The Blockade Runners

"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.

"The Blockade Runners"
The Delphin crossing the Atlantic. Illustration by Jules Férat
Author	Jules Verne
Original title	"Les Forceurs de blocus"
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	Historical, short story, adventure novel
Published in	Musée des familles
Media type	Print
Publication date	1865
Preceded by	"Une ville flottante"
Followed by	"Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais dans l'Afrique australe"

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]

References

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

External links

• The Blockade Runners at Project Gutenberg
• Les forceurs de blocus, full original French text
• 17 illustrations by Jules Férat
• The Blockade Runners public domain audiobook at LibriVox