The Blockade Runners

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"The Blockade Runners"
by Jules Verne
Verne-Blokada.jpg
The Delphin crossing the Atlantic.
Illustration by Jules Férat
Original titleLes Forceurs de blocus
Country France
Language French
Genre(s) Historical, short story, adventure novel
Published in Musée des familles
Media typePrint
Publication date1865
Chronology
 Preceded by
Une ville flottante
Followed by 
Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais dans l'Afrique australe

"The Blockade Runners" (French : Les forceurs de blocus) is an 1865 novella by Jules Verne. [1] In 1871 it was published in single volume together with novel A Floating City as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series (The Extraordinary Voyages). An English translation was published in 1874.

Contents

Plot introduction

The American Civil War plot centers on the exploits of a British merchant captain named James Playfair who must break the Union blockade of Charleston harbor in South Carolina to trade supplies for cotton and, later in the book, to rescue Halliburtt, the abolitionist journalist father of a young girl held prisoner (the father, not the girl) by the Confederates. Verne's tale was inspired by reality as many ships were actually lost while acting as blockade runners in and around Charleston in the early 1860s.

Adaptations

The book was produced as a radio play of the same name in 2006. [2]

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References

  1. "The blockade runners", full text in English
  2. The Colonial Radio Players, The Blockade Runners Audio CD, ISBN   1469208598