Customer Reviews

The Wing-and-Wing (Wing-&-Wing)

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

 

 

Perhaps not as well known as The Pilot (1824), James Fenimore Cooper's fictional account of John Paul Jones's adventures, The Wing-and-Wing (1842) is closer to the late Twentieth Century notion of "mainstream" historic naval fiction. Set in the Mediterranean in the months following Nelson's victory at the Nile, The Wing-and-Wing is the story of a bold captain and his plucky crew prevailing over great odds by superior strategy, seamanship and gunnery. All familiar territory to the contemporary reader of HNF, but Cooper's story has a twist. The hero is French. Raoul Yvart is the dashing captain of Le Feu-Follet, a lugger-rigged French privateer cruising Italy's west coast. Since the Tyrrhenian Sea is more or less a British lake at this time, with Nelson firmly established in Naples, Yvart needs to draw on all his considerable resources to succeed. He loves Ghita, a beautiful and pious daughter of Tuscany, who loves him as well, but can't reconcile her Catholicism with Yvart's skeptical anti-clericalism. Pursuing his love and pursued by the Royal Navy, Raoul makes Le Feu-Follet (in English, will-o-the-wisp) live up to her name.

The action and ship-handling passages are well done and compelling -- after all, Cooper served in both merchant ships and the U.S. Navy, and spent considerable time in Italy. There are some interesting windows on actual history, notably the execution of Admiral Caracciolo, which Cooper considered ignominious and blamed on the pernicious influence of Emma Hamilton on the noble Nelson. For all that, a great deal of the charm of the novel is in the humor. A few secondary characters consistently make the reader smile as Cooper paints broad caricatures of Italians, French, English and Scots. (The only American, Ithuel Bolt, may be the book's most complex character, combining courage and righteousness with bitterness and greedy self-interest.) Much of the fun is language-based as the English, French and Italians mangle each others' language. We also enjoy parodies of legal wrangling and philosophical discourse. Surely there is no other action novel in which the epistemology of George Berkeley plays a crucial role in advancing the plot!

If you don't have your Victorian prose mojo going, don't pick up this book. Cooper is wordy in a way that forces the reader to slow down and savor the language. Readers looking for a plot-driven "page turner" may chafe at the pace, but patience will be rewarded. Unlike many action novels that are fun to read, but fade from mind, Cooper's plot, characters and descriptions linger in the imagination. Some time after finishing the book, I find myself returning to reconsider some personage or event. A wine drinker might say that The Wing-and-Wing has a long finish.

The Henry Holt "Heart of Oak Sea Classics" edition features Jeffrey Ward's maps -- very useful to the reader -- and Thomas Philbrick's instructive introduction.

This novel was first published in 1842, and various editions are available. While the author is noted more for other novels, he started his career at sea, sailing as a merchant seaman for two years from 1806 to 1807, then becoming a midshipman in the United States Navy, serving for two years before resigning his commission to stay on land. He maintained his interest in the sea and is credited with writing the first sea novels. He lived in Italy from 1828 to 1829, primarily in Naples, but visiting Elba and other areas. He was intimately familiar with the actions and settings used in the novel, which is set in 1799 in and around the Bay of Naples, the Isle of Capri, and Elba.

The title of the novel is explained in the first chapter when a suspiciou lugger is seen approaching Elba, "the spread of her canvas, as she came down before the wind, wing-and-wing, as seamen term it, or with a sail fanning like the heavy pinions of a seafowl, on each side..." When the lugger arrives at Elba, it displays and English flag, and the Captain identifies himself as Jack Smith and the lugger as the Wing-and-Wing. In actual fact, the captain is Raoul Yvard and the lugger is the French corsair Feu-Follet. Raoul has come to Elba to meet Ghita, the woman he loves.

The story proceeds as the Feu-Follet plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the British frigate Proserpine commanded by Captain Cuffe. Part of the story is the action between the Feu-Follet and the British, and part of the story is the relationship between Raoul and Ghita. There is a large cast of characters involved.

The story is slow reading, as Cooper was very descriptive of both the settings and the events, and included long conversations between the characters. It is worth reading both as classic literature (one of the first sea novels) and to obtain another side of Cooper's novels.

Based on a true incident, this novel is set along the coast of Italy during the age of Napolean. The Wing-and-Wing is a ship preying on British ships, captained by Raoul Yverne. He's in love with Ghita Caraccioli, a devout Catholic who refuses to marry him because he is an atheist. When Ghita's grandfather is sentenced to be executed by Lord Nelson, Ghita and Raoul (disguised) visit him hoping to bring about his escape. The plot is foiled, Raoul makes it to his ship and gets away, only to be persued by the British until he's trapped and killed. Cooper creates some of his most interesting characters in this romance of the sea. Raoul is a complicated man: he will not yield to Ghita regarding his atheistic beliefs, yet he is an honorable, heroic figure based on what he does throughout the story; he will not compromise his principles. The romance between Ghita and Raoul is interesting and powerful, not always the case in Cooper's novels. The impressed American seaman named Bolt, or "The Yankee," is also a well-drawn character; his hatred for the British and his devil-may-care attitude are delightful. Finally, the chapters set at sea, especially where Raoul is able to out-maneuver and out-sail the British, show Cooper writing at his best. It's no wonder the editors chose this novel as part of the Heart of Oak Sea Classics series.

In addition to the Patrick O'Brian series, I have read several of the Heary-of-Oak series nautical fiction novels and all have been excellent. This one, however, falls short and the nautical fiction fan may grow weary of Cooper's long winded laborious style of writing. I have to admit, I couldn't get through the entire book but admit the author to be a talented writer. Nevertheless, I think the purist nautical fiction fan may prefer a less pretentious style of writing a la Forester, Marrayat, James Nelson or Richard Woodman.