Frank Mildmay or the Naval Officer (Classics of Naval Fiction) [Paperback]

Captain Frederick Marryat (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classics of Naval Fiction | Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Frank Mildmay is a rogue and a rascal who cuts a memorable swath as he move up the ranks of the early 19th-century Royal navy. Whether seducing pretty girls ashore, braving hurricanes at sea or scrambling aboard a French privateer with cutlass bared, Mildmay and his adventures live on!

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With this duo, published in 1829 and 1836, respectively, McBooks launches its new "Classics of Nautical Fiction." Marryat was a skipper in the British Navy, and the action here is based on his real experiences before the mast. When all your Patrick O'Brians are out, recommend Marryat.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The thunder of cannon, tempestuous gales, broken masts, salty tars, sadistic captains, desert islands, exotic locales-these two Maryatt books possess these staples of nautical fiction in abundance. Maryatt was an actual naval officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and he possesses the ability to write about the men and ships as an insider without swamping the reader in technical jargon. The novels are also fascinating for their antediluvian politics and morality which wed them inextricably to their time. In Frank Mildmay, a beautiful, cultured young woman has sex outside of wedlock. Both she and her illegitimate child are destroyed in just retribution (and to allow the hero to marry his ruling-class virgin sweetheart without complications). Mr. Midshipman Easy is both a rousing sea-yarn and a rabid assault on the precepts of liberty, equality and fraternity. Easy begins as a Rousseau-spouting liberal but learns a hard lesson about the terrible responsibilities of his enormous wealth and retires to his country estate where he hunts foxes and votes Conservative (interestingly, Maryatt was not a complete dinosaur, and takes any opportunity to inveigh against the practice of impressment prevalent in the British Navy of that era). Maryatt's two heroes themselves are so fortunate as to excite nausea upon long exposure. They thrash the bullies in the mess, escape from sharks, walk on water, catch bullets between their teeth-you get the picture. This said, were I the teenage boy I was (and thankfully no longer am), I would notice very little of the 'Rule Britannia' mentality and sundry other flaws and be completely enchanted by the heroes and their adventures. Maryatt is a competent enough stylist to seduce us for as long as we suspend our critical faculties. Of the two works, Mildmay is by far the most engaging and carefully written, staying within the boundaries of verisimilitude, and exhibiting an interesting tension between the narrator's anguish over his bad behavior and his relish in it. Easy, on the other hand, is a rather broadly drawn satire and gives the impression of having been hastily written. Some of its more bizarre elements include phrenology, Sicilian vendettas, and what might be the first commune in literature. Anchors aweigh! -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: McBooks Press (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935526390
• ISBN-13: 978-0935526394
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,269,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fountainhead to Aubrey/Maturin, Hornblower & Flashman, September 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Ridgewood, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frank Mildmay or the Naval Officer (Classics of Naval Fiction) (Paperback)

If you loved the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the Hornblower novels, and the Flashman books, you should read Frederick Marryat. He wrote his seafaring adventure boooks in the 1830's and they are as readable and enjoyable and understandable as if they were written in the 1990's.

Marryat who actually was a hero in the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars spins a great yarn. Great adventures and funny as hell.

I recommend them highly.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A romance novel with a Royal Navy setting, June 15, 2001

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frank Mildmay or the Naval Officer (Classics of Naval Fiction) (Paperback)

After some preliminaries about the main character's childhood, the novel covers a time period from roughly 1805 to 1816. This corresponds to the time period when the author was a midshipman and lieutenant in the Royal Navy. The story is told in a narrative fashion by the main character, Frank Mildmay, and draws on the author's own experiences.

Readers looking for lots of naval action will be disappointed. Much of the story is on land and deals with Mildmay's romantic involvements. A large part of the "at sea" portion of the story concerns relationships between Mildmay and other individuals. The story often digresses into philosophical thoughts. It is apparent that the author was from an upper class family, and that he looked down on people from the "lower classes" who he considered poorly educated and not up to par, i.e., his social inferiors. The rapid rise of Mildmay from lieutenant to commander was due to influence, which undoubtedly accounted for the author's own rapid promotion.

There is little naval action in the latter part of the novel as Mildmay becomes involved in a triangle between himself, his former mistress, and his future bride. He heads downhill towards self-destruction, and the story becomes a tragedy, but Mildmay is redeemed at the end.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The author talked to me from 200 years ago, telling me how life was, July 18, 2008

By 

Paul Kilduff (Baltimore MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Frank Mildmay: Or, The Naval Officer (Paperback)

This book was left out at a beach house we rented. I picked it up for the heck of it. It is an amazing novel!! It's supposed to be semi-autobiographical, and it very much reads like it. The main character becomes a midshipman in the British Royal Navy at 14. The book takes you to his being, I think, 21, by which time he's a commander. The author was also a midshipman, who made it to captain. There are two completely separate books here -- one is a relation of what it's like to serve as a junior officer aboard a British warship in the early 1800s. The other is an extremely moralistic story that seems to be designed to prove that the wages of sin is death. In my view, the junior officer story is convincing and life-like, while the moralistic story seems made-up and unrealistic.

I found it riveting, although, in my view, the last couple chapters feel pasted on, and are a bit of dull reading.

So I gave the five stars to the naval book and not the moral book, and I recommend this book heartily. The transformation of the 14-year old whom everyone picks on into an assured, knowledgeable lieutenant capable of taking a prize vessel back to England and facing down a mutiny is a great pleasure to experience through words on a page.