Midshipman Bolitho (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 1) [Paperback]

Alexander Kent (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Bolitho Novels | Publication Date: April 1, 1998

The year is 1772, and Richard Bolitho is a sixteen-year-old midshipman about to undergo a severe initiation into the game of seamanship. The book follows young Bolitho's adventures as he intercepts and destroys a band of vicious pirates and then is swept away on a dangerous mission through the treacherous stamping ground of smugglers, wreckers, and murderers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published in 1977, 1975, and 1980, respectively, these are the first three installations in Kent's ongoing series of the adventures of protagonist Richard Bolitho. The plots follow Bolitho's various exploits in the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. McBooks will eventually reprint all 23 Bolitho novels.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Critics of his first two books dubbed Kent a worthy successor to C.S. Forester. . . . This hardly seems fair for Kent's writing is fresh, singular, and worthy of judgement solely on its own high merit -- Philadelphia Bulletin

The sea story is one of the most enduring and enjoyable staples in popular literature. Tales of stout men under sail, hurling iron across the water at one another were absolute dynamite when Frederick Marryat held a huge readership wired to their seats in the early 19th century with his stories about Midshipman Easy. The Horatio Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester were among the most genuinely satisfying novels of the last forty years, and now that Alexander Kent is patrolling the same sea lanes, the stories are as good as ever . . .

Kent's winning hero is Richard Bolitho, who is squarely in the tradition of Captain Hornblower and Midshipman Easy. All of the heroic elements are here . . . Good, solid stuff that still packs a wallop and will probably continue to do so when another writer comes along 30 years from now to tell the old stories again to a new generation.

My heart still belongs to C.S. Forester because I grew up with him, but Alexander Kent is a worthy successor to the master -- The New York Times, July 18, 1976

There's nothing like a good sea novel as a setting for a protagonist who is a man's man-wise, humane, decisive and courageous. All the briny echoes of fictional marine heroes can be heard again in these rip-rousing tales of naval warfare . . . as the stalwart Bolitho gains the trust of his crew and admiration of his superiors. For adventure and action, a prize -- Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1968

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: McBooks Press (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935526412
• ISBN-13: 978-0935526417
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 shark attacks for Bolitho series opener, September 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Midshipman Bolitho (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 1) (Paperback)

The death of C.S. Forester in the mid 60s and the end of new Hornblower novels left the door open to several Hornblower like series. Pope, Kent, O'Brian and Parkinson all published first novels of lengthy series between the mid 60s and early 70s. Undoubtedly, Pope's Ramage and Kent's Bolitho are the most popular. After reading Kent's first installment chronologically of the Bolitho saga, I can understand why. Bolitho is a hero of the old school and Kent is able to fashion a solid action yarn. This novel (and I suspect the entire series) is unpretentious. Kent is not Sartre, knows it and delivers what he knows best- sea stories full of action and suspense.

Richard Bolitho- Midshipman was my first exposure to this series. I had previously read several of Douglas Reeman's WWII novels (Kent is Reeman's nom de plume for the Bolitho series) and this one is better than his Reeman efforts. Like Forester did with Hornblower, Kent established Bolitho as a mature figure and then wrote earlier novels to fill in the character. Unlike Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Kent's Bolitho has been at sea for some time. Like Pope's Ramage, Bolitho comes from a solid naval family. Unlike Ramage there is no disgrace hanging over his father's name. Bolitho must face both high expectations and resentment of the family name and stature.

Kent avoided making Bolitho a contemporary of Hornblower and Ramage. He must have thought that the 1790s were rather crowded for a midshipman. Instead Bolitho is a generation older. Whereas Hornblower's birthday was July 5, 1776, studiously avoiding the American Revolution, Bolitho comes of age at that time. The up side of this placement is that Bolitho can participate in all the engagements from the start of the American Revolution until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The down side is that Kent risks alienating the large American audience. Judging by the size and popularity of the series, he appears to have juggled successfully.

