I began reading Patrick O’Brien again tonight, and wonder if any 'Dopers would be interested in reading and discussing Master and Commander.
Darn… finished it in mid-April, and have worked my way toward the end of The Mauritius Command as of last night. I should finish it tomorrow sometime.
Otherwise, I’d be happy to contribute plenty. As it is, I’ve read Master & Commander 3 times, so I’ll keep tabs on the thread.
I started this about a year ago…I could not get into it, and i loved the move, ill keep my eyes on the thread to see if my interest can get piqued
I’ve been working my way through the series over the last month. I started at the beginning and right now I’m reading The Thirteen Gun Salute.
I love these books! They have a very real feel to them. One thing I particularly like is that Maturin seems to be an authentic 19th century physician, rather than one of the almost magical way ahead of his time doctors there are in other books.
You might be interested in this- The Patrick O’Brian Mapping Project.
One thing I’ve been wondering- where is Grimsholm (from The Surgeon’s Mate)? Is it Suomenlinna?
Thanks!
I’ve read the whole series many times. I’m certainly up for any discussion. I remember the first time I read M&C, I almost gave up. Not only is all the nautical wording tough to pick up, but POB has a quirky writing style. He will jump from place/character/time without giving much indication that it has happened. Once you get used to the way he writes and the nautical lingo it becomes much easier to read.
For those staring out, I would recommend reading the part in M&C where Stephen first gets a tour of the ship a couple times. Once you get that down the language POB becomes much easier.
I too had difficulty starting this series. After a few false starts, I picked up on O’Brian’s style, and fell in love with the series, having read them all the way through twice now.
I’ll join in any discussion the OP wants to kick off.
I don’t know how many times I’ve read the series, but I could start again just as soon as I finish Ruger No.1 by J. D. Clayton and The Deed of Paksenarrion. Monday, probably.
My memory isn’t what it was, but I could probably fake my way through a discussion before I start reading it again.
Great books.
Thanks for that link!
Before beginning my second pass through the books I got a copy of Dean King’s A Sea of Words and Harbors and High Seas, and it really enhanced the experience to know where they were and what the heck they were talking about.
A obtained a copy of A Sea of Words and found it useful although it doesn’t cover the whole series.
I’m read it several times, too. I’d like to work the thread with spoilers and references to any of the Aubrey Maturin novels.
I have only read the series through once; after that I skipped around. I think that Master and Commander is somewhat different in tone than some of the later books–he really only hits his stride with the characters in about book 3.
I have not read M&C lately but I will try to chime in with something sensible.
M&C
Jack has Stephen to dinner in an effort to entice him into join Sophie as the surgeon. Is there a joke in Jacks’ attempt at Spanish? I get the “putain” later in the scene, “puta” being prostitute.
“Heaven knows what is in that dish by you, but it is certainly not hog’s face. I said, visage de porco…one desires them to prepare five dished, cinco platos, explaining carefully in Spanish only to find there are but three, and two of those the wrong ones.”
Another one here whos read the series several times over though its a while since I read M&C.
Personally while its a good read I would say that O’Brien was yet to get into the flow of his later style so for me it is the weakest book in the series and the narration is a little jerky if that term makes any sense.
like ExTankit took me several attempts to get into O’Bs style which at first I found over flowery but once hooked theres no going back.
My following observations are about the series in general as I dont think that they apply in M&C so much.
One thing that I find pretty unique with O’Bs tale telling is that quite often you get apparent hints and clues as to how the story is going to shape up later on so you preconcieve the outline of future events much as you would do with virtually every other best selling author and then O’B suddenly drops that path and the story goes in a completely different direction.
Whether thats because he deliberately led us up the garden path or simply because he changed his mind about the plot I dont know,but if the latter its unusual because just about all authors tend to edit out the false plot trail before it goes for publishing.
Whatever the reason it is more like real life and keeps the story fresh and interesting.
Another thing that keeps you absorbed is that his stories are multi layered,Foresters Hornblower books(Which I enjoyed a great deal)are basically action adventures counterpointed by the hero’s almost neurotic lack of self confidence,whereas the Aubery and Maturin tales have adventure,comedy,day to day life,intrigue,romance and even natural history not as devices to support the main plot but because different things happen in real life,so often something will appear out of the blue and vanish without trace .
I may see a road traffic accident on my way to work but that does’nt mean that later on a gang of spies are going to break into my house in case I may have seen something incriminating in the car wreck.
The characters are human and thus believable,Aubery is not the brightest of sparks and can be a bit of a Jack the lad EXCEPT when it comes to his naval duty where he is sharp as a razor and has a strong sense of duty(excepting one later volume)
Maturin too has contrasting characteristics,intelligent and ruthless on the one hand but a daydreamer who would never ever master even basic maritime lore no matter if he spent a lifetime at sea but absurdly proud of what he has picked up while taking his superlative skill as a physician for granted.
But for me the major strength of the writing is that the behaviour is OF THE TIME.
Maturins orphan corpses for dissection are taking as a matter of course by the staff of the inn that he regulary stays in,he,a leading medical man,will use a scalpel that he has just cut up a corpse with to cut ham to eat.
When he is looking doubtfully at a diving bell that he is shortly to go under water with Aubery casually suggests that they get a midshipman to try it out first in case it isn’t safe,the implication being that they can always afford to lose the odd middy but not the ships surgeon particulary when its his best friend.
Ms intelligence chief,an intelligent,patriotic and respectable gentleman is by modern day standards a sex fetishest.
I would recommend to anyone just starting out on the series not to get greedy and leave a definite interval after reading each book before starting on the next on matter how avid you are to see how the story goes.
I say this because when I was reading my way through the series myself I’d finish a book and then be climbing the walls with impatience waiting for the next one to be published.
But one fateful day I had to take on board that not only weren’t there any more coming but that it was highly unlikely that there would ever be an author of similar genius writing in that particular genre.
When O’B died I was gutted for purely selfish reasons as even with twenty one? volumes to the story you can only read them so many times to stave off cold Turkey.
I’m sorry if I’ve come across as an arty farty book reviewer I hope not but I dearly love those books and I could very easily give some one severe ear ache just talking about them.
Stephen tells Jack of a place Sophie can water, and asks to be left ashore for the night. Even though he returns with information about the Carfuego that is sent against them, he denies that he is spying. When did O’Brien decide to make Stephen a spy?
Given his use of historical incidents, I wonder if saving the drowned Mid by blowing cigar smoke up his nose is based on an actual incident or practice.
My wife is alternately amused and exasperated by what will or will not elicit an emotional response from me. Very little ever really upsets me.
When I finished the last book I was really depressed for a solid couple days. Not because of the book, of course, but simply because I knew I’d never get to read another one.
Maturin makes a distinction between being an intelligence agent and being a “spy.” He looks down on spies as a sort of mercenary and prides himself on not accepting any compensation for his intelligence activities. Maturin does his intelligence work out of hatred for Bonaparte.
Even as many times as I’ve read the series, I can’t quite figure out exactly how old Jack might be. I’d guess mid-30’s sometimes but I don’t know how long it usually took someone who went to sea at 12 to make M&C. The time line eventually gets so twisted that the question (in my mind) becomes meaningless, but it should be possible to guess an age for the beginning of the series.
From chapter one, Master and Commander:
“The listener further to the left was a man of between twenty and thirty whose big form overflowed his seat…”
I believe I’ve read before that the best anyone can figure out from the books is sometime between the 1st and 2nd book, with the possibility he was starting off in the episode you mention.
But he’s so damn good at it, and so highly thought of, you’d think it had been going on for some time. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be at a lost for transportation in Port Mahon at the beginning om M&C.