Frank Mildmay or the Naval Officer

This book was left out at a beach house we rented. I picked it up for the heck of it. It is an amazing novel!! It's supposed to be semi-autobiographical, and it very much reads like it. The main character becomes a midshipman in the British Royal Navy at 14. The book takes you to his being, I think, 21, by which time he's a commander. The author was also a midshipman, who made it to captain. There are two completely separate books here -- one is a relation of what it's like to serve as a junior officer aboard a British warship in the early 1800s. The other is an extremely moralistic story that seems to be designed to prove that the wages of sin is death. In my view, the junior officer story is convincing and life-like, while the moralistic story seems made-up and unrealistic. I found it riveting, although, in my view, the last couple chapters feel pasted on, and are a bit of dull reading. So I gave the five stars to the naval book and not the moral book, and I recommend this book heartily. The transformation of the 14-year old whom everyone picks on into an assured, knowledgeable lieutenant capable of taking a prize vessel back to England and facing down a mutiny is a great pleasure to experience through words on a page.

After some preliminaries about the main character's childhood, the novel covers a time period from roughly 1805 to 1816. This corresponds to the time period when the author was a midshipman and lieutenant in the Royal Navy. The story is told in a narrative fashion by the main character, Frank Mildmay, and draws on the author's own experiences.Readers looking for lots of naval action will be disappointed. Much of the story is on land and deals with Mildmay's romantic involvements. A large part of the "at sea" portion of the story concerns relationships between Mildmay and other individuals. The story often digresses into philosophical thoughts. It is apparent that the author was from an upper class family, and that he looked down on people from the "lower classes" who he considered poorly educated and not up to par, i.e., his social inferiors. The rapid rise of Mildmay from lieutenant to commander was due to influence, which undoubtedly accounted for the author's own rapid promotion.There is little naval action in the latter part of the novel as Mildmay becomes involved in a triangle between himself, his former mistress, and his future bride. He heads downhill towards self-destruction, and the story becomes a tragedy, but Mildmay is redeemed at the end.

A fascinating book that is hard to set down. Even though written almost 200 years ago, Marryat sets a standard for nautical fiction which others can only attempt to emulate and never surpass.

If you loved the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the Hornblower novels, and the Flashman books, you should read Frederick Marryat. He wrote his seafaring adventure boooks in the 1830's and they are as readable and enjoyable and understandable as if they were written in the 1990's.Marryat who actually was a hero in the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars spins a great yarn. Great adventures and funny as hell.I recommend them highly.