Masterman Ready by Frederick Marryat

Masterman Ready Reviews

• 
  Tharindu Dissanayake

  "Necessity sharpens a man's wits;"
  
  'Masterman Ready' is a complete adventure in many aspects in my opinion, checking most of which are usually expected from a story like this. The story is very detailed at at the same time very engaging, emphasizing almost all the difficulties to add a great deal of realism in to it, and at the same time allowing the reader to enjoys the hard earned rewards by the characters. I felt the two sub-plots, Ready's life story and Mr. Seagrave's animal instincts descriptions added a nice bit of change to the story, despite the former occupying a significant part of the story.
  
  "never let the fear of ridicule induce you to do what is wrong; or if you have done wrong, prevent you from returning to what is your duty."
  
• 
  Janith Pathirage

  This survival story is similar to The Swiss Family Robinson in many ways. I think it's a very good book for kids since there are some good life lessons being taught by the author who was a seaman. Specially it was heavy on optimism and being grateful for what you have. Still it was nothing more than a cliche family survival story of the 19th century. No twists and jaw opening moments. From the first page itself you can see how everything's gonna play out in the end. Two things annoyed me as I was reading the book. One, the way the Seagrave family praises the lord in almost every page like you are running YouTube adds. Then there was Tommy the spoiled kid. He was so annoying throughout the story. He even got one of the key characters killed for no reason, just got slapped across his face and got away with it.
• 
  J.

  In his latter years, Marryat turned to mostly juvenile literature, and Masterman Ready is one of those works. it must be taken as a a product of its time and, as such, is not as interesting as Marryat's adult seafaring adventures. The Seagrave family is shipwrecked on the typical desert island with a faithful, wise, and practical old seaman, Masterman Ready. With his untiring help they build shelter, survive, repel attacks by savages, and are finally rescued. The family stranded on a desert island story is almost always a good one, though the Swiss Family Robinson did their boring best to dull it down as much as possible. The problem is that early Victorian juvenile literature needed to be "improving" and so there is much moralizing and life lessons and preparing yourself to accept God's will and to accept your fate. Which the reader will soon start to skip over. The oldest Seagrave son is sober, helpful, and takes on his role as an adult and helper to Ready. The younger son, Tommy, is the example of free will that puts his life and the lives of others at risk by his willful and thoughtless actions.
  
  Considering that children, adults too, died all too easily and often, it is not surprising that many of the lessons are to accept God's will and to be "right with God" when death comes all too unexpectedly. It that way the family might be reunited in heaven. This somewhat morbid frame of mind can be quite strange to modern sensibilities. The unquestioned killing of the "savages" that attack in the end may also disturb the less blood thirsty among us. So, all in all, a curiosity that can be easily skipped for one of Marryat's better books.
• 
  Justin Neville

  This 1841 novel for young readers is - to the contemporary reader - really dreadful.
  
  It is cringeworthily and heavy-handedly moralistic and didactic. And the values it espouses and is trying to indoctrinate in its young readers are, in many ways, a million miles from our own.
  
  So why the four stars?
  
  Partly because, damn it, he's such a good writer. It is gripping, despite being predictable. And heartwarming, despite being implausible.
  
  And partly because - to be frank - I got a huge kick out of feeling more enlightened and morally and culturally superior to both the characters in the book and the author. If we're honest with ourselves, I think that's often part of the appeal for us of reading 'classics'. What's not to like about reading a good yarn whilst noting with self-satisfaction that we know better now?
  
  There's no way that this book would be considered appropriate for young readers today. But it was clearly still being used in schools in the mid-20th century: I was reading my mother's school copy from 1945.
• 
  Marianne Gregory

  After Mr Midshipman Easy, my expectations were too high for this book...
• 
  Larry Piper

  A hundred years ago, this was considered a children's classic. It tells the story of the Seagrave family who are ship wrecked on a south sea island along with a wizened old sailor, Masterman Ready. That sounds like it might be a gripping story, but it's not. It switches between didactic lessons regarding how the protagonists salvage their ship and set up housing for themselves and procure sources of food, along with pious discourses on how all is ordered by God's great, beneficial providence.
  
  It wasn't truly horrible, and I thought for time I might get through it. But then, I decided that my age, my remaining time on earth was too short to waste on such dated dreck.
  
  I made it 40% of the way through the book, so technically it belongs on the "gave up" bookshelf. But I invested enough time into it and another book on which I "gave up", that I decided one should be counted for my reading for the year and one in the discard pile, where it belongs.
  
• 
  Jennifer Dudley

  This book was given to me by my Grandmother who was an 8th grade english teacher. This made me feel so big it had way more than 100 pages. I was in 4th grade at the time and dyslexic so did not read much. But Wow I was so inthralled with the story that my school teachers had to pry it out of my hands so I would do my school work, once home my parents gave up and let me read till the last page.
  
  Later I found myself using some of the teachings of Ready which he thought the family for survival on the island. I highly recommend it to any one but especially young people who are still learning about logic, and systematic thinking.
  
  A must read! I have read over ten times in my life so far.
• 
  Amy Griffith

  Among my favorite Marryat books. Similar to Swiss Family Robinson or Robinson Crusoe but a bit easier to read.