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Caleb West - Master Diver
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
382 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 27, 2022
Apparently this was the best-selling American book in 1898. It's not good. The idea is good: centering a narrative on construction of a lighthouse under difficult conditions on an artificial island. But the execution has several serious flaws.
First, there's way too much phonetically spelled dialogue. Everyone who's not well-educated (which is most of the characters) speaks like a bumpkin. It's excessive and annoying.
Second, this is the most casually racist book I've read. It's not the most severe, but it's completely pointless. Racial themes are not significant to the narrative in any way, so the racism seems entirely gratuitous, as if the author just didn't care, which he probably didn't.
Third, this book perpetuates some of the most pernicious components of American mythology. It glorifies working-class people laboring under extremely hazardous conditions, while the wealthy reap the financial benefits. The representative of the government is, of course, incompetent and lecherous. It basically tells people they should be happy to be exploited, because, hey, you're a tough, honest guy who's lucky enough to have an exciting, dangerous, low-paying job.
Fourth, the book takes unnecessary liberties with geography. It's based on the construction of Race Rock Lighthouse, which is between Long Island and Connecticut, but there's a mixture of real and fake geographic names. Why not just use the names of real islands and towns? To further confuse the reader, a lot of the fake names are from real cities and islands in other states. Why would anyone do this? Why?
First, there's way too much phonetically spelled dialogue. Everyone who's not well-educated (which is most of the characters) speaks like a bumpkin. It's excessive and annoying.
Second, this is the most casually racist book I've read. It's not the most severe, but it's completely pointless. Racial themes are not significant to the narrative in any way, so the racism seems entirely gratuitous, as if the author just didn't care, which he probably didn't.
Third, this book perpetuates some of the most pernicious components of American mythology. It glorifies working-class people laboring under extremely hazardous conditions, while the wealthy reap the financial benefits. The representative of the government is, of course, incompetent and lecherous. It basically tells people they should be happy to be exploited, because, hey, you're a tough, honest guy who's lucky enough to have an exciting, dangerous, low-paying job.
Fourth, the book takes unnecessary liberties with geography. It's based on the construction of Race Rock Lighthouse, which is between Long Island and Connecticut, but there's a mixture of real and fake geographic names. Why not just use the names of real islands and towns? To further confuse the reader, a lot of the fake names are from real cities and islands in other states. Why would anyone do this? Why?
May 7, 2020
A nice easy romantic read where everything does not end with all couples together.
December 21, 2016
This was the number one best seller in 1898. Despite the title the book is about everyone else besides Caleb West. Loosely based on the author's building of Race Rock Light House in NY. He also built the base for the Statue of Liberty. I enjoyed the seafaring and engineering details. The love interests were trying. One was the unspoken love between the engineer building the light house and his best friend, a very wealthy married woman whose husband is never home. The other was Caleb West who was I estimate to be about 45 married to a 20 year old girl who left him for a younger man. I would estimate that 80% of the book is NOT about Caleb West, master diver. It was a good period piece to read about about life in the 1870s.
August 17, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. I'm sorry I recycled it. :(
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews