The French Admiral [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Dewey Lambdin (Author)

Book Description

Series: G K Hall Large Print Book Series | Publication Date: 1999

Alan Lewrie is a scandalous young rake whose amorous adventures ashore lead to his being shipped off to the Navy. Lewrie finds that he is a born sailor, although life at sea is a stark contrast to the London social whirl to which he had become accustomed. As his career advances, he finds the life of a naval officer suits him. In The French Admiral, we join Lewrie at the siege of Yorktown, near the end of the Revolutionary War. Pounded by the American forces on land and the deadly warships of their French allies at sea, the once-proud city is aflame and near ruin. The Royal Navy, with heavily-armed frigates, is posed to break through the French blockade. Aboard HMS Desperate, Midshipman Alan Lewrie sets his gunners to their lethal work firing broadsides of 24-pounder shot at the enemy vessels.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 613 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co; Lrg edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783887884
• ISBN-13: 978-0783887883
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,736,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dewey Lambdin is the author of fourteen previous Alan Lewrie novels. A member of the U.S. Naval Institute and a Friend of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, he spends his free time working and sailing (he's been a sailor since 1976). He makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee, but would much prefer Margaritaville or Murrell's Inlet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best book of a great series., April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The French Admiral (Paperback)

Lambdin's flawed hero is always exciting and matures quite a deal in this novel. Great excitement and true to the rough nature of the American Revolution. While this book is now only available in libraries and used book stores, the back cover of one of his more recent novels stated that it will be rereleased in fall 1999. Don't miss it.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the series; can't get the book!, November 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The French Admiral (Paperback)

I am an old salt and a devoted reader of O'brian, Nelson, Marryat, Forester, etc. I have read Lambdin's first Alan Lewrie novel, The King's Coat and thoroughly enjoyed it. I bought the rest of the series - all but the second, The French Admiral, in which a major adversary is introduced. For some unexplained reason, the publisher has failed to republish this single book in the series. I am now attempting to locate a copy because I wish to read the series in order.It is a major absence in the highly engaging narrative and in the development of the fascinating characters!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better and better . . ., May 7, 2004

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The French Admiral (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Paperback)

This is the second installment in what is developing into quite an enjoyable naval series. In _The King's_ Coat, Alan Lewrie, an illegitimate sixteen-year-old London rakehell, was essentially forced into going to sea in 1779 as a midshipman after being framed by his moneygrubbing father and his two half-siblings. He had a very rocky start in his new career but was beginning to learn his trade and had made a few friends, as well as more than a few enemies. He had also managed to come to the notice of at least two men of note, and well-placed interest was always paramount in advancing one's naval future. And there was the gorgeous young Lucy Beauman in Antiqua to whom he began paying court. Now it's two years since he left England and the rebellion in America is drawing to a close, buoyed by incompetence on the part of the British army and navy. And in the process, Alan finds himself trapped like a rat with Cornwallis at Yorktown. He escapes the disaster, partly through chance, partly through the aid of some Loyalist militia, and partly through his own intelligence and unexpected competence. By the end of the book, his future has improved in several important ways, both professionally and personally, and he has become a harder sort of person than he was at the beginning. And there's a new love interest, whether he wants to think so or not. Lambdin offers a welcome antidote to the rather proper style of Hornblower and even Audrey -- his sailors swear fulsomely, his protagonists can be just as narrowminded as anyone else in their society -- but he certainly knows his naval lore. And just when you're settling in to an adventurous episode, something horrible happens to remind you of just how bloody a true civil war the glorious American Revolution really was.