I just finished reading my first O’Brian novel, Master and Commander. I might want to graduate to Post Captain, but I’m also considering The Far Side of the Earth, as I really enjoyed the whole naturalist/Darwinism/Galapagos subplot in Peter Weir’s film. I also often scavenge bookstores for used books, and if I’m able to pick up a cheap copy somewhere, I’d want to know if I can safely read it without stumbling over major spoilers, or missing out on some hugely satisfying payoff that is the culmination of long-running development. For this reason I’d like to know which books, if any, that should be read in a specific order. Does O’Brian often reference plot points in earlier novels?
Secondly, O’Brian has roused in me an interest in 18-19th-century naval history. In reading this novel, I enjoyed the nautical exposition, but usually found myself quite lost in the quagmire of nautical terms. To a limited degree, O’Brian uses Maturin to explain certain principles, but I still don’t know what all the different sails are for, what putting up the hammocks means (they didn’t t use their sleeping hammocks as provisional sails, did they?), or what Maturin’s relationship with the elm-tree pump is, nor the difference between a brig and a frigate and a ship of the line. Endless mysteries. I have searched in vain for a good online nautical dictionary – anyone know of one? Failing that, what’s the ideal dead-tree dictionary?
While I’m at it I might as well ask what people’s favourite O’Brian books are.
First, I strongly suggest reading them in order. There are a number of plot points which develop over the series which should be encountered in order – significant events in the lives of Jack and Stephen are referred to in later books, and will spoil some of the fun.
Favorite… hard to say. I think it may be Post Captain, but I am not certain.
And no, they didn’t use their hammock as sails. IIRC, when going into battle, they’d use the hammocks as extra protection against flying shards of wood (caused by cannonballs) by placing them against the rails of the ship.
The novels were written in chronological order, so while I don’t think it’s absolutely imperative that you go in that order, it works best - Jack carries most of the same crew with him on almost every ship he gets because he’s a popular captain with the men, so if you miss the introduction of a character you will not be familiar with him later, and you’ll also miss out on promotions and developments in Jack’s naval career, information from Stephen’s intelligence work, and the various permutations of the interminable saga of Stephen and Diana. I haven’t gone in strict order myself, as I’ve been reading whatever the library had, but I’ve tried not to skip around too much.
I always got the impression that “putting up the hammocks” was rolling them up and stowing them in netting along the sides of the ship, where they would kind of work as shock absorbers and possibly catch some of the splinters from striking cannonfire.
Why yes! I highly recommend A Sea of Words, which is an extensive dictionary of the vocabulary used in the Aubrey/Maturin series–both nautical and not. Also has a couple interesting essays on how the navy was organized and how naval medicine was practiced.
You should absolutely read them in order unless you want to be constantly confused and/or spoiled by reading things out of sequence. (racinchikki already spoiled a bunch of things in the second book for you! )
It’s all pretty much one big continuous story. There’s no real benefit to reading it out of order. Maturin spends time as a natualist all over the globe, so there’s no reason to skip ahead to Far Side of the World for that.
A certain amount of the naval lingo will eventually sink in through osmosis. A certain amount of it is eventually explained (though for example you have to wait until book six or so for a complete explanation of leeway.) And, just like Maturin, a certain amount of it will be forever beyond your grasp. But that’s OK, you don’t need to understand 100% of the jargon to understand what’s going on.
I a huge fan of the series which I’ve read 3 times. I’d say for your first go around to read them in order simply because you’ll get much more enjoyment out of them that way.
That being said I think that O’Brian sums up the facts that will be relevant to the story pretty well in the beginning chapters of all of the books.
Also, don’t get hung up in the jargon. Its is never really essential to the understanding or enjoyment of the plot. If you really want to follow along and be able to envision every naval thing they do just get the glossary called “A Sea of Words” as was previously mentioned and knock yourself out.
One last thing. Don’t go looking for the movie in the books. The movie was really good but they grabbed bits and pieces of it from all over the series. I’d suggest just reading them in turn.
Thanks a lot for the comments, people. You’ve convinced me – will go buy Post Captain next.
William Falconer’s Dictionary was very helpful, and refreshingly readable despite its apparent ancientness. Exactly what I was looking for.
A Sea of Words is also on my shopping list. One of the authors has a companion volume called Harbors and High Seas: Map Book and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian which looks equally interesting.
There’s also Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which Is a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels and Jack Aubrey Commands: An Historical Companion to the Naval World of Patrick O’Brian, and a bunch of other companion books. Wow.
