Captain Frederick Marryat

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Captain Frederick Marryat is known today as the inventor of the adventurous, military maritime novel. Sixty years ago, his name was known to any literate reader of English since his novels had shaped the imaginations of nearly all English readers for at least a hundred years after 1840, especially those who went on to write novels of adventure. Later exponents of the genre include R.M. Ballantyne (1825-94) whose most famous work is

The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific

Ocean (1858), C. S. Forester (1899-1966) with his Hornblower novels (1937-67), Patrick O’Brian (1914-2000) notably with his

Master and Commander

(1989), and William Golding (1911-1993) with his sea-trilogy

To the Ends of the Earth

comprising

Close Quarters

(1987),

Fire Down Below

(1989) and

Rites of Passage

(1990).

The

4900 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Captain Frederick Marryat". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 July 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2949, accessed 25 April 2024.]

2949 Captain Frederick Marryat 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.