The First Voyage of Sinbad
Classical Stories · No. 24 — The island that opened one eye.
- Classical Stories
- 47 min
- Ages 8–13
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
In the heat of a Baghdad afternoon, a poor porter rests his load at a rich man's gate and sighs a verse at heaven about the unfairness of fortunes. The gate opens. The rich man has heard — and the rich man's name is also Sinbad. Over dinner, the famous sailor tells the porter how the money was actually made: an inheritance squandered in youth, one desperate cargo, and a first voyage on which the crew anchored at a green island that shuddered, smoked, and opened one enormous eye. What the sea takes in a moment, the story shows, it sometimes returns by the strangest of routes.
Why it's worth a listen
The merchant-sailor of Baghdad begins his seven voyages the only way he could: by camping on an island that turns out to be a sleeping whale. Shipwreck, sea-horses, a stranger's court, and the luckiest cargo in literature — the first voyage is a compact masterclass in why humans keep going to sea, told by a rich old man to a poor porter who happens to share his name.
A question to keep
What pulls a person back to the sea after it has taken everything once already?
Chapters
- Two Men Named Sinbad
- The Golden Dust of Baghdad
- The Island That Breathed
- The Grooms of the Sea
- The Captain's Ledger
- A Question to Keep