Jonathan Miles - The Wreck of the Medusa

Praise for The Wreck of the Medusa:

Miles uses exquisitely detailed research to reveal the multiple truths of this ill-fated trip. the result is a fully dimensional, readable account of history.

The Providence Journal

A shipwreck, a bestselling nineteenth-century novel, a half-crazed artist, and political intrigue all would seem to be elements of a Dan Brown thriller. But [The Wreck of the Medusa] is history, and the author presents it in a most compelling manner, with two off-kilter characters driving the story.

The Pittsburgh Tribune

The story is riveting but Miles makes it more gripping still, chiefly through his deft reconstruction using scattered accounts and conflicting records.

The Atlantic Monthly

With powerful prose and riveting detail, Jonathan Miles has taken the story behind one of the worlds most famous paintings and woven it into a timeless tale of betrayal and survival.

Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelts Darkest Journey

An excitable and highly readable adventure story with skillfully interwoven narratives of a famous sea disaster and the political trials of Restoration France Miles has used archival sources to re-create the story in a fashion that will intrigue everyone from general readers to students of art history.

Library Journal (starred review)

Enthralling Miless unpicking of his two stories is impressive and he tells them with admirable lucidity.

The Sunday Telegraph (UK)

A fascinating look into the machinations of Restoration France revolving around the horrific wreck of an Africa-bound ship and the famed painting it inspired. The spellbinding characters and lucid writing make this a genuine page-turner.

Winston F. Groom, author of 1942 and Patriotic Fire

Packed with all the elements of a ripping yarnMiless account of the voyage is compelling . A scholarly, gripping and grisly read to get swept up in.

The Herald (UK)

Spellbinding fans of Sebastian Jungers The Perfect Storm will be fascinated.

Schwartz Books Newsletter

Miles proves to be both an astute art historian and a dramatic chronicler of the catastrophe . Relating [the paintings] popular reception, along with the subsequent lives of artist and subject, Miles crafts a captivating gem about arts relation to history.

Booklist

[An] excellent account Few shipwreck stories have had the impact that the wreck of the frigate Medusa had on the culture and politics of France. Gricault is as extraordinary and interesting as the shipwreck . Miles has taken a shipwreck and placed it into its political and historical and artistic context. We can only hope he writes more books as fine and compelling.

The American Scholar

An incredibly gripping book masterful a powerful read.

Irish Times (UK)

Brilliant Miles shows consummate skill in rendering the richly varied atmosphere of the African coast [his] superbly drawn Gricault is a man possessed.

The Monthly Review

The story of the wreck of the Medusa and the churning cultural machinations around it does make for a compelling read.

Publishers Weekly

It is impossible to read about the incompetence of the ships captain without thinking of the Bush administration in the wake of the string of disasters of the past several years, including Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing fiasco in Iraq.

Bookforum

[A] riveting account In the end, [The Wreck of the Medusa] is a heartbreaking tale of cowardice, desperation, and dashed hopes.

ARTNews

Hard to put down, this truly horrendous tale plumbs the depths of brutality and incompetence, as well as touching the bounds of human survival. The saga of Gricaults Medusa also illuminates vividly a little known period of French historythose muddy years that followed the collapse of Waterloo.

Alistair Horne, author of La Belle France and The Savage War of Peace

Both meticulously accurate and profoundly imaginative.

Rupert Christiansen, Literary Review (UK)

[A] crisp and telling biography of one of arts most powerful icons.

The Observer (UK)

The Raft of the Medusa is one of the most famous paintings of the nineteenth century . In his intriguing book, Miles unearths the real tragedy that inspired the painting . Combining a gripping narrative of terrible events with insightful analysis Medusa reveals an artist reinventing reality.

Nick Rennison, author of Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography

[A] consistently fascinating and vivaciously written book . Miles assembles these components of the Medusa story with a palpable sense of anger, and his book is all the better for itespecially since it so effectively powers his descriptive writing . He captures the sense of rising alarm as the ship approaches its fate, and pulls out all the stops when describing conditions on the raft . If there are times when Miles seems to be writing more like a novelist than a historian, it doesnt matter.

Andrew Motion, Saturday Guardian (UK)

Miles has a voracious pen and a veracious purpose . A history dressed as fiction skillful vivid Miles interweaves the story of the masterpiece with the story of the scandal. He has a good eye for the painting and another for the politics.

Times Literary Supplement (UK)

[A] fascinating account expertly explored.

The Spectator (UK)

A compelling picture of disaster, desperation, and dishonour.

The Sunday Telegraph

An impressively balanced illumination of the social, political, and artistic dimensions of events immense readibility, an observant eye for telling detail and a dry, understated wit.

The Eire Sunday Business Post

THE WRECK OF THE MEDUSA

JONATHAN MILES

The Most Famous Sea Disaster
of the Nineteenth Century

Copyright 2007 by Jonathan Miles

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Printed in the United States of America

eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-5558-4867-5

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

for all those misled by their leaders

Four ships left France in June, 1816 to repossess Senegal from the British:

The Medusa, a frigate and flagship of the expedition

The Echo, a corvette

The Argus, a brig

The Loire, a supply vessel

On board the Medusa were the following boats used during its evacuation:

The captains barge, commanded by Midshipman Sander Rang