A Message from the Sea

By Charles Dickens

In Charles Dickens' short story "A Message from the Sea", an American sea captain delivers a message in a bottle to a family in a quaint fishing village in England. The unintended consequences of this act lead to a mystery and a satisfying final resolution where justice prevails. Originally co-written with frequent collaborator Wilkie Collins and published in the 1860 Christmas issue of "All The Year Round".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Oct 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781974916900

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of England's greatest writers. Best known for his classic serialized novels, such as Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations, Dickens wrote about the London he lived in, the conditions of the poor, and the growing tensions between the classes. He achieved critical and popular international success in his lifetime and was honored with burial in Westminster Abbey.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA

By

CHARLES DICKENS

This edition published by Dreamscape Media LLC, 2018

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About Charles Dickens:

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. Cliffhanger endings in his serial publications kept readers in suspense. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha'pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

Source: Wikipedia

A Message from the Sea

CHAPTER I—THE VILLAGE

And a mighty sing’lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days of my life! said Captain Jorgan, looking up at it.

Captain Jorgan had to look high to look at it, for the village was built sheer up the face of a steep and lofty cliff. There was no road in it, there was no wheeled vehicle in it, there was not a level yard in it. From the sea-beach to the cliff-top two irregular rows of white houses, placed opposite to one another, and twisting here and there, and there and here, rose, like the sides of a long succession of stages of crooked ladders, and you climbed up the village or climbed down the village by the staves between, some six feet wide or so, and made of sharp irregular stones. The old pack-saddle, long laid aside in most parts of England as one of the appendages of its infancy, flourished here intact. Strings

Reviews for A Message from the Sea

[jasonlf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was one of the more enjoyable of Dicken's collaborative works (in this case written with Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston Collins, Amelia Edwards and Harriet Parr). A Message from the Sea is a single integrated novella that tells a nautical adventure story combined with a family mystery all resolved through some pretty epically implausible coincidences. Dickens wrote three of the five chapters, and they are clearly recognizable and better, but the other two chapters are perfectly finely executed--with one being an shipwreck/castaway story that puts two enemies together on a small deserted island.The story revolves around an American captain who delivers a message found in a bottle to a family in small English fishing village (lovingly described by Dickens). This sets off an unfortunate event followed by an attempt to figure out the truth, which leads to another trip, an extended flashback about the shipwreck, and a final classic Dickens resolution of a large, happy group where the wronged are vindicated and the wrong are suitably chastened (in this case in absetenia), and everyone is set to live happily ever after.

[john257hopper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fairly forgettable nautical yarn about stolen money. Better than Going into Society, though. Chapters 3 and 4 are omitted here as Dickens did not write them, this work being a multi-author collaboration with various others, including Wilkie Collins.