The Riddle of the Sands
by Erskine Childers
Two English friends go on a sailing trip that quickly turns thrilling as they stumble upon a sinister German plot.
32 chapters · 108,423 words · about 8 hours
Contents
About this book
The Riddle of the Sands is one of the earliest examples of the spy novel genre, and became hugely popular shortly after its publication. Childers carefully interweaves fiction with real-world places, events, and politics, making for an extremely convincing story of invasion—so convincing that some (perhaps erroneously) credit the novel with spurring the creation of new English naval bases. The framing device, where Childers pretends to be an editor presenting a factual account, only adds to the believability of the story.
The novel begins with Carruthers, an official in the Foreign Office, accepting an invitation from his friend Davies for what he assumes is a pleasure trip on a sailboat in the Baltic sea. As the two embark on their journey, it quickly becomes apparent that not everything is at it seems on the German coast.
Riddle helped energize the spy novel genre, providing a template for countless authors to come, including Ian Fleming and John le Carré, and has been adapted numerous times for film, television and radio.
About this edition
This edition comes from Standard Ebooks, whose volunteers carefully proofread public-domain books and give their own work to the public domain too. The book is in the public domain in the US, and wherever copyright ends 70 years after its author’s death, so you’re free to read, copy and share it.
The cover is adapted from Regatta at Sainte-Adresse, a painting completed in 1867 by Claude Monet.