Hurricane Hurry, by W.H.G. Kingston.
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This rather long book is definitely an historical novel. In the edition
used there are 470 pages, not above size for one of Kingston's books,
but the text on the pages is tall and wide, while the font is small.
All this builds up to 1.1 megabytes of text. In addition the inking was
not always good, though the type in the corners of the page was not
particularly damaged, as is common in Victorian printings. As a result
producing this e-text was rather difficult, and there may still remain
some errors, though not, we hope, many.
The main action takes place in the years around 1780.
There are some rather strange aspects to the narration. For example, the
hero's name is Hurry, except that on two occasions in Chapter 8 and one
in Chapter 9, his name is mysteriously change to Poynder. Also in
Chapter 9, the young Miss Carlyon is referred to as having gone to live
with her aunt, Mrs Tarleton, on the death of her father. Yet the
latter figures strongly in the later stages of the book, so we conclude
that Kingston wrote the book with parts being pulled in from previous
notes, but that he did not go back and re-read the book with a critical
eye.
However, those are but passing observations which it is necessary to
make. The book is about the war between the British and the American
Royalists on the one hand, and the American rebels on the other. The
author is probably sympathetic to the rebels, but certainly to the cause
of Freedom, and he makes his hero, Hurry, sympathetic to their cause,
yet always observant of his duty as an officer of the King's Navy.
While there are the usual fights between ship and ship, or between ship
and weather, as always so beautifully expressed by Kingston's pen, we
find that by chapter 9 Hurry has fallen in love with an American young
lady, and the rest of the book contains episodes in which he is in
contact with her, though she is the daughter of a Colonel active on the
Rebel side. It won't spoil the story if we say that they marry in the
last paragraph, five lines from the end.
Slightly annoying is the fact that we are made interested in the fate of
Harry Sumner, a very young midshipman, alone in the world, who is
wounded in a minor skirmish, and by Chapter 8 is met with in a
sick-berth, fully expecting to die. But does he die, or was that but a
childish fancy? We never find out.
This book is probably one of the very best historical novels about the
American Rebellion, seen from the naval point of view, and as such is
well worth reading by both British and American subjects.
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