Perkins created a marvelous character in Bartholomew Hoare, a brilliant naval officer in King George III's navy who could not be promoted to captain of his own ship because his throat was injured in a battle and he could not make himself heard in giving commands. But his work on land impressed his superiors and, with a motley crew and a tiny ship, he is doing important work in counterespionage. Now he is living on land with his new wife and adopted daughter and trying to ferret out a traitor in the high levels of the Admiralty. A high ranking officer is murdered, and Hoare's activities endanger not only him but his wife and daughter. With a painstaking attention to authenticity, Perkins has delighted readers of naval historical fiction. But, unfortunately for us all, he is also the late Wilder Perkins, and Hoare and the Matter of Treason is the last book of the too-short series.
Although Bartholomew Hoare has acquitted himself nobly on shipboard and battle, and worked his way up to lieutenant in King George III's Royal Navy, he cannot count his present life a satisfactory one. For one thing, he and his brother (as his father before him, all of them descended from Vikings) have always had to use their fists to defend their name and its implications from schoolboys, shipmates, and generally impolite Britons at every social level. That Bartholomew can handle. But a spent musket ball in the throat put a halt to a promising career at sea, and Hoare was left with a glowing recommendation and exclusively shore duties. Obviously, a captain whose orders could not be issued above a whisper could never command a ship. To Hoare, who loves the sea, it is a tragedy, as he is forced to do the land-based tasks assigned to him. His present mission is to discover what has happened to the ship that disappeared in nearby waters, and whether the strange contents of a small keg found in the sand are involved in the mystery. And it is a quest that begins Hoare's acquaintance with the extraordinary Mrs. Eleanor Graves--by his saving her from attacking ruffians, with her active and enthusiastic assistance. It is a meeting that starts a dramatic train of events. For one thing, Hoare is asked to put his talents to work on behalf of a young officer charged with the murder of his captain, a fellow of questionable probity and brutal temper. Hoare's investigation leads to evidence of criminal activity beyond the captain's murder. It's a chance for the lieutenant to further distinguish himself--if he isn't killed first. But life is not all trouble. Hoare becomes close friends with Eleanor Graves and her retired, and much older, physician husband. He meets a rather suspect visitor from abroad, and encounters assorted townspeople, both high and low--including the Graveses' dinner guest his first night in town, one Miss Jane Austen. With its strong period atmosphere, its unusual and colorful characters, and its nautical focus, Wilder Perkins's first novel, Hoare and the Portsmouth Atrocities, will entice readers who love historic naval fiction. And many others as well will be delighted to discover this author and his book, and will wait impatiently for Bartholomew Hoare's next adventure.
Taking up where Of Modern Dragons (2007) left off, these essays continue Lennard's investigation of the praxis of serial reading and the best genre fiction of recent decades, including work by Bill James, Walter Mosley, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, and Ursula K. Le Guin. There are groundbreaking studies of contemporary paranormal romance, and of Hornblower's transition to space, while the final essay deals with the phenomenon and explosive growth of fanfiction, and with the increasingly empowered status of the reader in a digital world. There is an extensive bibliography of genre and critical work, with eight illustrations. John Lennard is Director of Studies at Hughes Hall, Cambridge and has also taught for the Universities of London, Notre Dame, and for the Open University, and was Professor of British & American Literature at the University of the West Indies-Mona, 2004-09. Of Modern Dragons and other essays on genre fiction (2007), is also available from Lulu.
This book provides summaries and analyses of more than 250 novels and nearly 30 films and examines the extent to which they accurately reflect the history, mores and manners of the period--and the extent to which they reveal the ideas and attitudes of their authors and of the periods in which they were written. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature and importance of the war at sea for the British and on the role of famous naval officers such as Nelson, Pellew, Duncan, Smith and Cochrane in the defeat of Napoleon.
Within three and a half years of its inception, the Bosnian army succeeded in fighting the Serbian army to a standstill; Serbia was forced to recognise Bosnia's independence. Yet the victory was ambiguous, leaving two thirds of the country under the control of Serb and Croat extremists while the remainder became a predominantly Muslim Bosniak-inhabited area.
