A historical novel that tells the story of Septimus Quinn as he becomes a midshipman in the British Navy at age 15, and describes his involvement in the Napoleonic War.
Britain's challenge to mighty Napoleon, who has taken over Europe and now seeks to subdue Spain, provides the background for the two complete books in this volume. In The Flying Ensign, a small British army under Sir John Moore, in the winter of 1808, makes an audacious strike through the rugged mountains of Leon. Into this factual historical scenario, enthralling in itself, author Showell Styles places the captivating fictional character of Ensign Peter Byrd. Joined by various and colorful companions, Ensign Byrd, a youthful mountaineer from Cumberland on his first military campaign with the Fighting 95th, proves his mettle as an innovative thinker and leader. The next summer in Byrd of the 95th, an urgent plea from Anita, a Spanish damsel-patriot, and her father catapult Byrd once again into action and trouble. Issues of crucial military importance as well as questions of personal honor center on the nearly impregnable fortress, "El Cuchillo," where they reveal developing strength of character, awakening love, and all-round resourcefulness.
Nathaniel Drinkwater's life at sea begins with the HMS Cyclops' capture of the Santa Teresa during Admiral Rodney's dramatic Moonlight Battle of 1780. Subsequently, Drinkwater's courage and initiative are put to the test as the Cyclops pursues American privateers threatening British trade and is later dispatched to the swamps of South Carolina, where many lives are lost both at sea and ashore. Gradually, Drinkwater matures into a capable and self-assured sailor. As he contends with enemy forces, the tyranny of the Cyclops' midshipmen, and the stark contrast between the comfort of home life and the brutality of naval service, he finds strength and sustenance in the love of his beloved Elizabeth.
Taking up where the author's book 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 and many hyperlinks.
Fifteen-year old Septimus Quinn is not your everyday hero. In this collection of four complete novels, the reader will follow the small, spectacled, but very determined midshipman on a series of exciting adventures that take him from England to the Mediterranean, from the Battle of Trafalgar to espionage in Republican France. Author Showell Styles based his books of sea-battles and events on actual eye-witness accounts taken from the logbooks of english frigates, making his stories not only exciting but historically authentic as well. Includes Midshipman Quinn, Quinn of the Fury, Midshipman Quinn and Denise the Spy and Quinn at Trafalgar.
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.
This remarkable work is a comprehensive historiographical and bibliographical survey of the most important scholarly and printed materials about the naval and maritime history of England and Great Britain from the earliest times to 1815. More than 4,000 popular, standard and official histories, important articles in journals and periodicals, anthologies, conference, symposium and seminar papers, guides, documents and doctoral theses are covered so that the emphasis is the broadest possible. But the work is far, far more than a listing. The works are all evaluated, assessed and analysed and then integrated into an historical narrative that makes the book a hugely useful reference work for student, scholar, and enthusiast alike. It is divided into twenty-one chapters which cover resource centres, significant naval writers, pre-eminent and general histories, the chronological periods from Julius Caesar through the Vikings, Tudors and Stuarts to Nelson and Bligh, major naval personalities, warships, piracy, strategy and tactics, exploration, discovery and navigation, archaeology and even naval fiction. Quite simply, no-one with an interest and enthusiasm for naval history can afford to be without this book at their side.
The year is 1793, the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, and Horatio Hornblower, a seventeen-year-old boy unschooled in seafaring and the ways of seamen, is ordered to board a French merchant ship and take command of crew and cargo for the glory of England. Though not an unqualified success, this first naval adventure teaches the young midshipman enough to launch him on a series of increasingly glorious exploits. This novel-in which young Horatio gets his sea legs, proves his mettle, and shows the makings of the legend he will become-is the first of the eleven swashbuckling Hornblower tales that are today regarded as classic adventure stories of the sea