The Riddle of the Sands (Dover Thrift Editions) Paperback – May 19, 2011

Let me preface this review by saying that I generally enjoy Victorian and Edwardian fiction. I love H. Ryder Haggard and Ellen Wood, for example, and have read almost all of their works.My reason for mentioning all that is just to make clear that my criticisms of The Riddle of the Sands are not based on a dislike of elaborate, gradually developed narratives per se. My problem is that even for something written in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands is slow to the point of tedium. It has some very long passages packed with details that will be almost incomprehensible to anyone who (like me) knows little about sailing. More importantly, after one wades through all the sailing lore, the pay-off is really quite anemic. Don't get your hopes up for a conclusion that is even moderately thrilling.I will grant that this book was extremely influential. I did not find it particularly compelling as literature, however.

Childers' novel was a real disappointment. After starting to read the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels for Fleming's centennial, my interest in spy novels was piqued and I decided to make a survey of them. I was going to start with The 39 Steps until I came across The Riddle of the Sands. I wasn't expecting a Bond-style thriller, and I came with an open mind, but this was a tedious and underwhelming story with little general historical interest.Originally published in 1903, the story is a first-person account of a pre-WWI British Foreign Office employee who gets caught up in the discovery of German invasion plans while on a sailing holiday. The book was written as a serious account of events for the expressed purpose of jarring the public into recognition of the German threat.While the plot sounds like a decent one for a spy novel, and while the reader with an interest in historical fiction might expect to find period interest, most of the book is detailed accounts of sailing, complete with nautical terms and descriptions with little meaning to those not familiar with boats and navigation. I figure the book could easily have been cut down to a half of its length without losing any plot or meaningful descriptive material.There's not much else to say. The evil villain turns out to be a double agent working for the British, which all but the dimmest reader will suspect from the introduction of his character. Whenever danger seems around the corner, it turns out to be nothing. There is no descriptive material that would be of interest to the antiquarian or historical enthusiast. One reviewer who said "it gives remarkable insights into the culture and attitudes of the period" must have been reading a different book.I'm not sure who this novel would appeal to, and I suspect that it was chosen as an Oxford classic because the novelist died for the politically correct cause of supporting Irish independence. Yawn.The best thing about the novel is this edition (Oxford Classics green cover with white portrait), and the introduction by David Trotter provides a nice background on early thrillers and spy stories.

Ken Follett called this book (originally published in 1903) the "first modern thriller." It *is* modern in that its hero is not a nobleman or a professional spy, but an ordinary fellow caught up in a web of international intrigue. The book is a little slow getting started, but picks up its pace as it goes along.I mostly enjoyed this book, but I had a few issues with the story and with this Kindle edition. The story is about sailing-- the two protagonists are in a small sailboat in the North Sea when they uncover a German naval plot aimed at England-- and the book is full of nautical language. If you are a landlubber like me, and don't know your jib from your fo'c'sle, some of the action is a little hard to follow. The author includes a few maps, which would be very helpful in following the story, but in the Kindle edition, the maps are very hard to read, and impossible to turn back to every time they are referenced unless you bookmark them. There are also a few typos in the Kindle book-- nothing too annoying, but the word "I" usually appears as "1," for example.Overall, not a bad read, especially if you know something about sailing or if you are interested in the history of the spy story. Personally, I much prefer John Buchan's "The 39 Steps" (1915), a slightly later spy novel which is truly "modern" in the way it grabs your attention from chapter 1. That book, and some other early spy novels, are included in an excellent Kindle anthology called  The Ultimate Spy Collection (Seven Books)  (check out my review of that e-book).

This was an absorbing story with plenty of twists and turns. I had to struggle a tiny bit with the nineteenth century upper class slag, but got along ok. There is an amusing typo on page 197 where the word “rough” appears twice. I am confident that the author intended that “ruff” be used. Good yarn, worth the effort, but make sure you download with images so that you’ll have the ‘Map A’ and Map B’ that are frequently referred to.

Like the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, this 100+ year old book stands up very well. If you happen to be into sailing small sailboats, this book is a must as it gives a very detailed account of how two guys sail around in the Northern European seas trying to solve a mystery which seems to imply a possible German invasion of England. And they are doing this under very difficult conditions of weather, extreme tides, and powerful snake like currents with none of the navigation equipment that we take for granted today. How they did it back then is amazing. And, if you're a history buff, the description of the geo political scene in Europe prior to the 1st World War is also extremely interesting. Of course, the fact that the German Kaiser is a close relative of Queen Victoria also complicates things. This book is a real gem, an old gem to be sure, but it still shines.

Riddle of the Sands is rightly on many lists of great books and, in particular, great classic spy novels. However, it is also rightly described as “one of the all-time great yachting novels” and one commentator says “I know of no novel more cartographic than The Riddle of the Sands.” It is because of these two key characteristics of the novel, its detailed immersion in yachting and its extensive use of maps and charts, that the “Illustrated” Kindle version of this book is so disappointing.In spite of the fact that the text refers the reader again and again to the six-odd maps, charts and diagrams which accompanied the original text, modern editors apparently have decided to simply leave them out – and thereby make the novel almost unintelligible without extensive reference to Google Maps or other independent resources. The carelessness of such a decision is mind-boggling.A second, though less serious, editorial failure is to illustrate this great yachting novel with pictures of the wrong sort of boat. The yacht Dulcibella of the novel was a yawl or ketch, with a second mast near the stern, whereas the boat illustrated is a single-masted sloop. This may be explained by the editors’ use of photos from a 1984 German TV version of the novel, but such a choice merely illustrates the editors’ failure to read or understand the book in the first place.I recommend this book highly, but I suggest you seek out a version with all the original maps and perhaps even yacht-illustrations which indicate that the editors care about the book they want to sell you.

A classic that I had never got around to reading. My advice to anyone in a similar position is - Read it! Very well written with twists and turns all the way. It is a product of its time - written around 1903 or so, therefore the writing and some of the ideas expressed are very old fashioned today. But that is part of its charm, it provides an education as well as a thrill. My only disappointment was that my copy came in a relatively modern cover rather than the classic Penguin cover that was illustrated. Trivial I know.

This book was OK. Read for a book group. It was rather like walking through quicksand at times, but not too bad. Pity the maps were not clearer, that would have been a real benefit. It did make me look at the life of Erskine Childers. Interesting.

A most remarkable tale of derring-do that has inspired a film (York, MacCorkindale, Agutter) and countless emulators in its role as the first decent spy-thriller. One of the inspirations for my own book, with its tale of the German Frisian Islands and the channels there, and the encouragement to research Childers's own and ultimately tragic life. First rate writing, with the characters of Carruthers and the frustrated Davies revealed gradually as they survey the area and interact with other characters. A favourite of my grandfather, father, uncle and now myself. The only fly in the ointment is the lack in this Kindle version of the Maps and Charts referred to in the text and which illumine the original book. I recommend it to all and sundry as a thundering good yarn - and grieve for the circumstances that destroyed Robert Erskine Childers when he should have survived.

This book did not disappoint. I have read it before and wanted to refresh my memories. It is both beautifully written instructive. And tells a very good story.