Review of "Lewes, Delaware: Coastal Stories," by Robert Casseday

 Review of

Lewes, Delaware: Coastal Stories, by Robert Casseday, ISBN 9781628061581

Five out of five stars

Mythical stories about a real place on the coast

 While these stories are similar to other stories and have some factual basis, they are tall tales, some taller than others. Lewes, Delaware is an actual town with over 2,000 residents and a lot of history. It is the first European settlement in Delaware, founded by Dutch settlers in 1631. This gives it a lot of time for the tales to be concocted and embellished.

 There is a story about a haunted lighthouse, another about the fish factory on Canary Creek where the dumpings in the creek enticed a shark to swim out of the ocean with terrible consequences and even a reference to Jack the Ripper. There is the almost obligatory story of the monster fish, one involving Blackbeard the pirate, an unusual one about Marie Antoinette having lived in Lewes for a time and the last story involves a massive earthquake that destroys all of the United States except for Lewes.

 Wild and imaginary on the order of Paul Bunyan, these stories are entertaining and unusual, the kind of whoppers that get passed down the generations with a little bit of embellishment added each time.

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