In the first installment Bolitho must deal with pirates, a lieutenant who hates him yet takes credit for his ideas and his first command. Naturally he is successful on all fronts. During the voyage, there is some insight into the loneliness of command, the structure of the Royal Navy of the time, the necessity for firm and apparently heartless discipline, and that underneath an impassive mask a commanding officers may have a compassionate nature. Add to this mixture the thrill of the wind in the riggings, powerful broadsides and general derring-do; and Kent has written a winner. It's neither ambitious nor perfect but it is entertaining and a quick read.

I did have a quibble with the book. Bolitho et al must risk shark-infested waters. The way sharks are described by Kent is inaccurate. Sharks don't attack everything that drops into the water. While a feeding frenzy or massed shark attack on wounded or dead sailors from a sinking ship is quite possible, having sharks between an island and mainland would not be a barrier to swimmers under most conditions. It's worth noting that Richard Bolitho- Midshipman was published in 1975 when Jaws was ruling the waves. Kent can be forgiven artistic license based on the market conditions of the time.

Richard Bolitho- Midshipman is a winner for readers who enjoy stories from the days of wooden ships and iron men and an excellent entry for a very popular series.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" fiction, November 27, 2003

By 

Joseph H Pierre "Joe Pierre" (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midshipman Bolitho (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This is another series recommended to me by my physician. The other one was the Patrick O'Brian series built around the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin. That series was great! The late Patrick O'Brian was a master story teller, and he knew his square riggers in detail. Hollywood just made a movie based on his first book in the series, Master and Commander.

Alexander Kent is a pen name, and this series also holds great promise, judging from this book, Midshipman Bolitho, who was born in Falmouth, in Cornwall, and the story picks up in October, 1772. This book actually contains two stories, beginning with the 16-year-old Midshipman Richard Bolitho's assignment to the British 74 gun ship-of-the-line Gorgon, on a peacetime assignment to patrol the West African coast for pirates and slavers. Bolitho, who started his naval career at the age of 12, is a veteran, at 16, as the story starts and is already looking forward to his lieutenant's examination. He comes from a naval family, numbering a father who is a post captain, and a grandfather who was a rear admiral. His family's history is the cause of friction between him and his division lieutenant, a gouty, bad-tempered character named Tregorren.

The second story is closer to Richard's home, in Cornwall, while he is on leave, and concerns smugglers and wreckers who lure ships on the rocks for their cargos in the dead of night.

Altogether, the stories kept my interest to the end, with good suspense, lots of action, and great descriptions of nautical scenes, ship's maneuvers and good research into the period (end of the 18th century). Dialect and usages used in the dialogue rings true and are well done

I intend to continue with the series, and have ordered the next two books in the series, Stand Into Danger and Gallant Company. I really enjoy these stories of wooden ships and iron men. I have some speaking acquiantance with the sea and sailing; I was in the merchant marine at the age of 16 myself, as a fireman on an 8,000 ton frieghter, joined the navy on my 17th birthday (from which I am retired), and built and sailed my own ketch, the Wild Goose, on the Pacific with my family.

I love good sea stories, and grew up on Howard Pease's books about the merchant marine. He was largely responsible for my hitchhiking to San Francisco and shipping out at a tender age.

This is a good series. I recommend it to you, if you love to read adventure stories about the sea and the men who go down to her in ships.

Thanks again, Dr. John!

Joseph (Joe) Pierre...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Series, November 2, 2003

By 

Peter Matthews (Roslindale, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midshipman Bolitho (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Just finished a re-read of the Hornblower series & Parkinson's "biography". I'm about to embark on another reading of the Bolitho series, which I find has grown to 26 books. I first read Douglas Reeman well before he started the Bolitho series under a penname - great stuff. Reeman has his own web site with lists of all his books under both names. Another resource is Novels of Nelson's Navy, in conjunction with Amazon, http://www.cleverley.org/navy/index.html.