''Zwycięzcy oceanu'' (''Conquerors of the Ocean'') is the debut travel-adventure and maritime novel for young adults by Polish writer

Władysław Umiński Władysław Jan Umiński (10 November 1865 – 31 December 1954) was a Polish journalist, fiction author, and science educator. An early science-fiction writer, he has been dubbed "the Polish Jules Verne" and recognized as a pioneer of Polish s ...

. The book tells the story of three daredevils traveling in a small boat from America to China. It was first published in 1890 serialized in a magazine; it received a book edition in 1891. The novel has been subsequently reprinted several times and translated into Czech.

Release history

The novel was first published in the illustrated magazine ' in 1890 in installments (no. 23–52), and then published as a book in 1891. By 1947, the book had received eight editions, including: 1900, 1941, 1943 and 1947. The novel was also translated into Czech. (''Vítězové oceánu'', 1929). This was Umiński's first novel; he wrote it when he was 19 years old.

Plot

The book tells the story of two initially quarreling sailors (the younger one, named Elski, is Polish, the older one is an American, Lieutenant Ebb) in a small boat in the Pacific Ocean. The two are engaged in a sports duel. An English millionaire, Morton, joins them. There is also a theme of competition between English and American teams.

Reception

In 1923 a reviewer wrote positively about the book in the Catholic ', praising it for its tone down (no disregard for ethics, "religious indeferentialism") and avoiding theories that were controversial at the time (e.g. "

evolutionism Evolutionism is a term used (often derogatorily) to denote the theory of evolution. Its exact meaning has changed over time as the study of evolution has progressed. In the 19th century, it was used to describe the belief that organisms deliberat ...

" or presenting "

pantheistic Pantheism can refer to a number of Philosophy, philosophical and Religion, religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arise ...

descriptions of nature"). In 1926, a reviewer of ' expressed his mixed feelings about this novel: 'This book is truly worth reading oweverthe reviewer wishes that in the next edition ..would be shortened by at least 50%, without compromising its engaging and highly informative content".Dziennik Bydgoski (R. 20)
„Dla naszej młodzieży”
1926, Nr 145, s. 9. In the interwar period, c. 1929, the book was reviewed by the Polish Commission for the Assessment of Books for Reading for School Youth. The reviewer wrote that "the characters are likeable", although the antagonist of the novel, "the Englishman Morton, a rich man bored and looking for strong thrills, is critically presented at the beginning ... but he also changes in the end." In the summary of the review it was written that "despite the improbability of some adventures, the book can be read with interest, and the bravery of the characters is admirable." The book, described as "robustly published but poorly illustrated", was designated as "recommended" for children aged 11–14.

Analysis

Like many works of Umiński, the novel is considered to be inspired by the works of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

. The novel also patriotically presents the motif of the "brave Pole abroad". As Umiński was also an educator, the book contains numerous information about natural phenomena in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwyciezcy oceanu 1890 novels Nautical fiction Polish young adult novels Adventure novels Novels set in the Pacific Ocean 19th-century Polish novels Polish-language novels