Peter Simple [Audio Cassette]

Frederick Marryat (Author), Frederick Davidson (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

1902. With an introduction by David Hannay. English novelist who began writing after a distinguished career in the British Navy. From the Introduction: When Marryat composed Peter Simple in 1834, he had no need to do more than look back on his recollections of service in the Imperieuse and other ships during the great war...It will never be allowed by sound criticism that his knowledge of the sealife was Marryat's merit, and not merely his, and our, good fortunes. Yet his greatest admirer will hardly claim for him that he belonged to that highest class of novelists who can create characters which live by their mere human truth...His recollections supplied him with a great deal more when he wrote Peter Simple. They came spontaneously, and in abundance. It is impossible not to believe that he must have enjoyed the writing of the book almost as much as three generations of men and boys have enjoyed the reading. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-8050-5565-7 The enduring popularity of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels has fortuitously stimulated Norton's new Heart of Oak Sea Classics. This first installment (along with Dudley Pope's nonfiction The Black Ship, a vigorous tale of a notorious 1797 mutiny, and James Norman Hall's entertaining collection of nautical tall tales, Doctor Dogbody's Leg) includes Marryat's charming 1834 novel, a robust Dickensian romance about a ``simple'' young midshipman's growth to manhood at sea during the Napoleonic Wars. The adventures of Peter, a kind of Don Quixote kept alive by the raffish wit of his shipmateSancho Panza Terence O'Brieninclude imprisonment and narrow escapes from worse fates in France and the West Indies, a struggle to reclaim his inheritance from a deliciously wicked blood relation, and a satisfyingly improbable happy ending. This is one of the most attractive and neglected early Victorian novels, and its selection alone bodes well for a very promising series. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) actually lived the life of a sailor and fighting captain in the Royal Navy. Such was the acclaim upon publication of Peter Simple that he gave up his commission to become a full-time writer. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786117532
• ISBN-13: 978-0786117536
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,223,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun, March 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Peter Simple: Heart of Oak Sea Classics (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series) (Paperback)

Frederick Marryat was a sea captain who served under the famous Lord Cochrane. This book was an inspiration to such later writers as Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forster. It is a little like Tom Jones in that it episodic, even picaresque. It is very funny in parts, in a way that O'Brian is not--you get the sense that Marryatt is weaving in incidents and characters from his own naval career. It certainly helps to have read O'Brian for a deep understanding of the culture, but with Marryat you feel at times that you are in touch with the real thing.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to put down. It kept me up late, October 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Peter Simple: Heart of Oak Sea Classics (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series) (Paperback)

Another good book in the Heart of Oak series. This novel was quite the opposite of the last one in the series I read, "The Black Ship". I think both novels give good pictures of how life was on the British sailing ships but in "Peter Simple" the crew seems to have a lot of fun and good times as well as taking their work very seriously. They are able to joke around a good bit and enjoy life. This seems much more realistic to me based on my own experiences at sea. "Peter Simple" is written by an actual man of war captain from the Napoleanic era and so probably portrays a much more accurate picture of life on a British man of war than any of the other similar novels. I really liked the novel. Although some of the coincidences and the ending especially are a little too much like a "ladies romance novel" I still think O'Brian fans would enjoy this novel too. The sea battles and ship maneuvers are every bit as good as O'Brian.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was a fascinating book, March 14, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peter Simple (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series) (Hardcover)

I loved this book when I was 14. Since I could not read English, I did read it in Spanish. Now I am 38 and believe I can read English, even if probably Mr. Shakespeare would not "be in love" with the way I pretend to express in his language.

Peter Simple was a magnificent book, specially for someone like me, whose name in Spanish is Pedro (Peter), and after years searching for it, even in London, I found it, and I have ordered it to reread as if I were 14 years old.

Thank you,

Simply, Pedro