The Floating Prison: The Extraordinary Account of Nine Years Captivity on the British Prison Hulks During the Napoleonic Wars Review

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(More customer reviews)I have never translated a book. It must be more difficult than writing one. I have written several. It doesn't seem very hard. Selling them is hard. The controversary that jumps out at me is the numerous exceptions the translator takes to the author, Garneray. In the forward and various translator notes by the interpreter one is disinclined to continue because of this doubt placed on the integrity of the author.
In Chapter LVI of Moby Dick, Melville goes off on another tangent regarding the art available on whales. Some of the writers and painters of whales are castigated by Melville. He is really put out about it, but gives great credit to Garnery (Melville's spelling) and today some of Garneray's, whale pictures are displayed even in the paperback editions of Moby Dick.
Maybe the translator takes the Mark Twain attitude that the only purpose of the preface is to give an excuse for the book. There the translator should stop and reflect--this is Garneray,s book--written and published around 1851. Melville probably never read Garneray,s book. He did see 'two large French engravings, well excuted and taken from paintings by one Garnery'. This is the reason I hunted down "The Floating Prison" and having gotten past the Preface and Introduction I would like to give the translation of Richard Rose of "The Floating Prison" five stars straight out of the galaxey.
james Waddell


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In 1806, after 10 years at sea, Lieutentant Garneray was anxious to return to France when his ship was captured by the Royal Navy. He was confined, with hundreds of others, in the cramped quarters of one of the prison hulks off Portsmouth, where he remained for 9 years. Later, in the book Mes Pontons, he would recount his experience in what is considered to be the longest and most detailed account of life on a prison hulk. By turns violent and poignant, dark and humorous, the book is a compelling page-turner that sheds light on a hitherto largely neglected area of British naval history. Although it has been criticised since its original publication in 1851 of taking dramatic licence, many of the events told would almost certainly have occurred, and Richard Rose has drawn on his extensive research into French prisoners-of-war and RN administration of the period to add annotations that address the more fanciful elements of the text. Following his release. Louis Garneray became a distinguished maritime artist in his own country, and some of his paintings together with the etchings he drew for the original edition are included here.

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