Percival Keene — Frederick Marryat

In Percival Keene Marryat goes back to a character-style that he first introduced in Frank Mildmay.  In both books, the "hero" is a bit of a low-life -- proud, rebellious and, many times, downright mean.  He was criticized for that style when Frank Mildmay first came out, so he stayed away from it for a dozen years; but, with Percival Keene, he reverted.

Keene is the bastard son of an upwardly mobile captain in the Royal Navy.  For social reasons, his father will not recognize him; but, instead, works behind the scenes to help him along.  The book is full of the usual Marryat high-seas adventures in which the young officer is lost during a battle and thought dead, then finds his way back; confrontations with pirates, storms at sea, and so forth.  But the fascination is with Keene himself.  He is noble one moment, and mean-spirited the next.  He shows unbelievable courage and integrity in one set of circumstances, but not in another.  He is, to be sure, a low-life; but but he is an intriguing one.

In many ways the book is a refreshing departure from the hero as a cross between Superman and Dudley Do-Right.  Keene has flaws.  So do we all.  But couple that realism with Marryat's unquestioned ability to tell a sea yarn, and you have a very interesting read.