THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504180549
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY GEORGE HOLBERT TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
THE COMMODORE
PATRICK O'BRIAN
W.W. Norton. 282 pp. $22.50.
PATRICK O'BRIAN, the Irish-born author whom The New Republic has dubbed ``the Homer of the Napoleonic Wars,'' is a literary miracle. Since 1970, when Master and Commander, the first of his nautical sagas, appeared, he has written 16 page-turners. They have gained him the approval of a worldwide literate audience ever eager for a sequel to the previous account of the derring-do of Capt. Jack Aubrey and his close friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin.
Now we have The Commodore, O'Brian's 17th installment. And what a marvelous and exciting book it is! By the law of averages, O'Brian should by now be reaching the doldrums, but such is not the case. His new book is as authoritative, witty and exquisitely written as its predecessors. O'Brian is now writing the 18th novel in this series devoted to what it was like to be a participant in England's long war at sea against Napoleon during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Aficionados of Aubrey and Maturin, who have shared nautical adventures on the world's wide waters, will need no introduction to the author's chief protagonists. For those who might want to get on the O'Brian bandwagon, however, some description is in order: Aubrey is a kindly but positively gigantic, blue-eyed British naval aristocrat whose occasional lapses make him all the more intriguing. As for Dr. Maturin, Aubrey's half-Irish, half-Spanish associate, he is the human epitome of the Age of Enlightenment, which sent men like Capt. James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks around the world in search of new lands.
Both Aubrey and Maturin are provided with intimately described love lives that give zest to those parts of the novels that are not governed by the winds and tides. For those in search of Georgian-era bodice-ripping, however, let it be said that even though O'Brian occasionally indulges in an erotic scene or two, his main purpose is to give the armchair reader a forceful and authentic glimpse of sea life at the time that poor George III was becoming increasingly mad.
In this book, Capt. Aubrey is finally awarded the rank of commodore and is dispatched on a twofold mission. Great Britain has recently abolished the slave trade, and Aubrey's first assignment is to harry the slave coast of Africa with his squadron. (To insert a personal note - I thought I knew a fair amount concerning the nefarious slave trade, but after reading O'Brian's telling accounts of man's inhumanity to man, which hardened the hearts of profiteers in Africa and the New World for centuries, I came away almost nauseated.)
Aubrey's second mission is to thwart a French attempt to invade Ireland, a task he performs with brio, thereby giving O'Brian an excuse to thrill his readers with the booming of great guns. Even so, there is much more to recommend this thrilling addition to the Aubrey-Maturin saga. Notable is the Irish-Spanish doctor's desire to learn of and record everything of a heretofore unusual and undiscovered nature in the way of flora and fauna. O'Brian has also brought his readers to the point where the wives of both parties play important roles in the development of the plot.
As in the other books, the chief charm of The Commodore is the author's account of the personal give-and-take between Aubrey and Maturin. Since Aubrey plays the violin and Maturin the cello, the two are always capable of thrusting the rigors of sea life into the background by playing and discussing duets by Boccherini, Locatelli, Haydn and Mozart. Between these aesthetic indulgences, Aubrey and Maturin converse knowingly, but not pedantically, on such varied subjects as politics, the prevalence of sodomy in the British navy, the ever-present beauty of the universe, and the pleasures of the bottle and the table.
O'Brian, who has steeped himself in what it was to be thrillingly alive between 1790 and 1815, handles these intimate conversations with an ease and sense of style that have gained him the reputation of being the author of ``the best historical novels ever written.'' Anyone who has not yet been fortunate enough to discover O'Brian should come aboard with Aubrey and Maturin as soon as possible to discover a reading pleasure that is practically inexhaustible.
- MEMO: George Holbert Tucker is an author and columnist for The Virginian-Pilot
and The Ledger-Star. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CHERYL CLEGG
Patrick O'Brian has written 17 books in his series about England's
war against Napoleon in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
by CNB