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Patrick O’Brian Does the Near Impossible: Describing Music in Prose
As I watch Bob Corker and his Keystone Kops allow Obama to enact a treaty with 34 votes and as I try to ignore the death dance between the GOP and Donald Trump, I have one reliable source of escape and solace: Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin books. I forget about our self-imposed wounds as I’m transported to the main deck of a British man o’ war in the Napoleonic era.
Last night I read from The Yellow Admiral and came across a passage of pure sublimity.
Let me set the stage: Captain Jack Aubrey is a good amateur violinist and Doctor Stephen Maturin plays a competent cello. They often make music together, to the utter disdain of Jack’s steward, the choleric Preserved Killick.
Occasionally they’re able to draft shipmates into their music-making. In this scene, their purser plays the viola and they’ve drafted a young midshipman (an Irish boy named Geoghegan) to play the oboe. The dramatic tension comes as we wonder how the young boy will do in the company of the older officers.
These two paragraphs tell the tale:
They spread their scores, and as they did so Stephen remembered with some concern that in the F major quartet the opening notes were played by the oboe alone: but when, after the necessary squeaking and grunting as the stringed instruments tuned themselves, Jack smiled at Geoghegan and nodded, these same critical notes came out clear and pure, with no over-emphasis–a beautiful round tone in which the strings joined almost at once. And almost at once they were a quartet, playing happily along with as nearly perfect an understanding as was possible on so short an acquaintance.
With scarcely a pause they swam through the elegant melancholy of the adagio, Jack Aubrey particularly distinguishing himself and Stephen booming nobly; but it was in the rondo that the oboe came wholly into its own, singing away with an exquisite gay delicacy infinitely enjoyed by all four. And to all four, in spite of the music before them, it seemed to last for an indefinite space before coming to the perfect simplicity of its end.
That, fellow Ricochetti, is great writing. To be able to recreate the sublimity of beautiful music with only the pen is pure genius.
This kind of writing makes me wonder if all of this political stuff really matters much. Then I read some Solzhenitsyn and remember that politics matters a lot.
Even so, I’m grateful of O’Brian for taking me away, even for a few minutes, from our sadly broken republic. Bogie said to Ingrid, “We’ll always have Paris.” Well, I’ll always have Aubrey and Maturin.
Published in Literature
Reading Master and Commander and Post-Captain led me to find out more about sailing. Two other fans of O’Brian, a mother-daughter team, put together a cook book based on dishes mentioned in the tales: Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, by Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas. Great fun to read and meticulously researched. Sea of Words has already been mentioned, along with Harbours and High Seas. For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of reading O’Brian is not only the fine writing, but also the fact that he led me into an enjoyment of many things nautical and historical that I might never have taken up. O’Brian took a lot of pleasure from reading the Naval Chronicles and often expressed his appreciation for the librarians and archivists to led him to these treasures. Reading O’Brian for me was not just a pleasure, but an insight into the craft of writing. O’Brian sets a high standard for someone like me, in the midst of research for a historical novel of my own.
That’s a wonderful approach until the EPA or another agency gets you into it’s crosshairs. Then you may wish someone, anyone (everyone?) had paid more attention to all the boring political stuff.
“It’s a Republic, madam. If you can keep it.” B. Franklin
John Lehman, I think. And the series ended up at 20 volumes. They published a partial draft for a 21st, which I’ve not read.
I agree. Get a youngster hooked on O’Brian and he or she are likely to be permanently hooked to high quality writing.
Others have talked about the Hornblower series. I finally read them about a year ago, and thoroughly enjoyed them.
That said, I’d put O’Brian at the top of heap. I’ve tried to figure out why I prefer O’Brian to Forester. I think I’d put it this way.
O’Brian is a great writer; Forester is very good.
O’Brian’s books seem to be part of an organic whole; Forester’s are a bit more episodic.
