Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Japhet in Search of a Father, by Captain Marryat. ________________________________________________________________________ Captain Frederick Marryat was born July 10 1792, and died August 8 1848. He retired from the British navy in 1828 in order to devote himself to writing. In the following 20 years he wrote 26 books, many of which are among the very best of English literature, and some of which are still in print. Marryat had an extraordinary gift for the invention of episodes in his stories. He says somewhere that when he sat down for the day's work, he never knew what he was going to write. He certainly was a literary genius. "Japhet in Search of a Father" was published in 1836, the seventh book to flow from Marryat's pen. It was the first of Marryat's books not to have a nautical setting. It is a brilliantly written book, giving us insights into aspects of nineteenth century life that we cannot easily get elsewhere. There is a sustained and fascinating magical quality about the book, which makes it very compelling reading. For many people it will be their favourite book among Marryat's works, and certainly it ranks as one of the greatest books in British literature. This e-text was transcribed in 1998 by Nick Hodson, and was reformatted in 2003, again in 2005, and, working from a different edition, again in 2008. ________________________________________________________________________ JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER, BY CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT. PART ONE, CHAPTER ONE. LIKE MOST OTHER CHILDREN, WHO SHOULD BE MY GODFATHER IS DECIDED BY MAMMON--SO PRECOCIOUS AS TO MAKE SOME NOISE IN THE WORLD, AND BE HUNG A FEW DAYS AFTER I WAS BORN--CUT DOWN IN TIME, AND PRODUCE A SCENE OF BLOODSHED--MY EARLY PROPENSITIES FULLY DEVELOPED BY THE CHOICE OF MY PROFESSION. Those who may be pleased to honour these pages with a perusal, will not be detained with a long introductory history of my birth, parentage, and education. The very title implies that, at this period of my memoirs, I was ignorant of the two first; and it will be necessary for the due development of my narrative, that I allow them to remain in the same state of bliss; for in the perusal of a tale, as well as in the pilgrimage of life, ignorance of the future may truly be considered as the greatest source of happiness.