Tag Archives: Jack Aubrey

THE SURGEON’S MATE — CHAPTER TWO

Posted on January 7, 2024 by spectioneer

This chapter begins with Stephen’s ruminations about the diversity among sea officers – the peers and the ones that came in through the hawsehole (like Pullings, for instance) – the purely ignorant and the classical scholars – the fabulously wealthy and those subsisting on half-pay — as … Continue reading →

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THE SURGEON’S MATE — CHAPTER ONE

Posted on December 2, 2023 by spectioneer

This first chapter is a nice precis of the more contemporary events of the previous novel — spies, escape, sea battles, the butcher’s bill, etc. As the Shannon and the captured Chesapeake glide into the harbor under topsails, helped by … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — AFTERWORD

Posted on December 1, 2023 by spectioneer

Timewise, this installation encompasses just a few months, and the last couple of chapters encapsulate a matter of days. It begins in Indonesia, with the horribly damaged Leopard wafting, barely afloat, into the bay at Pulo Prabang, and ends off … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER NINE

Posted on October 8, 2023 by spectioneer

We wake up with Jack the morning after their escape — he echoes Diana’s final comment from the chapter before “Clear away: we have got clear away”, and we can enjoy his languid comfort in hammock swung in Broke’s cabin. … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER EIGHT

Posted on October 3, 2023 by spectioneer

Thank God we don’t have to wait an instant for the rescue to take immediate shape: Young Herapath is at the Asclepias in the very first sentence of this chapter, and Jack has the message by the 5th paragraph. “…looking … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER SEVEN

Posted on September 25, 2023 by spectioneer

I’m not sure why I took so long to come to this chapter. Perhaps because it’s so shocking — you find out several things about Stephen in this chapter that are quite the revelation. But we must first begin with … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER SIX

Posted on August 4, 2023 by spectioneer

This is a chapter that begins with Stephen’s dread of meeting Diana again after all that has happened, and ends with quite another, more deadly, kind of dread. But first, Stephen follows Mrs. Wogan into Franchon’s Hotel to meet with … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER FIVE

Posted on June 18, 2023 by spectioneer

With her gurgling, sustained laughter, Louisa Wogan makes her entrance for Stephen (not for Jack, as he’s too upset by the weirdness of the American naval visitation). She’s in fine health, wearing the sea otter furs gifted her by Maturin … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER FOUR

Posted on April 7, 2023 by spectioneer

We begin with Stephen, aboard the Constitution sailing northwards with no obstructions in sight. He’s at the taffrail, “…staring at the wake, white in the indigo blue.” Sometimes O’Brian is blatantly poetic, and the beginning of this chapter is one … Continue reading →

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THE FORTUNE OF WAR: CHAPTER THREE

Posted on March 23, 2023 by spectioneer

The first several pages of this chapter are damned painful to read — 13 men jammed into an 18 foot cutter, all of which are starving, raveningly thirsty, horribly sunburned. They’re sailing west with a tiny shoulder of mutton sail … Continue reading →

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