Moonfleet

An orphan in a coastal village is drawn towards local legends, smuggling and the dangerous attractions of hidden treasure.

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Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by volunteers.

Length: 19 chapters
Reading time: About 5 hr 49 min
Words: 83,030

About the book

Fifteen-year-old John Trenchard lives with a strict aunt in Moonfleet, a village beside marshes and a great barrier of pebbles. He tells his story with the geography of childhood clearly in mind. Churchyard legends and the sea make familiar places seem full of possibilities.

The opening joins a boy's curiosity to the practical hazards of a coastal community, where storms bring both danger and temptation. Adventure grows out of a recognisable village world rather than a distant kingdom, giving secrets beneath ordinary buildings a particular force.

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Adventure

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. John Meade Falkner died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original epigraph, dedication, epigraph.