May 14, 2005
Which It's A Post About Patrick O'Brian, Ain't It?
A long but very informative article about Patrick O'Brian by Robert Messenger over at the New Criterion, written in conjunction with a new five-volume bound collection of O'Brian's twenty-one Aubrey/Maturin novels. I particularly like Messenger's comparison of O'Brian to Jane Austen. There is much in what he says. (Super- Seckret Message to Mom: Click over to the article to read some short passages - you may see what I mean on this point.)
While I don't think I've read the series fifteen times, I would estimate that I have read it at least seven or eight times, and some books more than that. Unfortunately, I've always felt that there was a definite arc in terms of style and quality - the last few books (following The Wine-Dark Sea) have always made me rather sad, as they reflect a deepening melancholia within O'Brian himself, a kind of cranky, bitter tiredness that is painful to observe. (Just as an aside, I don't think I've ever quite forgiven PO'B for wiping out certain characters this late in the cycle.) Also, the fact of the matter remains that the last books became rather formulaic, with O'Brian simply slipping in a new enemy for Jack Aubrey to biff and a new exotic locale for Stephen Maturin to explore. (I have not yet read 21, the incomplete last novel, and am still not sure that I want to.)
Nonetheless, I think it would be very foolish not to appreciate the importance of this series to Twentieth Century literature.
Yips! to Sheila.
Posted by Robert at May 14, 2005 12:24 PMhave done so--read the whole article, in fact--and found it v interesting. liked the bit about reading war and peace and starting over again after the last page. i read jane austen that way! i'll have to try an o'brian and see whether i like it--but he does sound as if he has a bit of the austen touch--
that absolute lack of the least sentimentality--wh is to me such a part of the appeal.
You have read the series more than seven or eight times??? That, my young man, is absurd!
I grew tired of reading the series after once through five books. I simply cannot imagine reading the same book by PO'B more than once.
