Peter Simple: Heart of Oak Sea Classics (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series) (Paperback)

by Frederick Marryat (Author) "IF I cannot narrate a life of adventurous and daring exploits, fortunately I have no heavy crimes to confess; and, if I do not rise..." (more)
Key Phrases: dignity ball, most delicate manner, spy captain, Captain Hawkins, Father M'Grath, Captain Kearney (more...)

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.

Product Description
The classic novel that gave rise to the seafaring literary tradition

Before Patrick O'Brian, before C. S. Forester, there was Frederick Marryat. His novels defined the genre and were admired by literary luminaries as diverse as Conrad, Woolf, and Hemingway. Peter Simple, the story of a young naif in Nelson's navy, is Marryat's signature work. Marked by memorable characters, a comic edge, and the kind of unerring detail that comes only from first-hand experience, this is a true masterpiece of the Golden Age of Sail. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 482 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (June 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805055657
• ISBN-13: 978-0805055658
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #725,389 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.

12 of 13 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

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was a fascinating book, March 15, 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