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Summary: Poor Performance
Review: Madness, Betrayal and the Lash is one of silliest books I have not managed to finish in a very long time. Hoping for a reasonably scholarly biography of George Vancouver, I found Sunday-supplement journalism, sensationalism, sloppy writing, and a smug attitude in no way justified by Mr. Bown's own attainments. The book breaks virtually every rule of good writing.

The First Rule of good writing is Thou Shalt not Distract the Reader, and its corollary, Thou Shalt Stick to the Point. Alas, Mr. Bown peppers us with little judgments and smug asides which not only distract the reader, but cumulatively drive him to distraction. In one of very many examples, after quoting a perfectly clear passage from Vancouver's own writing, Bown gratuitously comments on "the stultified formal language of the era." Kenneth Clark once observed that it is one of the tragedies of Western Civilization that German never developed a good working prose. In the 18th century, English was doing just that; if Mr. Bown finds the precise use of a larger vocabulary than is common today, and the use of courtesy and some formality "stultifying,' why then, we must give him our sympathy, but such comments are simply not to the point. They only serve to distract the reader, as do references to scurvy as "a fashionable concern of eighteenth century physicians," to "trenchers of sloppy fermenting cabbage" (sauerkraut), "bobbing ships" which are "floating north" (apparently like rafts... ), and so on ad infinitum.

A Rule of History Writing declares that Thou Shalt Not Make up Little Fictions - even to entertain the reader. Mr. Bown however, feels that we must be constantly enlivened by bright little insertions such as this gem: "... Balboa, who in 1513, after crossing the Isthmus of Panama, boldly strode into the surf, allowed his wandering gaze to search the horizon south and north, and promptly claimed it all for Spain." This may set some quantity of barren readers on to smirk, but the judicious reader will wonder how Mr. Bown knows that Balboa had a wandering gaze, where he directed it, or how he managed to keep his footing in the surf. Elsewhere we wonder at the King awarding Cook a "royal [?] coat of arms," or know that Martinez "drew his sword and waved it imperiously towards the trees and the hills [how does one wave a sword imperiously?] when claiming Nootka Sound

Likewise, those who write history are supposed to refrain from trivial editorializing. And yet we read about the "whimsical Banks" Sir Joseph Banks was an untiring botanist who accompanied Cook on his first voyage and was for very many years an extremely useful and helpful president of the Royal Society - a body not known for its whimsy. (Bown also refers to Sir Joseph as a lord, which he was not.) We pass by references to Cook "smugly answering his critics," or Banks as "arrogant," which he wasn't, and "rich" which he was, as typical further editorial irrelevancies.

Equally annoying, Mr. Bown constantly makes gasping reference to bad food, brutal conditions, and as the title of this little book implies, wallows in contemplation of the lash and other popular horrors. In fact, the Navy, at the time of Vancouver, provided many seaman with more, and more regular food than they would have received on shore, and in a period of brutal punishments everywhere, naval discipline was not outstandingly severe, though a few captains such as the repellant and probably insane Piggot, were brutal indeed. But this was not encouraged by the Navy, which was probably the most democratic institution of its time, as shown when Cook, in Bown's own words, "challenged and triumphed over England's rigid caste system,"

Worst of all is Bown's habit of contradicting himself. He observes that Cook rose in rank from obscure origins, but then stuns us with "It was impossible for a regular, able-bodied sailor or non-commissioned officer to cross to the quarter deck" and then refers to the ship's Master, who "had begun his career two decades earlier as an able seaman" (as did Cook).

Bown informs us that, as a junior Lieutenant in the Caribbean Vancouver "learned the skills of a more senior officer such as navigating, taking the wheel on watch [senior officers did not take the wheel] and striving to keep his ship in the close formation of the fleet [although Bown makes it clear that there was not a fleet in the Caribbean at the time]". Bown later states that "Having sailed with Cook... Vancouver had an uncommon set of skills in navigation and hydrography." Where then, did Vancouver learn his navigation skills? Earlier, as a volunteer and midshipman with Cook? Or later in the Caribbean as a lieutenant (though no one would ever have passed for lieutenant if he had not already mastered these basic skills)?

A sad, silly book, then. A good, up-to-date, adult biography of Vancouver is badly needed, the last one being Bern Anderson's Life and Voyages of Captain George Vancouver ,published in Seattle in 1960. Sadly, Madness, Betrayal and the Lash, as the grocery store checkout title should have warned us, is not that book. I could not finish it. This one goes straight to the recycle bin.


Date: 2008-09-10
Rating: 1