O.K. O.K. Marryat's books tend to be full of unlikely circumstances and coincidences and sappy, happy endings. On the other hand, his novels are naval action adventures of the Napoleanic age written by a man who was actually a captain in the nineteenth century British navy, albeit somewhat after the Napoleanic Wars. As long as you sit back and enjoy the story, the adventures and misadventures of Newton Forster are just plain fun. And, remember, this book was written more than a century before Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey had even been thought of.

This is the best of marine mysterious stories ,written with amazing style . You are reading this book and in seconds you are becoming part of it , part of the era ,part of the mystery , part of the most exciting thing that wil ever happen to you . The story made by mixing historical facts with legends makes you in a special way addicted to this book , these characters , to the way F.Marryant writes . Read it ! And you will experience time-machine , you will see,feel,even smell presence of The Phantom Ship.

Personally, after 12 years I'm trying to find this book to read it again and again and again........

Avast mates! Never has a finer tale of the sea to be had. Meet Long John, Captain Flint, Ben Gunn, and some of the other scurvy crew from 'Treasure Island'. Learn where the treasure came from. Fights at sea and ashore aplenty.

Peter Simple is the tale of a young British midshipman seeking his fame and fortune on the high seas. Set during the Napoleonic wars, it offers comedy and adventure in an old-school style.

Originally released in serialized form, Peter Simple is a fun, straight-forward adventure novel. It was a best-seller in it's time (1833) and holds up beautifully. I think this will appeal to anyone who ever thrilled to the works of Rafael Sabatini, Bernard Cornwell, or Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel. It's an easy read and great fun !

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.

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.

Captain Marryat's "THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST" is a wonderful tale in narrative, historically rich and quite fascinating. This story of adventure, treachery, and love takes place during the English Civil War, when fellow countrymen are found enemies, and are set against each other, Roundhead and Cavalier, Parliament and the King. Many hoped for the same thing: justice. But, for a long time, neither could find it. In the midst of all were the Beverlies, the family of a faithful Cavalier, who died in service of the king. His four children were left orphaned when their mother died of grief. Then, word came to them that the Roundheads were going to burn down their estate, Arnwood. Fate sent them into the hands of an old forester, Jacob Armitage, and they escaped to his cottage. From there, the story unfolds. It is a classic worthy of shelving in libraries, in private or in public collections, recommended by many educators, and by me, with all due praise.

The Children of the new forest is a brilliant insight into what england was like in the 15th century. It tells how four wealthy children are without warning suddenly plunged into poverty, when the roundheads fire their house looking for the king. It tells how the heir of the burnt house and his brother and sisters strive to become what they should have been without the roundheads. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get hooked on something, but is not too hard. It is an excellent book to learn from and look at carefully, and is gripping to the very end.

This is a unique book with a quality and style that is timeless. True classic that every child would greatly benefit from reading.

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.

The Grateful Dead will have to forgive me for borrowing a line of theirs, but it came to mind after finishing this metaphysical tale by Marryat. I've read many of his action-packed sea adventures, but none of them really prepared me for what he has in store for the reader of "The Phantom Ship."

Where to start? There's young Philip Vanderdecken, who pledges his soul to redeem the sins of his father, who committed murder on the high seas and is thus condemned to eternally ply the stormy oceans until his son can track him down (no mean feat considering the father is something akin to a ghostly spirit), and provide the blasphemous father with the only means of achieving redemption....that is, to kiss a holy relic of the Cross. Whew!

I'm not sure Marryat was at the height of his narrative powers when he penned this sad, strange tale. Frankly, the story line gets, if you will forgive the pun, a bit choppy. But Marryat can be forgiven. What he has to say about the uneasy juxtaposition of traditional Catholicism and Middle Eastern spiritualism has a certain poignancy. So, too, does the depiction of men corroded through and through by their insatiable lust for gold.

Strangely, despite all of the tragedies (and there are many), I for one was not really moved by some very horrific events, which is not to say that there are no moving moments in this 300+ page novel. Surely, the story of Philip's heroic wife, Amine, will touch even the most insulated heart. But, perhaps, in Marryat's effort to narrate so many metaphysical twists and turns, he may have sacrificed a bit of good old fashioned human drama.

I will say, however, that there are parts that may scare the heck out of you. In one scene, Philip is sailing in the South Seas with his faithful companion, Krantz, who relates a childhood story that will make your flesh crawl. Not for the faint hearted.

