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The Wreck of the Grosvenor

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First edition title page

The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877)[1] is a nautical novel by William Clark Russell first published in 3 volumes by Sampson Low. According to John Sutherland, it was "the most popular mid-Victorian melodrama of adventure and heroism at sea."[2] It remained popular and widely read in illustrated editions well into the first half of the 20th century.[3] It was Russell's best selling and most well known novel.[3] Russell noted in a preface, the novel 'found its first and best welcome in the United States.'[2]

The novel was published nearly a century after the actual Wreck of the Grosvenor, in 1782; coincidentally the novel has the same name but is otherwise unrelated.

Notes

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  1. ^ Commonly incorrectly stated as published anonymously in 1875.
  2. ^ a b Sutherland, John (1990) [1989]. "The Wreck of the Grosvenor". The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature. Stanford University Press. p. 681. ISBN 9780804718424.
  3. ^ a b "William Russell obituary". The New York Times. 9 November 1911.
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