الفقمة الذهبية

by James Vance Marshall, جيمس فانس مارشال, عمار المطلبي (Translator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Fiction

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Pseudonym of Donald Gordon Payne.

Donald Gordon Payne was an English author of adventure novels and travel books.

Donald Gordon Payne was born in Denmark Hill in South East London in January 1924. His father, Francis, was a New Zealander, who served in the First World War with the ANZACS. His mother was Evelyn Rodgers, a nurse during the Great War.

He was educated at Dulwich College Preparatory School and then at Charterhouse School. As a child he travelled with his parents to New Zealand and parts of the East coast of Australia – an experience which left him with a lifelong affection for these countries.

Deferring his place at Corpus Christi College Oxford, he enlisted in the Fleet Air Arm in 1943. After training at Sealand, near Liverpool, and at Kingston, Ontario, Canada he was awarded his wings and joined Swordfish Squadron 811 and later 835. He took part in Atlantic and Russian convoys in 1944 and 1945 as a Swordfish pilot, mainly on anti-submarine duties.

After the war he studied at Oxford and became an editor and ghost writer for the London based publishing firm of Christopher Johnson. From there he moved into a full-time career as a writer.

Using James Vance Marshall as a pseudonym, Payne wrote such books as A River Ran Out of Eden (1962) and White-Out (1999). His most famous book is probably Walkabout (1959), first published as The Children and later made into a movie starring Jenny Agutter.

Payne has also used Ian Cameron and Donald Gordon as pseudonyms. As Donald Gordon, he published, among others, Riders of the Storm (2002), an official history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. As Ian Cameron, he wrote The Lost Ones (1961), later dramatized by Disney as The Island at the Top of the World, as well as The Mountain at the Bottom of the World (1975) and The White Ship (1975).

He disliked publicity of any kind, preferring to stay out of the limelight. During his long and distinguished publishing career he made few author appearances, notably for the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Lifeboat Institution and the Reader's Digest.

He lived in Surrey, England, and had four sons and one daughter. He passed away on 22 August, 2018 at the age of 94.

Reviews

[T-mera7c]

What i thought of this book is that i was really good. The author had put it in a lot of information on the topic. he also made the characters thoughts come to life.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a magical book. This not only had me on the hook the whole time but made me want to know more about the geography and the culture.

Very well crafted.

[Nisa Yürür · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as an adult reader I enjoyed. I thought sometimes I needed to read this kind of books to wind and also Im thinking of reading this to my future children.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reread for me. I story, about a family living in extreme isolation, off the grid, in the Aleutian islands. Unexpected danger intrudes upon the idyllic existence and tests the man and his wife. Written in the early '50's, it still entertains and has a happy ending.

[Seivinia Yalita · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really enjoy reading this book in fact we i mean my teacher chose this novel for us to read it and we will base our works on it this year until next year. This book is really great and like the author has mention it, it is not a story that falls smoothly and easily into sequence. It is really a great story and i enjoy reading it ❤❤❤❤❤❤💕😘😍😁👍😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀✔🐱‍✔🐱‍✔

[Jennifer Morefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in my late mother's library. I really enjoyed it. It is a great story about the love animals and children has for each other and the inhumanity of some humans. The story had some great lessons and I loved that it was based on a legend. I also learned some about the Aleutian Islands. A worthy read.

[Marina Rios Mejia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book, I Like IT so much

[uus]

it's a children's book. nothing to judge. cute drawings though

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written by an uncle of mine (by marriage) and I'm amazed I didn't know about him sooner. This book is a product of its time, with some offensive language towards native-americans. However the plot of this book is thoroughly enjoyable, with the Jim and Tania1 going through their own internal struggles and overcoming them. Overall this is an enjoyable book with a satisfying foreshadowed ending and I am looking forward to reading more from James Vance Marshall.