The revival of the 19th Century Marryat novels is tied in no small way to the success of Patrick O'Brian. It is tempting, therefore, to draw at least one small contrast between the two. Both authors provide their readers with plenty of morality. The difference, of course, is that Marryat's morality is fairly straight forward and unambiguous, as in "The Phantom Ship." O'Brian's "morality" is of an entirely different dimension.

I wouldn't say "The Phantom Ship" is a must-read, even for Marryat fans. But, still a worthwhile diversion. I just wouldn't start out on this voyage if you're looking for an uplifting, heart-warming story. That is not to be found here. This is a voyage with no return.

Once upon a time, somewhere in the middle of the XVII century, Mynheer Captain Vanderdecken defied God and brought a curse of the Heavens on himself and his crew, to sail in doom and suffering until the Day of Judgment, bringing despair and death to encountered seamen, unless the holy relic is offered to him, for that is the only chance of forgiveness for Captain Vanderdecken. The phantom ship thus haunts the Cape, later to be know as the Cape of Hope, at the southern outskirts of Africa, but of course, since it's no longer of this earth, it may appear anywhere at the wild seas, serving as a fatal prophecy of disaster. The captain's wife keeps the secret to herself, until one day her son is grown enough to make a decision to go to sea. Frightened out of her wits, the widow reveals the secret, and thus Philip Vanderdecken learns that his fate, his destiny, is to find his doomed father and salvage his soul from eternal hell. And so begins the most revered nautical tale of adventure, a literary account of the Flying Dutchman legend, written by Captain Marryat, the man who spent the best years of his life at the seas in the service of the United Kingdom. Written in the first half of the XIX century, when the literary form of the novel was in its toddler stage, "The Phantom Ship" is astoundingly modern in expression, although the language is often very ancient. Together with the protagonists, we sail around the Cape, we travel around the globe through the Magellan straits dividing the savage land of Patagonia from Terra del Fuego, the door to the Antarctic; in a never-ending series of breathtaking adventures we discover the nautical world of the XVII century, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans with the surrounding shores were the battlefield where Portugal, Holland, Spain and England fought for domination. Despite the fact that this text will soon be two hundred years old, I can guarantee that you will read this novel more than once, simply because good adventure never gets old, and the ancient world of wooden ships is as enchanting as ever. And then there are the historical and theological aspects of the book. Needless to say, in the mid XVII century the Holy Inquisition was at the peak of its power. "The Phantom Ship", the mythical tale of the Flying Dutchman, is also contextually rich, and offers a plausible, though grim, portrayal of the times. The books is thus serious, analytical, well-researched, and enriched by the author's personal experiences - in addition to the invariably entertaining and often horrifying tale of the cursed ship. The century which just passed was the century of the imperfect man, with atrocities and weaknesses in the spotlight, and it's indeed refreshing to read a novel where it's a perfectly natural phenomenon that all things are in place, men were men and women weren't; and the words, terms and descriptions hadn't lost their original meaning yet. This novel is guaranteed to entertain, do not hesitate to pick it up.

If you like the more modern Patrick O'Brian novels you will most likely like enjoy "Mr Midshipman Easy" even more. The author, Frederick Marryat, was a real Post Captain on a British man-of-war and an excellent writer as well. The days of ship warfare in the Napoleanic era come alive as does the day-to-day life onboard a man-of-war.

I very much very much recommend this book.

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.

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.

Marryat had a way with words (I found myself constantly looking them up in the dictionary). This is an engrossing tale of a young lad who's Father is hanged after the mutiny at Nore (where his mother also dies after the hanging). He is then adopted by the Navy and spends his life at sea. From ship's boy, to midshipman, to lieutenant, the tale encompasses engagements at sea with smugglers, pirates, and the French. The lad was also the grandson of an admiral, unbeknownst to him, and the heir to a vast estate. Thus part of the tale revolves around the inheritors of his estate, who believe him dead. Although this book is a great read, Marryat at times wanders far a field. And, at times departs completely from the story on some other tack. The ending of the book is exciting and surprising, and for Marryat, different from his other works. He apparently took a lot of flack from his readers at the time. There are some great characters introduced in the book, in particular some of the crew of the frigate that the hero (Willy Seymore) spends several years on (voyaging to the West and East Indies). The surgeon reminds me much of the good doctor in O'Brien's books. Many a good character passed before my eyes, but they were mere shadows of what could have been literary legends. In some respects, this book is disappointing; it could have been so much more. But all told mate, it is still a great read.