Mare Nostrum

Mare Nostrum (1918) is a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Published at the height of his career as a popular Spanish author, Mare Nostrum was adapted into a 1926 silent film by Irish director Rex Ingram starring his American wife Alice Terry, an icon of early cinema. Believed lost for decades, the film has been recently rediscovered and restored. “All that mankind had ever written or dreamed about the Mediterranean, the doctor had in his library and could repeat to his eager little listener. In Ferragut's estimation the mare nostrum ["Mare Nostrum" (Our Sea), the classic name for the Mediterranean.] was a species of blue beast, powerful and of great intelligence—a sacred animal like the dragons and serpents that certain religions adored, believing them to be the source of life.” Raised in a proud Spanish family, Ulysses Ferragut is expected to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. Enamored with tales of the Mediterranean as told by his seafaring uncle, nicknamed the Triton, Ulysses chooses to become a sailor instead. As a young man, he finds success as the captain and owner of the freighter Mare Nostrum, but obligations to his wife and son force him to abandon his dream. As the horrors of the First World War wreak havoc on Europe, the demand for shipping makes it impossible for Ulysses to resist a return to the sea. While in Italy, however, he finds more than he bargained for in the form of Freya Talberg, a beautiful Austrian who harbors a dangerous secret. This edition of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s Mare Nostrum is a classic of Spanish literature reimagined for modern readers.

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