
  31. Chapter XXVII
  32. Chapter XXVIII
  33. Chapter XXIX
  34. Chapter XXX
  35. Chapter XXXI
  36. Chapter XXXII
  37. Chapter XXXIII
  38. Chapter XXXIV
  39. Part VI
  40. Chapter XXXV
  41. Chapter XXXVI
  42. Chapter XXXVII

Download for your e-reader

Files are provided by Project Gutenberg. On a Kindle, the simplest route is to send the EPUB with Amazon’s Send to Kindle. Downloaded copies don’t sync with your place on Classic Book Reader.

About this edition

This free edition of The Beach of Dreams: A Romance by H. De Vere Stacpoole comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #20084, released 2006-12-10. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Adventure, Novels.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

More by H. De Vere Stacpoole