The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century - Softcover

Miles, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080214392X ISBN 13: 9780802143921

Publisher: Grove Press, 2008

Synopsis

The Wreck of the Medusa is Jonathan Miles's spellbinding account of the most famous shipwreck before the Titanic. Drawing on contemporaneously published accounts and journals of survivors, Miles brilliantly reconstructs the ill-fated voyage and the events that inspired Theodore Gericault's magnificent painting The Raft of the Medusa.

In July of 1816, the French frigate Medusa, bound for the Senegalese port colony of Saint Louis under the command of an incompetent royalist captain, hit a famously treacherous reef. In the chaos that ensued, the commander and a privileged few claimed the lifeboats. The rest were herded onto a makeshift raft and set adrift. Without a compass or many provisions, hit by a vicious storm the first night and exposed to sweltering heat during the following days, the group set upon each other: mayhem, mutiny, and murder ensued. When rescue arrived thirteen days later, only fifteen were alive.

Two survivors' written account of the tragedy became an international best seller that exposed far-reaching corruption in Restoration France. The scandal inspired a young artist, Theodore Gericault, whose iconic depiction of suffering and hope won first prize at the Salon of 1819 and captivated viewers in the Louvre for centuries to come.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In June 1816 French frigate Medusa ran aground on a sandbar off the African coast. What followed—gross incompetence, murder and cannibalism—shocked European society and pushed the fragile, recently restored French monarchy to the brink. From the swirl of characters boiling around the story—admirals, ministers and kings—Miles (David Jones: The Maker Unmade) anchors his tale on Medusa survivor Alexandre Correard and painter Théodore Géricault. After surviving the wreck and subsequently drifting on a raft on which 133 of 147 died, Correard, an engineer fleeing the growing chaos in post-Napoleonic France, wrote a bestselling account of the tragedy and agitated for the monarchy's end. Revealed in the ensuing controversy was France's ongoing participation in the illegal trade of African slaves. With such great elements in place (flesh eating, palace intrigue and illicit love) this yarn has much promise. Unfortunately, while the story roars along with its own inherent momentum, Miles's prose is sometimes awkward ("Their union was obviously intense and, as with all true love, supremely precious. Catastrophically, it was to prove short-lived"). Nevertheless, the story of the wreck of the Medusa and the churning cultural machinations around it does make for a compelling read. (July)
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From Booklist:

An iconic painting of the Romantic era, Le radeau de la Méduse, by Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), immortalized a French maritime disaster in 1816. Unpacking the visual power of the image, author Miles proves to be both an astute art historian and a dramatic chronicler of the catastrophe. Several people survived to record accounts; these ignited a political scandal in France as the royalist captain's incompetence and callousness stoked criticism of the restored Bourbon monarchy. Sensing an opportunity, Géricault faced the challenge of determining what moment of the survival drama to depict, for survivors' accounts contained discrepancies. He decided to omit riot, murder, and cannibalism and to include elements condemning Louis XVIII's regime, such as the accusing, outstretched arm of survivor Alexandre Corréard. Since Corréard's story changed in successive editions, Miles is wary about Corréard's factual fidelity, lending historical depth to the narrative without detracting from Miles' insights into the suffering and betrayal provoked by Géricault's morbid masterpiece. Relating its popular reception, along with the subsequent lives of artist and subject, Miles crafts a captivating gem about art's relation to history. Taylor, Gilbert
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 080214392X
• ISBN 13: 9780802143921
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320