3.5
The Wreck of the Medusa
ByPublisher Description
A “thrilling . . . captivating” account of the most famous shipwreck before the Titanic—a tragedy that inspired an unforgettable masterpiece of Western art (The Boston Globe).
In June 1816, the Medusa set sail. Commanded by an incompetent captain, the frigate ran aground off the desolate West African coast. During the chaotic evacuation a privileged few claimed the lifeboats, while 147 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft that was soon cut loose by the boats that had pledged to tow it to safety.
Those on the boats made it ashore and undertook a two-hundred-mile trek through the sweltering Sahara, but conditions were far worse on the drifting raft. Crazed, parched, and starving, the diminishing band fell into mayhem. When rescue arrived thirteen days later, only fifteen were alive.
Among the handful of survivors were two men whose bestselling account of the maritime disaster scandalized Europe and inspired promising artist Théodore Géricault, who threw himself into a study of the Medusa tragedy, turning it into a vast canvas in his painting, The Raft of the Medusa.
Drawing on contemporaneously published accounts and journals of survivors, The Wreck of the Medusa is “a captivating gem about art’s relation to history” (Booklist) and ultimately “a thrilling read” (The Guardian).
In June 1816, the Medusa set sail. Commanded by an incompetent captain, the frigate ran aground off the desolate West African coast. During the chaotic evacuation a privileged few claimed the lifeboats, while 147 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft that was soon cut loose by the boats that had pledged to tow it to safety.
Those on the boats made it ashore and undertook a two-hundred-mile trek through the sweltering Sahara, but conditions were far worse on the drifting raft. Crazed, parched, and starving, the diminishing band fell into mayhem. When rescue arrived thirteen days later, only fifteen were alive.
Among the handful of survivors were two men whose bestselling account of the maritime disaster scandalized Europe and inspired promising artist Théodore Géricault, who threw himself into a study of the Medusa tragedy, turning it into a vast canvas in his painting, The Raft of the Medusa.
Drawing on contemporaneously published accounts and journals of survivors, The Wreck of the Medusa is “a captivating gem about art’s relation to history” (Booklist) and ultimately “a thrilling read” (The Guardian).
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities5 Reviews
3.5
Karyl
Created 9 months agoShare
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“I learned about the wreck of the Medusa from reading https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36964159.Bound_to_the_Coast_of_Africa , a journal written by a sailor on his way to West Africa. For some reason, within the explanatory text was an account of the wreck of the Medusa and how only 15 people of 147 who had boarded the raft after the wreck were found alive thirteen days later. I requested two books on the subject, this being one of them.
While there is almost too much information within these pages, I appreciated learning so very much not only about the wreck and the loss of life and the incompetence that led to the Medusa running aground, but also about French politics of the era which led to such an incompetent man being chosen to captain this ship. To be frank, I had no idea that France had bounced back and forth between the monarchy and a republic so many times; it was not a “one and done” like for the United States.
As a person who also enjoys art, it was fascinating to read about Gericault and his vision for the painting, the way in which he was tortured internally by an illicit affair with his uncle’s wife, and how he would vacillate between extreme depression and a form of mania. My only wish is that I had read this in a physical copy so that I could reference the painting as the author described Gericault’s choices; the versions I found online were generally quite dark and hard to zoom in on.
This book can be difficult to read in parts. As the daughter and wife of Navy sailors, the idea that the captain goes down with the ship (or is the last one to abandon her) has been drilled into me, and the fact that the captain of the Medusa abandoned his ship when there were still men on board boggles my mind. How the sailors in the other ships could have turned people away when there was still room is also rather terrifying. Humans are our own worst enemy.”
CV
Created about 1 year agoShare
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“It was an interested read, and well written. However, I only managed to get 2/3rds of the way through it because after the wreck business is over, the book turns to the effects of the wreck on the politics of France etc.... just not interesting to me.”
oh_let3
Created almost 2 years agoShare
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“interesting if uneven at times”
Scribe Of Alexandria
Created over 5 years agoShare
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Jenna Brechbuhler
Created over 6 years agoShare
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