Richard Bolitho, midshipman - Hardcover

Kent, Alexander (Douglas Reeman)

4.01

1,436 ratings by Goodreads

9780399610042: Richard Bolitho, midshipman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399610049 ISBN 13: 9780399610042

Publisher: Putnam, 1976

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The year is 1772, and Richard Bolitho is a sixteen-year-old midshipman about to undergo a severe initiation into the game of seamanship. The book follows young Bolitho's adventures as he intercepts and destroys a band of vicious pirates and then is swept away on a dangerous mission through the treacherous stamping ground of smugglers, wreckers, and murderers.

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About the Author:

Alexander Kent, also known as Douglas Edward Reeman, joined the British Navy at 16, serving on destroyers and small craft during World War II, and eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. He has taught navigation to yachtsmen and has served as a script adviser for television and films. He is the author of the best-selling "Richard Bolitho Novels." His books have been translated into nearly two dozen languages.

Review:

Critics of his first two books dubbed Kent a worthy successor to C.S. Forester. . . . This hardly seems fair for Kent's writing is fresh, singular, and worthy of judgement solely on its own high merit -- Philadelphia Bulletin

The sea story is one of the most enduring and enjoyable staples in popular literature. Tales of stout men under sail, hurling iron across the water at one another were absolute dynamite when Frederick Marryat held a huge readership wired to their seats in the early 19th century with his stories about Midshipman Easy. The Horatio Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester were among the most genuinely satisfying novels of the last forty years, and now that Alexander Kent is patrolling the same sea lanes, the stories are as good as ever . . .

Kent's winning hero is Richard Bolitho, who is squarely in the tradition of Captain Hornblower and Midshipman Easy. All of the heroic elements are here . . . Good, solid stuff that still packs a wallop and will probably continue to do so when another writer comes along 30 years from now to tell the old stories again to a new generation.

My heart still belongs to C.S. Forester because I grew up with him, but Alexander Kent is a worthy successor to the master -- The New York Times, July 18, 1976

There's nothing like a good sea novel as a setting for a protagonist who is a man's man-wise, humane, decisive and courageous. All the briny echoes of fictional marine heroes can be heard again in these rip-rousing tales of naval warfare . . . as the stalwart Bolitho gains the trust of his crew and admiration of his superiors. For adventure and action, a prize -- Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1968

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