''Poor Jack'' is a novel by the English author
Frederick Marryat
Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July 1792 – 9 August 1848) was a Royal Navy officer, a novelist, and an acquaintance of Charles Dickens. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel ...
, published in 1840.
It tells the story of Thomas Saunders, a sailor's son and neglected street urchin struggling to survive in
Greenwich, London in the early 19th century. ("Poor Jack" was the title given by the waterfront boys, or
mudlarks, to their chief.) In a rags-to-riches story Saunders eventually rises by his own efforts to become a pilot on the Thames, makes his fortune and retires to the life of a wealthy squire. The novel has interesting descriptions of domestic life among the naval lower ranks and contains many anecdotes of seafaring life.
External links
*
Poor Jack' at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
1840 British novels
English novels
1840s children's books
Jack tales
Novels set during the Napoleonic Wars
Novels by Frederick Marryat
Novels set in London
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