The Blockade Runners

"The Blockade Runners" by Jules Verne is a novella written during the late 19th century, originally published in 1871. The story revolves around the adventures of Captain James Playfair and his ship, the "Dolphin", as they attempt to break through a naval blockade during the American Civil War. Faced with the dangers and moral dilemmas of their mission, Playfair and his crew navigate through conflict zones to deliver crucial supplies, while also addressing personal stakes involving the captain's growing feelings for Jenny Halliburtt and her father’s imprisonment. At the start of the novella, the reader is introduced to the launch of the "Dolphin" on the Clyde River, which captivates the local population, partly due to rumors about her secretive mission connected to the war in America. The narrative quickly shifts to Captain James Playfair and his scheme to run the blockade to deliver supplies to the Confederacy while seeking to return with cotton. As the story progresses, a young woman, Jenny Halliburtt, who is determined to join her imprisoned father in Charleston, inadvertently complicates their journey. The opening chapters set the tone for a thrilling maritime adventure filled with suspense, as the protagonists confront both external threats from Federal ships and internal conflicts borne from their commitments and choices. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well-researched according to the scientific knowledge then available, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.