Marryat, Frederick

This entry is a discussion of the life, works, and critical reception of Victorian naval officer and novelist Frederick Marryat (1792–1848). The entry describes Marryat's career, from his years as a sailor and officer in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars to his burgeoning career as a writer of nautical fiction in the 1830s and his shift into children's fiction in the 1840s. A brief account is provided of critical treatments of his work during the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries, including the popular focus on juvenile works like Masterman Ready .