I have Patrick O’Brian’s Navy, a superbly-illustrated and informative guide to naval life, with explanations of some of the jargon, discussion of how the ships worked and how society functioned on board, and a review of the history of the Napoleonic Wars more broadly than the books allow. It was on sale at Barnes & Noble.
I’ll agree the series is best read in order, but the individual books do work well enough alone. When you’re done, look up Hornblower and all the others. Somewhere in there read about Nelson’s battles and all the voyages of exploration in that era. (Can you tell I’m a bit of a naval-history geek?)
I have Lobscouse and Spotted Dog. Some of the recipes sound great, a few I wouldn’t eat on a bet, and many have enough fat you can feel your arteries clogging up as you read. Good stuff!
I’ll have to look for some of the others mentioned here, and I’ve bookmarked Falconer. Thanks, all!
To harness the wind and turn it into foward motion of the ship, silly . That’s all you really need to know, and there’s a diagram in the front of the book showing which is where. Studdingsails (stun’s’ls) stick out to the sides of the regular sails, for even more speed in low wind.
No, the sleeping hammocks go up in nets along the edges of the upper deck to help stop the shot.
I have no idea.
Sloop = any naval vessel smaller than a frigate
Brig = 2 masts, square-rigged (having square sails) on both. It describes the manner of rigging, not a type of vessel per se.
Ship = 3 masts, square-rigged on all three.
Frigate = ship that carries 20 to 50 guns on one deck, with a “mess deck” above the waterline between the gun deck and the orlop (lower) deck. The illustration showing the sails is of a typical frigate.
Ship of the line = 55 to 120 guns on two or three decks, no mess deck – all the decks above water are gun decks. So called because of the tactic of arranging the fleet in a line, to point all possible guns at the enemy’s line while preventing the enemy from slipping between ships and shooting into their vulnerable sterns.
It was common courtesey for line ships to not attack frigates and smaller vessels (unless, of course, the smaller one fired first), and only engage other line ships. Not only did the line ships have more guns, their guns were bigger. HMS Victory, Nelson’s ship at Trafagar, is still around; the website has quite a bit of information on the navy of Aubrey’s time.
A couple of words of warning, since you mention that you buy a lot of stuff used. If you come upon the second edition of A Sea of Words, I recommend you give it a miss and look for the third instead. The second covers all but the last couple of books, while the third covers all of them, but the big problem with the second is that it was horribly copyedited/proofread – to the point where you just want to heave it overboad. Also, according to the reviews on Amazon, more than one reader ended up with copies that had a big chunk from the “C” section duplicated in place of a chunk of “D” (at least mine didn’t have that flaw). I don’t really know how much the editing was improved in the third edition, but it couldn’t be any worse. A more general quibble with the book as a whole is that you’ll look high and low without finding any geographical references in it. I understand that at least by the time of the second edition, Dean King was working on Harbors and High Seas and that it was therefore in his interest to ensure that the books didn’t overlap, so that readers would want them both, but you can almost feel the places where the geographical material got cut from Sea of Words.
That’s not to say that both aren’t generally well done and useful, though Harbors and High Seas in particular suffers from King’s understandable desire not to give away plot elements, which leads to some abrupt transitions and odd lacunae.
As for the OP, add me to the chorus suggesting you read them in order – it really is one big story, and it makes a lot more sense that way. I’ll also put in a recommendation that you try to get hold of at least one of the Recorded Books unabridged audiobooks narrated by Patrick Tull. Tull does an amazing job (as he always does) of conveying nuances of character through rhythm, pacing, and judicious use of dialect. When one of the characters is speaking, you know who it is just by the way Tull reads, but without being at all over-the-top or affected. I think it also helps with the nautical jargon, and with names of people and places, to hear them correctly pronounced. Mostly, though, it’s just a joy to hear such interesting stories read so amazingly well.
Here is another reader suggesting that you read the books in chronological order as they were published. The drama of having the whole outfit stranded on an uncharted reef/atoll in the South China Sea is sort of spoiled if you read a later book first and you know how it comes out and what happens to the supporting and periphery characters.
Elm tree pump: A length of wooden pipe that goes right down to the bottom of the ship. It was used to draw sea water onto the decks for all sorts of purposes such as washing the decks. When the pumping mechanism was removed you could look right down the pipe into the water under the ship. Because the lower end of the pipe was in the ship’s shadow and under the surface your view was not impaired by reflected sunlight as it would be if you just looked over the side of the ship.
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. That’s all you really need to know, and there’s a diagram in the front of the book showing which is where. Studdingsails (stun’s’ls) stick out to the sides of the regular sails, for even more speed in low wind.