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Title: The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0-393-30905-3 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 August, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lucky Jack Aubrey's Reversal of Fortune
Comment: Jack Aubrey has been drummed out of the service, removed from the post-captain's list and the possibility of hoisting his flag one day as a rear admiral commanding a squadron. Stephen Maturin buys HMS Surprise and has her outfitted as a privateer under Aubrey's command, with a letter of marque attesting to her status as a private warship still in service to Her Britannic Majesty's government. During a shakedown cruise, Surprise overtakes and captures a French privateer, the more heavily armed Spartan, and then, in a clever bit of subterfuge, seizes the privateer's prizes too. It is a brilliant action which strongly resembles Aubrey's amazing seizure of the Spanish xebec frigate chronicled in Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander". Once more he is hailed in England as "Lucky Jack" Aubrey. Next Aubrey leads a daring nighttime raid on a French English Channel port, cutting out the newly built French frigate Diane, counting on the assistance of his former subordinate William Babbington, now the commander - and soon to be - post-captain of a sloop. Meanwhile Maturin finally frees himself of his opium addiction and joins Aubrey in a voyage to Sweden, ultimately reuniting with his estranged wife Diana Villiers. And Aubrey learns that he will soon be restored to the post-captain's list, after receiving an unexpected political legacy from an elderly cousin. This splendid novel is among the most suspenseful in the Aubrey/Maturin series, replete with O'Brian's brilliant lyrical prose and astute attention to detail. Without question it is among O'Brian's best.
Rating: 5
Summary: Joint Review of All Aubrey-Maturin Books
Comment: Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.
Rating: 5
Summary: O'Brian returns to high form!
Comment: Frankly, I didn't have very high expectations for this twelfth installment in the saga of Capt. Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin; turning the Surprise into a privateer seemed to be merely scrambling for a plot twist. But, however (as they say), I was mistaken. O'Brian takes the opportunity to point up the significant social and operational differences between the national and private man-of-war, the superior attitudes of the "real" navy toward those not in blue and gold uniform, and the real advantages sometimes enjoyed by the privately financed operation. And he sensitively explores Jack's deep depression at being separated from the service. Moreover, we all know Jack's estrangement, the result of his engineered conviction on trumped-up charges of rigging the stock market, cannot last. And, indeed, his sobriquet of "Lucky Jack" comes to the fore as his first cruise, intended only as a two-week shakedown exercise in preparation for a surreptitiously government-backed diplomatic and intelligence-gathering expedition to the Pacific coast of South America, quickly turns into a triumphant procession of Franco-American prizes back to Plymouth. There are also several interesting sub-plots, including Stephen's reconciliation with his departed wife, Diana, and his gradual but unintentional weaning from his extreme opium habit via his Irish servant. I'm pleased to recommend this yarn as one of the best in the mid-part of this series. (But if you haven't read the previous four or five, you'll have no idea of what's going on.)
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Title: The Far Side of the World (Aubrey-Maturin (Paperback)) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308626 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey-Maturin (Paperback)) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393317048 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Hundred Days (Aubrey/Maturin Series) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393319792 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308138 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 039332107X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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