This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 15, 2013.

Japanese Colour Prints

By Jack Ronald Hillier – Phaidon Press – August 12, 1998

Review by Robin Marx

This book was a bit of a disappointment. The opening essay offered a decent overview of the history of ukiyo-e, but those readers without a background in art history (and ideally some knowledge of Japanese art) are likely to find it confusing and unhelpful.

While most of the most notable artists are present and accounted for, the example prints selected were lacking in several instances. Harunobu, Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige were all incredibly influential artists, yet the prints chosen for them are far from their best work.

The commentary accompanying the prints is also spotty. Rather than providing some much-needed cultural context for Kabuki scenes, allusions, etc., featured in the print, Hillier tends to go off on extraneous tangents about that artists' pupils.

I also felt Hillier's decision to exclude late period prints (after the introduction of foreign aniline dyes) was pure snobbery. He argues that “...few of the later prints rise above either ineffectual prettiness, or violently colored melodrama,” but Yoshitoshi was one of the giants of the art form, and dismissing his work is unforgivable.

In the end, this book offers a decent, unspectacular survey of the ukiyo-e art form, with commentary that goes into a little too much detail in arcane areas. Who is the audience for this book? Pairing introductory artwork with beginner-unfriendly text seems like a strange editorial decision. The artwork is nice, but I'd recommend those interested in ukiyo-e either look elsewhere, or supplement their reading with additional books.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 27, 2018.

Life on a Mediaeval Barony: A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century

By William Stearns Davis – Harper & Brothers – 1923

Review by Robin Marx

Although published in 1923, this book is an engaging and eminently readable survey of various aspects of life in medieval France. Davis handles the text like a cinematographer wields his camera, panning over expansive scenery before zooming in closely to various scenes of interest.

While the barony and its inhabitants described are fictional, serving as a sort of amalgamation of typical elements from the time period, numerous footnotes compare and contrast aspects with specific named holdings and personages from history. The result is an entertaining and enlightening presentation of the “gist” of life in this era, rather than a potentially dry summation of events and lineages and so forth.

Highly recommended to both history students and fans of fantasy fiction hoping to learn a bit more about how things were in the real world.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on April 17, 2021.

The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet

By Jeremy R. Moss – Captain's Row Books – September 15, 2020

Review by Robin Marx

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” (H. L. Mencken)

This biography tells the tale of one such normal man, an English plantation owner from Barbados who decides to buy a small ship, outfit it with cannons, and take to a life of piracy. The reasons for the change in vocation are absent from the historical record and unclear. The author suggests sympathies with the Jacobite rebellion or an unsatisfying home life; he leaves his wife and small children and never returns.

While it gets off to an intriguing start and the book seems effectively researched, throughout it I couldn't shake the feeling that Stede Bonnet was not a very apt selection for full length biographical treatment.

He didn't seem like a very successful pirate, for one. Because he lacked any experience with shipboard command he quickly gets critically injured in an ill-considered battle with a Spanish Man-of-war. Perhaps recognizing that Bonnet has no idea what he's doing, famed pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch quickly usurps command of his ship, relegating Bonnet to a passenger on his own vessel. Bonnet remains in this situation for roughly half the book, lacking any apparent agency. He is quite literally “along for the ride.”

After he parts ways with Thatch, Bonnet does manage to take some ships and engage in some plunder, but his exploits didn't seem particularly noteworthy compared to the other pirates mentioned in passing. He is a “Gentleman Pirate” because of his breeding, not due to any particular gallantry on the high seas. He doesn't seem to have been a particularly violent pirate, but then again most historical pirates weren't as bloodthirsty as literature and Hollywood would suggest.

Towards the end of his piratical career, Bonnet halfheartedly angles for a royal pardon but continues to board and steal from passing ships. Inevitably he gets captured and put on trial, and without spoiling things too much, he does not comport himself in a particularly manly or defiant way.

I have no complaint about the book's writing, just the choice in subject. Apart from the inciting mystery (i.e., what made this man drop everything to become a pirate?), he doesn't seem to have done enough to justify a whole book written about him. There doesn't seem to be enough historical documentation to make him anything more than a cipher. It seems like he was in over his head throughout his piratical career, but without diaries or other records of his thoughts and motivations it's difficult to come away from this book with any kind of moral or other instructive lesson.

This book is brief and competently written, but I wish I had spent my time reading about a more interesting and fully documented pirate.

★★☆☆☆

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