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 world’s most famous paintings and woven it into a timeless tale of betrayal and survival.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s 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 … Miles’s 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 yarn—Miles’s account of the voyage is compelling …. A scholarly, gripping and grisly read to get swept up in.”
—The Herald (UK)
“Spellbinding … fans of Sebastian Junger’s 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 painting’s] popular reception, along with the subsequent lives of artist and subject, Miles crafts a captivating gem about art’s 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. … Géricault 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 Géricault 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 ship’s 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 Géricault’s Medusa also illuminates vividly a little known period of French history—those 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 art’s 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 it—especially 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 doesn’t 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.”