Moonfleet

Moonfleet is writen by John Flakner (1858 - 1932) Writer and antiquarian, he is now best remembered for his smuggling story Moonfleet.


Moonfleet is a classic adventure story of smugglers and smuggling which is set in a Dorset fishing village more than two hundred years ago. Loved by generations of children and adults, the story of John Trenchard is as exciting to read today as it was when it firt appeared in 1898.


Young John Trenchard lived with his aunt in the village of Moonfleet half a mile from sea. His peaceful existence ends dramatically when he discovers a secret passage into the vault of the powerful Mohune family, who once had control of Moonfleet.Wild stories abound of blood-curdling cries and horrific deaths, for here lies the notorious Blackbeard who, it is said, haunts the churchyard in search of a fabled but ill-gotten diamond  Yet instead of glittering treasure Trenchard finds cargoes of contraband. Dawn into the dangerous, secretive world of the smugglers it is not long before he is forced to flee the country.


For John it seems as if the curse of the diamond is always with him and it is to be many years before he returns to Moonfleet although fate has a final hand to play...

Interesting....isn't it?



From Chapter no. 2 : The Floods:

(when Mr Glenie continue with his sermon in the church while all the listeners were uneasy because of the voices they can hear under their feet, it was said that under the church buried all the Mohune family.)

"His discourse interested me though I was only a boy, for he likened life to the letter 'Y, saying that 'in each man's life must come a point where two roads part like the arms of a "Y", and that everyone must choose for himself whether he will follow the broad and sloping path on the left or the steep and narrow path on the right.'

From Chapter no. 3: A Discovery:


(the night when John went to search whats underneath the Church since he came to know that the Blackbeard has buried his treasure somewhere under the church and death didn't allow him to take it out)


"Out in the street I kept in the shadow of the houses as far as I might, thought all was silent as the grave; indeed, I think that when the moon is bright a great hush falls always upon Nature as though she was taken up in wondering at her own beauty."

From Chapter no. 13: An Interview:


(when John with his older friend -Elzevir Block- ready to flee out of country and went last time to meet his love (Grace), and to see last time Moonfleet)


"I can not say how sad, yet sweet, the sight was, it seemed like a mirage of the desert, of which I had been told - so beautiful, but never to be reached again by me."

From Chapter no. 15: The Well:


(when John found the Well where he may find the hidden treasure and once he is the well searching its black walls for the treasure he readily found the mark.)


"Now, however lightly a man glance through a book, yet if his own name, or even only one like it, should be printed on the page, his eyes will instantly be stopped by it; so too, if his name be mentioned by others in their speech, though it should be whispered never so low, his ears will catch it."

From Chapter no. 19: On the Beach:

(when John and his older friend - dead by now since he sacrificed his life to save John came back to their hometown Moonfleet after a long prison and first time read the lettering on the backgammon board (game his friend Elzevir Block loved to play)

" ~Life is like a game of hazard; the skillful player will make something of the worst of throws~

...but what unskillful players we had been, how bad our throws,
how little we had made of them !"