The Eighteenth Captain (The John Paul Jones Novels) - Softcover

Nicastro, Nicholas

3.26

35 ratings by Goodreads

9780935526547: The Eighteenth Captain (The John Paul Jones Novels)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0935526544 ISBN 13: 9780935526547

Publisher: UNKNO, 1999

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Told in the voice of a fictitious American officer, the story conjures up a vivid cast of high and low characters among racy cameos of well-drawn historical figures, and steers them through a rich landscape of rousing adventure and telling period detail.

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About the Author:

Nicholas Nicastro is a writer and filmmaker whose work includes short fiction, film criticism, and travel and science articles. He has published in The New York Times, The New York Observer, Film Comment, and The International Herald Tribune. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Review:

"In The Eighteenth Captain, Nicolas Nicastro gives us a nuanced, insightful and thoroughly believable portrait of an American hero that few know beyond his saying "I have not yet begun to fight" which, in fact, he probably did not say. Nicastro does what the artist can do and the historian cannot; probe the inner mind of the historical John Paul Jones, guess who he really was from the empirical evidence, and then present that portrait in words and deeds that are on the one hand often fiction, but on the other true to the spirit of Jones. And he does it very well, showing us our American Tragic Hero, great but flawed, a conqueror brought down by his own faults. The Eighteenth Captain is beautifully framed by the fall-out of the French Revolution which represented the end of much that Jones loved but was a consequence in part of Jones' own actions, a lovely metaphor for the man's life and deeds. Carefully researched, accurate in tone and detail, The Eighteenth Captain is an insightful portrait of a man, a hero and his times, and what each of those things, in their essence, truly mean." -- James L. Nelson, author of the Revolution at Sea Saga

"Nicastro takes you by the scruff of your neck and yanks you into the action of history. From the moment the spine is creased, you are there, on board the ship, like Jim Hawkins in the apple barrel listening to Long John Silver's most secret plan. . . . Kudos to Nicholas Nicastro and even more kudos to McBooks Press for adding this finely wrought novel to their armada of Maritime literature!" -- Eric Machan Howd, Ithaca Times

"This maritime historical novel fairly shimmers with furtive lustiness and wry humor. Embellishing John Paul Jones' early naval intrigues and sexual liasons, Nicholas Nicastro preserves the true spirit of a mercurial and moody hero." -- Jill B. Gidmark University of Minnesota Professor of English

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