All the Brothers Were Valiant
Ben Ames Williams
MP3 CD
(IDB Productions, Jan. 1, 2016)
All the Brothers Were Valiant is one of Ben Ames Williams' mostdistinguishednovels.Written in 1919,it unfolds as the story of two seafaring brothers in love with the same young woman. While very close during their youth, the Shores brothers came to a dispute not only over the girl they loved, but also due to a matter regarding a quantity of priceless pearls that one of them acquired and buried on a reef in the South Pacific Sea. This important event becomes the center of problematic events that ripple through the story, and lead to one of the brothers having to make a difficult decision in order to redeem himself. The story itself is one of Williams' more successful ones, albeit not necessarily a fast-paced nautical tale. In fact, there is very little detailed mention of nautical terms, which could discourage or disappoint readers who are more interested in seafaring tales that focus more on sailing and navigation. All the Brothers Were Valiant, however, creates situations that explore complex family-related, romantic and economic themes that are still very much easy to understand and relate to, even a century after they were penned. The author manages to create a vivid, believable and quite complex portrayal of Joel and Mark Shores, and their dispute, as well as the problematic consequences it leads to aboard the whaler Nathan Ross, becomes quite a breathtaking issue that readers will feel extremely eager to see resolved.The book is only the first of the many successful novels that Ben Ames Williams managed to write during his long career as an author. Some of his other important literary works include The Strange Woman,Great Oaks,Touchstone and Money Musk – all written after All the Brothers Were Valiant.