Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer noted for his many novels. He was born at Bagni di Lucca, Italy.

In 1879 he went to India, where he studied Sanskrit and edited the Allahabad Indian Herald. Returning to America he continued to study Sanskrit at Harvard University for a year, contributed to various periodicals, and in 1882 produced his first novel, Mr Isaacs.

This book had an immediate success, and its author’s promise was confirmed by the publication of Doctor Claudius: A True Story (1883). After a brief residence in New York and Boston, in 1883 he returned to Italy, where he made his permanent home.

Its a story of two brothers (orphans), age 10 and 12 who run away to sea. We meet up with them ten years later when they’re strapping men, blonde blue eyed Italians who can break a horseshoe with one hand or snap a coin in half with two fingers.

The older, Ruggerio, is slightly larger and more fiery dispositioned. He does nothing half heartedly. So when he falls in love he thinks there is something terribly wrong, his heart pounds so erratically...