Marazan
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| Marazan | |
| Author | Nevil Shute |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Cassell |
| Publication date | 1926 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
This article is about the British novel by Nevil Shute.
Marazan is the first published novel by British author, Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1926 by Cassell & Co, then republished in 1951 by William Heinemann.
[edit] Plot summary
Philip Stenning is a commercial pilot, trained during the First World War. After his engine fails, he crashes and is rescued by an escaped convict, who turns out to have been framed for embezzlement by his Italian half-brother who is smuggling drugs into England.
The story tells how Stenning plays a key role in breaking that drug ring. It involves episodes characteristic of Shute: flying, small boat sailing, and a love story.
Stenning also crops up as a comparatively minor character in Shute's next two novels So Disdained (1928) and Lonely Road (1932).
[edit] Author's Note, quoted from the 1951 edition
"This was the first of my books to be published, and in re-issuing it after twenty-five years of obscurity I feel that it may interest young readers if I put down a few reflections about it. It was published when I was twenty-seven years old, and it was preceded by two novels which were quite unpublishable, because everybody has to learn his trade. It was written in the evenings while I was working at Crayford in Kent and the preliminary design of the airship R.100, as chief calculator, or mathematician. The whole book was written through from start to finish three times, so that it took me about eighteen months.
So much is published in this modern age about murder, detection, and prison that a young writer who has yet to learn the nature of drama tends to turn to these threadbare subjects for his story and I was no exception. I don't think I knew about any of them. The aircraft scenes were built up from my experience with the de Havilland Company in its very early days. The character of Philip Stenning derived from half a dozen pilots of the Company's Air Taxi Service: in those pioneering days of civil aviation pilots had to be tough.
In spite of its immaturity the book got good reviews. I think it sold about 1,200 copies. In revising it for publication I have struck out a few out-mode expressions, such as 'topping' and 'ripping', which I suppose were current at that time, but I have made no other alterations."
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