Mr Midshipman Easy

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Mr. Midshipman Easy is an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat, a retired Captain in the 19th century Royal Navy. The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Marryat himself served with distinction.

[edit] Plot summary

Easy is the son of foolish parents, who spoiled him. His father, in particular, regards himself as a philosopher, with a firm belief in the "rights of man". As he is a rich man, his belief, which the novel presents as very foolish, is never seriously contradicted.

By the time he is a teenager Easy has adopted his father's point of view, to the point where he no longer believes in private property. There are two very satiric short chapters.

Easy joins the navy, becomes friendly with a lower deck seaman named Mesty, an escaped slave, who had been a prince in Africa. Mesty is sympathetic to Easy's philosophizing. Even though Marryat tries to render Mesty's speech in dialect, he portrays him sympathetically, allowing him dignity.

Easy becomes a competent officer, in spite of his notions. By the end of the novel both Easy and Mesty have come to a more conventional view of rights, and private property.

The book is narratively similar to Henry Fielding's novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.