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Tag Archives: Patrick O’Brian
THE SURGEON’S MATE — CHAPTER ONE
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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Tagged Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — AFTERWORD
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, ship battles, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER NINE
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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Tagged Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, ship battles, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER EIGHT
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER SEVEN
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER SIX
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER FIVE
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR — CHAPTER FOUR
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, ship battles, Stephen Maturin
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THE FORTUNE OF WAR: CHAPTER THREE
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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Tagged adventure, Jack Aubrey, Patrick O'Brian, ship battles, Stephen Maturin
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THE SURGEON’S MATE — CHAPTER TWO
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 →