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[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been retained in this etext. In some cases, they have been denoted by [sic].]
J.M. DENT AND CO BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND CO. MDCCCXCV
LIST OF MARRYAT'S WORKS, ETC ix BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xi PREFATORY NOTE TO PETER SIMPLE AND THE THREE CUTTERS xxxiv
By FREDERICK MARRYAT. _Born_, July 1792. _Died_, Aug. 1848.
*SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF IMPRESSMENT IN THE NAVAL SERVICE 1822
ADVENTURES OF A NAVAL OFFICER, OR FRANK MILDMAY 1829
*A CODE OF SIGNALS FOR THE USE OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE 1837
NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF MONSIEUR VIOLET 1843
This edition will include all the novels and tales, only omitting the three items marked in the above list with an asterisk. The text will be, for the most part, that of the first editions, except for the correction of a few obvious errors and some modernisation of spelling. _Rattlin the Reefer,_ so frequently attributed to Marryat, will not be reprinted here. It was written by Edward Howard, subeditor, under Marryat, of the _The Metropolitan Magazine,_ and author of _Outward Bound,_ etc. On the title-page it is described simply as _edited_ by Marryat and, according to his daughter, the Captain did no more than stand literary sponsor to the production. In 1850, Saunders and Otley published:--_The Floral Telegraph, or, Affections Signals_ by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., but Mrs Lean knows nothing of the book, and it is probably not Marryat's work.
_The Life and Letters of Captain Marryat: by Florence Marryat (Mrs Lean), in 2 vols.: Richard Bentley_ 1872, are the only biographical record of the novelist extant. In some matters they are very detailed and personal, in others reticent. The story has been spiritedly retold, with reflections and criticisms, by Mr David Hannay in the "Great Writers" Series, 1889.
The frontispiece is from a print, published by Henry Colburn in 1836, after the portrait by Simpson, the favourite pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence, which was "considered more like him than any other." Count D'Orsay took a portrait of Marryat, in coloured crayons, about 1840, but it was not a success. A portrait, in water colours, by Behnes, was engraved as a frontispiece to _The Pirate and The Three Cutters._ His bust was taken by Carew.