The first edition of this book is dated 1840. The edition used is dated 1883. The publisher was Collins Cleartype Press. The number of pages is 443.

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General information

Captain Frederick Marryat was born July 10 1792, and died August 8 1848. He retired from the British navy in 1828 in order to devote himself to writing. In the following 20 years he wrote 26 books, many of which are among the very best of English literature, and some of which are still in print.

Marryat had an extraordinary gift for the invention of episodes in his stories. He says somewhere that when he sat down for the day’s work, he never knew what he was going to write. He certainly was a literary genius.

“Mr. Midshipman Easy” was published in 1846, the ninth book to flow from Marryat’s pen.

This e-text was transcribed in 1998 by Nick Hodson, and was re- formatted in 2003, and again in 2005.

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Contents

Chapter I.
Which the reader will find very easy to read.

Chapter II.
In which Mrs. Easy, as usual, has her own way.

Chapter III.
In which our hero has to wait the issue of an argument.

Chapter IV.
In which the Doctor prescribes going to school as a remedy for a cut finger.

Chapter V.
Jack Easy is sent to a school at which there is no flogging.

Chapter VI.
In which Jack makes essay of his father’s sublime philosophy and arrives very near to truth at last.

Chapter VII.
In which Jack makes some very sage reflections, and comes to a very unwise decision.

Chapter VIII.
In which Mr. Easy has his first lesson as to zeal in His Majesty’s Service.

Chapter IX.
In which Mr. Easy finds himself on the other side of the Bay of Biscay.

Chapter X.
Showing how Jack transgresses against his own philosophy.

Chapter XI.
In which our hero proves that all on board should equally sacrifice decency to duty.

Chapter XII.
In which our hero prefers going down to going up; a choice, it is to be hoped, he will reverse upon a more important occasion.

Chapter XIII.
In which our hero begins to act and think for himself.

Chapter XIV.
In which our hero finds that disagreeable occurrences will take place on a cruise.

Chapter XV.
In which mutiny, like fire, is quenched for want of fuel and no want of water.

Chapter XVI.
In which Jack’s cruise is ended, and he regains the Harpy.

Chapter XVII.
In which our hero finds out that trigonometry is not only necessary to navigation, but may be required in settling affairs of honour.

Chapter XVIII.
In which our hero sets off on another cruise, in which he is not blown off shore.

Chapter XIX.
In which our hero follows his destiny and forms a tableau.

Chapter XX.
A long story, which the reader must listen to, as well as our hero.

Chapter XXI.
In which our hero is brought up all standing under a press of sail.

Chapter XXII.
Our hero is sick with the service, but recovers with proper medicine—an argument, ending, as most do, in a blow up—Mesty lectures upon craniology.

Chapter XXIII.
Jack goes on another cruise—love and diplomacy—Jack proves himself too clever for three, and upsets all the arrangements of the high contracting powers.

Chapter XXIV.
Our hero plays the very devil.

Chapter XXV.
In which the old proverb is illustrated, “that you must not count your chickens before they are hatched.

Chapter XXVI.
In which our hero becomes excessively unwell, and agrees to go through a course of medicine.

Chapter XXVII.
In which Captain Wilson is repaid with interest for Jack’s borrowing his name; proving that a good name is as good as a legacy.

Chapter XXVIII.
“Philosophy made easy” upon agrarian principles, the subject of some uneasiness to our hero—the first appearance, but not the last, of an important personage.

Chapter XXIX.
In which our hero sees a little more service, and is better employed than in fighting Don Silvio.

Chapter XXX.
Modern philanthropy which, as usual, is the cause of much trouble and vexation.

Chapter XXXI.
A regular set-to, in which the parties beaten are not knocked down, but rise higher and higher at each discomfiture—nothing but the troops could have prevented them from going up to Heaven.

Chapter XXXII.
In which our hero and Gascoigne ought to be ashamed of themselves, and did feel what might be called midshipmite compunction.

Chapter XXXIII.
In which Mesty should be called throughout Mephistopheles, for it abounds in black cloaks, disguises, daggers, and dark deeds.

Chapter XXXIV.
Jack leaves the service, in which he had no business, and goes home to mind his own business.

Chapter XXXV.
Mr. Easy’s wonderful invention fully explained by himself—much to the satisfaction of our hero, and, it is to be presumed, to that also of the reader.

Chapter XXXVI.
In which Jack takes up the other side of the argument, and proves that he can argue as well on one side as the other.

Chapter XXXVII.
In which our hero finds himself an orphan, and resolves to go to sea again, without the smallest idea of equality.

Chapter XXXVIII.
In which our hero, as usual, gets into the very middle of it.

Chapter XXXIX.
A council of war, in which Jack decides that he will have one more cruise.

Chapter XL.
In which there is another slight difference of opinion between those who should be friends.

Chapter XLI.
Which winds up the Nautical Adventures of Mr. Midshipman Easy.

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