Mr Midshipman Easy

This book's an odd kettle of fish. It focuses on Jack Easy, starting at his birth, following him through school and into the Navy. He joins to press his socialist philosophy of the "equality of man". The book was first published in 1836, when Karl Marx was 18. Zeitgeist, perhaps? In tone, the book's half nautical fiction along the lines of O'Brian, Forester, Pope, etc., and half 17th century romantic farce that sees a rival found out in women's clothing, diabolical happenings at a costume ball, the come-uppance of a conniving father-confessor, a hilarious three-way duel, and more. The situations will be all the funnier if you've read more "serious" nautical fiction before this. Oddly, even though the author was himself a retired British naval post-captain (who served under Cochrane when he was himself a midshipman!), there is relatively little focus on the nautical details, and a whole lot of focus on the characters. Sure, there's a gale (and quite a good one), and some beam to beam broadside action, but mostly it's about the characters. In every situation, there's little tension as we know our hero will make good a Hornblower-like escape by some indirect means. The author jumps in as the omniscient narrator from time to time. For instance, there's one chapter that's an odd repetition of an argument made in a previous book against overly harsh punishment in the service. The wisdom's along the lines of "spare the rod, spoil the child" and the character "development" sees Mr. Easy move from channeling Marx to channeling Ayn Rand. As the earlier positions are argued as hard as the latter, it's actually hard to see the author's position here, which is quite interesting. Overall, though, the book just doesn't hang together as a continuous, tense story about the sea, which is one of the main reasons to read nautical fiction. On the other hand, if you've run out of the better nautical fiction, this one's well worth a read. A more interesting genre piece from this era is Wilkie Collins's mystery "The Moonstone".

Considering the era in which it was written, this book is remarkable! Fast paced, uproariously funny at times, "Midshipman Easy" is a delight to all who enjoy seafaring novels. True, it is far-fetched at times, but it was never intended to be a true grit novel. The satire involved gains perspective if you understand Marryat's position for naval reform after he retired from active duty as a British Naval Captain. Marryat's use of a black man as Easy's guide and balance is something else ahead of it's time and I applaud him for that. The real purpose of this book is to provide a good read and it does it beautifully. The best of his novels,although Peter Simple ought to please the Forrester crowd.

Great book in that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Great tongue-in-cheek view of life aboard a British man-of-war. Of course its not too realistic, which O'Brian attempts and Forrester accomplishes, still, a real hilarious adventure tale. Easy leads an unbelievably charmed life, to the point of delightful reading but not incredulity. Characters are real yet outstandingly rich and beautiful. Find yourself putting your head back now and then and laughing in a most horse-like fashion... In regard to sea stories of this nature, I put C.S. Forrester 1st (He is the master, and will always be 1st just as Tolkien will always be 1st for fantasy readers), Marryat 2nd, O'Brian 3rd (too much pontificating...) and Alexander Kent and others a distant, distant, distant 4th.

Extremely witty book! The story follows "Equality Jack" Easy, a Midshipman with a rather unusual philosophy. Yet, while you're laughing, you get a good taste of what life was really like on a British man o'war. Marryatt lived these times, so writes of them better than any of the others. But you should also read: Horatio Hornblower, Dewey Lambdin, and Patrick O'Brian.

British Naval life circa 1808 written by one who was there. Marryat was a midshipman at the time. O'Brien, Forrester, etc. base their stories on historical occurances, as does Marryat, and many of their plots can be found here. The difference, of course, is that Marryat knew the men, and in some cases it seems it was Marryat himself, whose deeds are echoed in our favorate works of fiction. Marryat writes with great humor, and his prose style, while somewhat archaic, will be familiar to O'Brien's readers. He has some axes to grind that might offend the modern reader (anti-catholic bigotry, and a determined attack on the principles of human rights that drove the French Revolution against which he fought) but taken with a grain of salt he can generate a humorous view of many institutions that are above question these days. This volume is beautifully printed and bound, and well worth the hard cover price.