{"product_id":"9781555848675","title":"The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Wreck of the Medusa\u003c\/i\u003e is Jonathan Miles's spellbinding account of the most famous shipwreck before the Titanic. Drawing on contemporaneously published accounts and journals of survivors, Miles brilliantly reconstructs the ill-fated voyage and the events that inspired Theodore Gericault's magnificent painting \u003ci\u003eThe Raft of the Medusa\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn July of 1816, the French frigate Medusa, bound for the Senegalese port colony of Saint Louis under the command of an incompetent royalist captain, hit a famously treacherous reef. In the chaos that ensued, the commander and a privileged few claimed the lifeboats. The rest were herded onto a makeshift raft and set adrift. Without a compass or many provisions, hit by a vicious storm the first night and exposed to sweltering heat during the following days, the group set upon each other: mayhem, mutiny, and murder ensued. When rescue arrived thirteen days later, only fifteen were alive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo survivors' written account of the tragedy became an international best seller that exposed far-reaching corruption in Restoration France. The scandal inspired a young artist, Theodore Gericault, whose iconic depiction of suffering and hope won first prize at the Salon of 1819 and captivated viewers in the Louvre for centuries to come.","brand":"Grove\/Atlantic, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47133511713008,"sku":"9781555848675","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555848675_p0.jpg?v=1763755273","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555848675","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}