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The Lord Bude posted:Honestly the only place you can go once you’ve absorbed O’Brien is Jane Austen. This is very true. Reading Patrick O'Brian taught me to enjoy Jane Austen.
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Sep 23, 2022 16:29
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I just finished a re-read of The Far Side of the World (which has one of the best endings of any of the books IMO), and opened The Reverse of the Medal to remind myself if the Hermiones were ever mentioned again, and came across a funny comment from the port Admiral, in view of the last book. In The Far Side of the World, Jack is lamenting to Stephen that another Captain has lied to him that the war was over, when Jack suspected it was not. Stephen, calls him out on his own lies in service of war (flying under foreign colors, stolen signals, etc) and Jack responds that it's just not the same: quote:'Oh,' cried he, 'those are just ruses de guerre, and perfectly legitimate: they are not direct lies like saying it is peace when you know damned well it is war[...]Perhaps it is a distinction too nice for a civilian, but I do assure you it is perfectly clear to sailors. At the beginning of The Reverse of the Medal Jack is talking to the admiral, describing his encounter with the Captain as behaving strangely, "in the first place he said the war was over..." To which the Admiral replies: quote:'That's fair enough. A legitimate rude de guerre.' Raskolnikov2089 fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Oct 11, 2022 |
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Oct 8, 2022 22:02
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:I'm curious, what was the fastest a man of war in Aubrey's time could go? Early on, the books make it seem like ten or eleven knots is a rare feat of speed, but such paces seem to get more frequent as time goes on, and I think at one point O'Brien mentions 15 knots. There’s a formula for it! Im not sure if it’s the same for multi-mast vessels but for a single keel single mast it’s 1.34 x the square root of the length of the water line in feet.
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Oct 12, 2022 00:14
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MockingQuantum posted:I just finished Blue at the Mizzen and my first read of all of the A-U books and I'm genuinely kind of broken up about it. I started Master & Commander sometime around the beginning of the pandemic and these books have, in some small way at least, helped me get through the last two years. It felt like how fantasy novels were for me as a kid, when I needed something completely fantastical and fictional to escape from everyday life sometimes, and I would get totally transported by whatever I was reading. I loved these books, and I'm sure I'll read them all again, likely sooner than later. I didn't read 21. Leaving it unread felt to me like the series never really concluded, and I could pretend Jack and Stephen were still out there sailing on some new adventure. The good news is, you'll be able to re-read this series over and over, and every book you'll find something new. O'Brians prose is deceptive in its simplicty, there's a lot under the surface.
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Nov 24, 2022 21:38
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A Proper Uppercut posted:I just started The Reverse of the Medal. Sounds like Jack is going to get taken in by another con man, what a doofus. My favorite scene in the entire series takes place in this book. You'll know it when you get to it.
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Dec 10, 2022 21:11
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MockingQuantum posted:Which one, out of curiosity? The scene where all the sailors show up to protect him when he's in the pillory? I can't remember if that happens in Medal or not, but it was one of my favorite moments. That's the one. Makes me tear up every time.
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Dec 12, 2022 06:31
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:I thoroughly enjoyed the Auberyad, and have been on a bit of a Napoleonic Era kick ever since. I was wondering, what is this threads opinion on the Sharpe books? I have heard that they get on the repetitious side of things, but that aside are they worth the time it takes to read them? They're great, just repetitive. Sharpe meets a woman. Sharpe meets a snobby officer. Sharpe gets a task from Wellington. Snobby officer kidnaps woman/is working for the french/both. Sharpe fights officer. Sharpe completes task. Sharpe gets woman. Wash, rinse and repeat. They're a *fantastic* way to learn about Napoleonic battles though, so I highly recommend them until you get bored of the pattern. I'll still pick one up every now and again because I know what I'm getting and I know it will be entertaining. Honestly though, if you loved Aubrey-Maturin, my recommendation goes in a slightly different direction: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's the same type of humor.
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Jan 16, 2023 18:53
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Also I can't believe I didn't suggest the obvious. Jane Austen. My love of Aubrey-Maturin taught me to read Jane Austen, and they're very similar in feel, since she was POB's favorite author.
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Jan 17, 2023 18:26
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I'm reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and Sophie's mother is so obviously drawn from Mrs. Bennet. It jumps out at you almost from the start. Also, once again discovering that Jane Austen was really funny.
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Feb 8, 2023 03:44
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Mr.Collins posted:"Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest--there is no occasion for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved." Was this also meant to be funny in Jane Austen's day? I love Mr. Collins letting out his inner mean girl here. If there's a Jane Austen/Regency literature thread let me know and I'll move this discussion there.