The Aubrey/Maturin relationship is the centerpiece; in Hornblower, there’s a bit of that (Horatio’s relationship with William Bush), but it doesn’t develop as does the Aubrey/Maturin friendship.
Final Grade: O’Brian A+; Forester A-.
I would gladly play second fiddle to O’Brian.
Both thoroughly admirable.
Both worthy of repeated re-readings.
I didn’t say avoid it altogether. I said “people who obsess.” Obviously i don’t avoid politics since I’m here on Ricochet. But there are priorities.
Agreed: O’Brian’s use of Maturin is the great thing that he does for his Aubrey novels. He fleshes out a whole aspect of the intellectual life of that age — that of the natural philosophers and how and why they were driven to make so many discoveries. Very heady stuff to add to the naval adventure genre.
Forester’s Hornblower novels are really fun and filled with action. I loved Beat to Quarters (titled The Happy Return in England) and I later learned that though it’s the 5th in the series it was the first one that he wrote. It has a style that I love and shows the author at his best. If people don’t have time or inclination to start the whole series, consider reading this one all by itself. It’s worth it.
Also, I want to mention a strange book by Forester: The Sky and The Forest which is about a tribe in Africa that is raided by Arab slavers. It’s riveting and unusual and creative. Creative because Forester tries to get inside the head of the chief of this small tribe. The chief starts out as a god and ends knowing what it is to be a man. I was very moved by this book and impressed with the effort that Forester put into it.
Beautiful excerpt. He could also hold you enthralled for pages describing the simple details of the day aboard ship; and his descriptions of Jack’s experience of storms at sea were terrific.
Hear him! Hear him!
Two of the happiest words in the English language are Patrick Tull saying, “Chapter One.” So much depth in those books and so much peace.
Narrators make such a difference.
Frederick Davidson drawling through Sharpe’s Rifles.
Mark Hammer’s masterful rendering of Bomber’s Law.
Frank Muller doing The Green Mile.
George Guidall reading American Gods.
Okay, I’m gushing. They’re worth it.
Reading Bomber’s Law is a challenge – it’s Higgins’ Finnegan’s Wake. Listening to it must be quite an experience.
Frank Muller’s narration of All the Pretty Horses is near perfect. Sadly, he died in 2008, from injuries caused in a motorcycle accident several years before.
I think O’Brian’s shopping lists were probably high art. Where most of us have trouble creating an interesting sentence, he was incapable writing a bad one. As I understand it, he was a man with flaws. If he had a flaw as a writer, I’ve not seen it.
ok, Tab:
I stopped O’Brian’s series midway through book 6, partly because Sophie might very well be my favorite character in the book.
Am in the middle of Hornblower and only partway through “Atropos,” knowing that the last page (which I peeked at) will bring tears to my eyes.
I’m not saying I need to have an artificially sanitized historical fiction with all the sad bits removed (I can handle all the people getting blown up by cannon fire), but goodness. It wouldn’t have hurt either the series or the character to have Jack remain entirely faithful to Sophie.
Oh – but feel free to talk me back into the O’Brian series! I know I’ll pick it up again; was just annoyed.
I agree, but I think if you’ll read on you’ll find that Jack and Sophie create a happy marriage. Sophie is a saintly figure; Jack is good man, all too typical of his type. That issue tends to fade into the background, so hang in there.
There is another character–Maturin–who is highly positive example of fidelity.
O’Brian brings some realism to his stories, but it’s quite clear he comes down on the side of goodness and fidelity.
Have you read any of the biographies of Lord Cochrane who served as the primary model for Jack Aubrey? His exploits are quite astounding as well as his ability (like Aubrey’s) to irritate the senior ranks of British Admirals.
I like that O’Brian brought some realism to Jack. He didn’t win every battle – not everything he touches turns to gold like so many fictional heroes. His one bout of infidelity is regrettable but all too human. I can forgive him for that.
We got hooked on Hornblower with the first story we read –trying to navigate a leaking ship full of [expanding] rice to safe harbors.