[JordanSoukup · Rating 2 out of 5]

So Overall this is a good book but it has somethings I don't like. Lets start with the setting, Its a book about two people Jim and Tania who live on a desolate island in Alaska with their two kids Eric and Jess. Now lets talk about the characters.
Jim: Hes a 40 year old sealer who has the life long wish of shooting a golden seal worth 2,000 dollars. It is also shown in the book that he is Russian. He is also protective
Tania: Shes a native of the area and a former chi chi girl as she met Jim at her place of work and they got married and ran off together. She loves her husband very much but isn't afraid to flirt with others.
Eric: Hes a 6 year old boy who seems to mind well and will not break a promise. Hes adventurous and it can get him into some trouble.
Jess: Not much is known about her as shes not really a key person in the book.
Crawford: Hes shifty and always tries to get what he wants and won't take no for an answer he knows how to manipulate people and is very good at it. He is also a sealer who is after a golden seal. His greatest weakness is greed.
Ok now lets discuss plot. A storm is setting in and Jim and Tania are preparing for the storm. Meanwhile Crawford is chasing down the golden seal. After this Eric sets off the watch the beach without his parents knowing He takes shelter in a sod hut on the beach where the golden seal is also hidden with her pups. During this Crawford washes up onshore and goes to the house where Jim and Tania is. Tania tells Jim not to let him in as she thinks its the devil at the door. She basically turned out to be right. After the storm Eric shows Jim where the the gold seal is but not until Eric makes Jim promise not the shoot the seal. Does Jim break his promise or keep it? I'm not going to tell you as it would ruin the story.
Now lets talk about some things I like. 1 thing I liked is how it references the garden of Eden. 1 thing I did not like was how Tania let things go too far with Crawford. But I did like how Karma got Crawford back in the end.
This is a good book for someone who likes suspense and making tough decisions. This is not a book I would have read without being told to but overall I liked the book

[Jacob Gatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A River Ran Out of Eden" is a story about a 40-year-old sealer named Jim who lives with his Native Aleutian wife named Tania with their 6-year-old son Eric and 3-year-old daughter, Jess. They have a perfect, simple life living on Unimak island, a small island part of the Aleutian islands by Alaska. Jim's dream is to hunt and kill the legendary golden seal, whose pelt is worth $2,000 dollars. One day when Jim and his family go to check the salmon traps, a hurricane begins to blow in, and Jim, Tania and Jess make it back to their home, but Eric has to hide in a sod hut because by the time the storm hit, the sod hut was closer to hide in than his home. During the storm, a greedy, con-artist, sealer named Crawford spots the golden seal, but his boat crashes before he could shoot the seal, and the next thing he knows, he wakes up barely conscious in Jim's home. Jim and Tania nurse Crawford back to health, and he agrees to help find Eric. As it turns out, inside the hut with Eric, was the golden seal, and by the time Crawford finds Eric, the seal moved somewhere else on the island. Crawford is determined to have that seal, and this causes a problem for Jim because Crawford is also hitting on Tania. One night when Crawford goes out to find the seal, a Kodiak Bear attacks and kills Crawford and the seal escapes back to the ocean. Jim's life on Unimak is back to being perfect because there are no more worries or complications.

I thought this was a very good book, but I did have one problem with it because it was very short and there were more details than dialogue in the story. On the other hand, I loved the story behind the book and the way that the author made Jim's life on the island as Eden, and this relates to Adam and Eve because they had a perfect life before the snake came along, and in this story Crawford is like the snake.

[Jared Tebon · Rating 4 out of 5]

book about a sealer named Jim and his wife who live in a island on the Alution islands in Alaska and raise a family. Jim has been looking for a golden seal worth 2000 dollars for a long time and finally finds it during a hurricane and his sun finds it and makes his dad promise not to kill it and he shows it to his father and another man who came ashore during the storm try's to kill the seal but does not succeed because a bear kills him right when he try's to shoot the seal. good book about family and would request it to friends.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to my kids when they were young; all of us were so enthralled with the idea of a golden seal! I had to buy my own copy (we had read a book from the library). Even 40 years later, the story is good and well written.

[Mikayla Schaefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok this was a Okay book it wasn't my favorite book and it wasn't the worst book ive read either jim and tania are married and have to kids.JIm wants to find a golden seal and he does but he promise hes kid that he wont hurt the seal

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story about keeping promises.

[Tina Valenzuela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Characters aren't that greatly built but the story wasn't that bad