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Feb 12, 2023 02:19
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Finished the book. It's funny how each of her novels has been the same for me, I struggle for about 50 pages or so, and then I'm hooked and devour the rest of the novel.thekeeshman posted:It's my grandma's favorite book, and I remember her telling me once that everyone bags on Mrs. Bennet, but since she has no sons making sure her daughters marry well is literally the only thing keeping her (and whichever daughters are still unmarried when her husband happens to die) out of the poorhouse, so it's not surprising it becomes an obsession. While she was hilarious, I felt her quite nicely redeemed in the end with how joyfully she reacted when Elizabeth told her she was engaged to Mr. Darcy. She just wanted her daughters taken care of, it was sweet.
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Feb 15, 2023 08:42
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Myrmidongs posted:First time reader plowing through the series for the first time. I just finished Reverse of the Medal last night. Yup. Makes me tear up every time I read it.
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May 11, 2023 05:36
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:I’ve recently started to listen to the series again (my second time), and I’ve just started Post Captain. I am only three chapters in, but I’m amazed at how much I like it! My first time through I grew very bored with the whole “Captain Aubrey in the Countryside” portion of the plot, but now I can’t get enough! What I once thought was an interminable interlude following all of the sea action in Master and Commander is now easily my favorite part of the 20+ hours I’ve listened to so far. What creatures we humans are. First time through you read the series for the exciting action. On subsequent reads, you come to appreciate how deeply drawn all the characters are.
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May 13, 2023 03:38
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Fire Safety Doug posted:I wouldn’t imagine Bonden looking like Dave Bautista, but I also have a hard time picturing the boxing champion of the fleet looking like Billy Boyd. That and Bettany were my major casting gripes, even though I found the actual acting (subjectively) fine. Bettany is too gorgeous a man to have played Maturin, but the chemistry he had with Crowe more than made up for it. I had no trouble believing the bromance.
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Jun 8, 2023 22:39
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Pwnstar posted:Another good quote, it's always fun when the narration plays along with the jokes. One of my favorite ongoing jokes is that the entirety of Surprise, crew and officers all, think Steven is a lecherous, violent drunk, and absolutely love him for it.
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Jun 30, 2023 21:06
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Haven't re-read that particular book in awhile, but I thought it was pretty clear that Sophie had "evened the score" in order to let go her resentment toward Jack for his infidelity.
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Aug 9, 2023 18:33
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Sarern posted:Any of these would be an excellent approach, but every time I've gone back to Post Captain I've liked it more and more, until now it's among my favorites in the series. The first time through, I found it to be an obnoxious slog. Same. First time I read it I just skimmed to the naval action. But over the series O'Brian taught me to enjoy Jane Austen, and now I love both Post Captain and Pride and Prejudice.
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Sep 9, 2023 18:09
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This is a series that teaches you to savor every word. I wouldn’t stress it, if it doesn’t click with you the first time, it will on the next re-read of the series.
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Sep 9, 2023 18:45
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Psion posted:I understand Post Captain is a big ask for a lot of people but I guess the solution is go read a bunch of Jane Austen and then you'll find the land parts of PC charming instead of frustrating. Yes, that's right, read thousands of pages combined in multiple books just to be okay with this one book. Clearly, the most efficient strategy The great thing about this series is, you become so invested in the characters and so desperate for more interactions with them, that you'll eventually go back and re-read books you didn't like such as Post Captain, only to find that O'Brian has changed how you read and you'll find yourself actually enjoying PC. I didn't like Jane Austen until a few reads of this series.
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Sep 26, 2023 18:12
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StrixNebulosa posted:I'll be honest, I've been struggling to find movies that are related to Aubrey-Maturin outside of the adaptation (haven't seen yet) and like, I want to see more boats! I want even faint glimpses of the sea! There were a number of Horatio Hornblower TV movies that came out in the late 90s that are worth a watch. Nothing on the quality of M&C of course, but still well made.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:01
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Benagain posted:That's why the packages are numbered, vagaries of mail being what they are. Is Patrick O'Brian why "vagaries" entered my vocab? I found myself using it in a work e-mail and wondered where I pulled it from.
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Dec 30, 2023 00:41
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Drunkboxer posted:Lobscouse & Spotted Dog is a fun reading little cookbook. It’s worth picking up just for Patrick O'Brian’s forward where he kind of veers away from talking about the book to lamenting the lack of pudding in america. Husband made a christmas pudding this year. Candied oranges, suet, the whole shebang. They use so...much...brandy. Like, we kept running out.
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Jan 13, 2024 03:40
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Everlasting syllabub is an easy recommend, and is really, really good. I don't know why it's not still popular.
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Jan 13, 2024 22:27
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