Mr Midshipman Easy by Captain Marryat

Mr Midshipman Easy is a very enjoyable book of high adventure and sheer dumb luck set during the Napoleonic Wars.  First published in 1836, it is also a critique - albeit a highly caricatured one - of some of the progressive social philosophers of the day.

Nicodemus Easy is a man of independent means, and looking for something to do, he decides on philosophy.  Marryat says philosophy is:

... the very best profession a man can take up, when he is fit for nothing else; he must be a very incapable person indeed who cannot talk nonsense ...  For some time, Mr Easy could not decide upon what description his nonsense should consist of, at last he fixed upon the rights of man, equality, and all that ...

Mr Easy steeps his son, Jack, in his philosophy, unwittingly turning him into a headstrong and spoiled child.  Later, when Jack starts attending school, he has great trouble being amenable to his teacher's authority.

At age seventeen, Jack decides to join the Royal Navy, naively thinking that if equality exists anywhere, it will be in the armed forces. Through the patronage of his father, Jack enlists as a midshipman and promptly sets his philosophy of equality against the entire chain of command of the navy.  Jack's easy-going and disarming manner allows him to get away with much of his insubordination, which also leads him into some hare-brained exploits.  A quick mind and a generous helping of luck sees Jack out of many a tight scrape, and success piles up around him.

Captain Marryat, himself a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, has created a fine comic novel in Mr Midshipman Easy.  There is a lot in it to amuse the reader, especially the naive charm of the Teflon-coated Jack Easy and the practical wisdom of his friend Mesty, a runaway African slave.  Their hijinks on the high seas is the cause for many a smile or raised eyebrows.  But this is not to say that there is no room for danger, violence and tragedy.  There is plenty of that too - many die along the way, sometimes callously - and Jack's homecoming has particularly tragic consequences.

Of course, this book was written nearly 180 years ago and sentiments have changed in that time.  The reader may find the Captain's portrayal of Mesty the former slave problematic.  On the positive side, we can say that Mesty is a fully-fleshed and subjective character with his own unique thoughts and feelings, and not a mere cipher or an object in the white man's field of view.

When the denunciation of old Mr Easy's philosophy arrives towards the end of the book, it is mostly couched in theological terms.  Even so, the Captain seriously challenges us about the nature of equality and inequality.  To what extent is equality possible?  Are there economic advantages to be derived from inequality, or deleterious social consequences to be derived from equality?  Can the wolf live with the lamb?  These questions are still pertinent today.