Customer Reviews

Midshipman Bolitho (The Bolitho Novels) (Volume 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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...

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.

I read Forrester, O'Brien, Conrad, Mayrrat, and Melville, so I felt I should read Kent. He is not in the same category. He is an enjoyable read, don't get me wrong, but he telegraphs so much of his action that you see it long before it happens. Young Bolitho is a bit too self-conscious, a bit too able. Some characters are introduced only to provide a moment of bathos when they catch the number of their mess. Read it, if for no other reason than to see how much better Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower are in comparison.

Midshipman Bolitho begins the saga of Richard Bolitho, heir to a proud familial naval tradition. This first book in the series is a compilation of two separately published works, both of which told stories of Bolitho's days as a midshipman, and as such this book reads like two unconnected novellas. While this could lead some to assume that this is a weak book, the truth is that Midshipman Bolitho is an engaging book, demonstrating strong storytelling with compelling characters and tight action sequences. Readers of historical fiction and the nautical genre will find much to enjoy in this book.

This book will whet your appetite for the entire series. It is fast moving and extreamly hard to put down. The writing is such that I was there, on deck, with young Richard. Great book!

First in a nautical series modeled on Forester's Hornblower, the action and settings are intriguing although the prose lags a bit, never catching the music of Forester. Really two "peacetime" stories, Bolitho is already an experienced midshipman (lowest officer) when he and his buddies invest a pirate island off Africa, and in the second tale hunt smugglers and a particularly canny "wrecker" luring vessels to a rocky doom on Cornwall's shore. One learns considerable of 18th century customs on land and sea, some of its morals, and hears several amusing dialects. I couldn't always visualize the ship handling. Among the second tier authors, Woodman's dour Drinkwater feels more authentic, but "Alexander Kent" provides a better read and one that would appeal to younger readers, given the more heroic than introspective Bol-LYE-tho, and his more modern sensitivities for his men. The cover painting by Geoffrey Huband has a darkly authentic look to it, but I didn't recognize the scene in the actual text.

Alexander Kent is a penname for Douglas Reeman, the English author who over the past 50 years has written some 64 books with over 34 million sold. Writing as Alexander Kent he has 27 books in the Bolitho series. Midshipman Bolitho is the first in the series. It actually consists of two different tales - the first on the British ship of the line Gorgon as they search for pirates off the African coast. The time in the beginning is mid-October 1772. In the second story the action moves on land to Cornwall, and Bolitho becomes involved with efforts to capture smugglers and wreckers who entice ships onto the rocks at the coast at night so they can then steal the cargoes.

The stories are well told, and the action is gripping. Kent's depiction of life in the British Navy seems accurate, but I am basing that on other nautical fiction series I have read. This series does not match Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series or the Hornblower series, but those two may be the best in the nautical fiction world. I very much enjoyed Midshipman Bolitho, and I look forward to continuing with his other books.

"Midshipman Bolitho" is an excellent and early example of this genre. Bolitho is interesting and by starting earlier than C.S. Forrester or Patrick O'Brian the author provides a different perpective. As with many in this genre, Kent convincingly portrays not only the strategic and tactical aspects of the war, but also the ship construction/handling challenges. "Les Miserables" its not, but Kent also explores the society of the time and develops a number of interesting and and sympathetic characters. The series maintains its quality over the next 18 or so books. Those interested in discovering other, comparable series should pursue: C.S. Forrester, Patrick O'Brian, Richard Woodman, Dewey Lambdin or James Nelson. Other, harder-to-locate series for the addicts are from Dudley Pope, Porter Hill, Victor Suthren or Frank Eccles. I would welcome information about other similar series -- also other naval eras, army fiction, or merchant marine.

This is the beginning of a very long story in many volumes of a young man and the trials of his life in the service of his country and the Navy of that country. Alexander Kent keeps the reader engaged and wanting more. The tales of adventure just want the reader to read more. I have them all and they are proudly displayed next to Master and Commander and Horatio Hornblower. A good read.