Captains Courageous

Rudyard Kipling · 1865–1936 · England

Why it matters

A spoiled rich boy washes overboard and is fished out by a Grand Banks schooner crew who put him to work, and the sea remakes him into someone worth knowing. Kipling's tribute to labor and discipline, New England fishing dialect and all.

At a glance

Nautical jargon and dialect-heavy dialogue slow an otherwise straightforward plot.