Please see my comments on Vol. 1, Master and Commander. ( )

The Letter of Marque lifted to heights by explorations of character: It is a bit unfair of me to say that Patrick O'Brian's "The Letter of Marque" is a "character-driven" novel. Indeed, one of the many joys of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series is his ability to sustain and develop such compelling characters over a long series ("LoM" is the twelfth book).

But while there is a fair amount of action in this novel, what distinguishes "LoM" is O'Brian's further exploration of his two heroes, Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin.

The novel opens with Aubrey bereft after being unfairly stripped from the lists in the Royal Navy. Unfairly charged and convicted of a financial scheme in which he played an entirely unwitting part, Aubrey has had his lifeline to the Navy cut as harshly as with a boarding axe. Now this merry captain, who used to delight in dreadful puns and baroque music, has been reduced to a cold, frightening visage. Remote, distant, joyless, Aubrey is at his lowest ebb.

Thankfully, Aubrey's boon companion, Dr. Maturin, has a lifeline. Thanks to a prodigious inheritance, Maturin buys Aubrey's beloved H.M.S. Surprise and outfits her as a privateer - with the titular letter of marque. This letter essentially authorizes the Surprise to be a pirate for the British Navy. While this offers Aubrey a chance to go to sea in his favorite ship, this joy is tempered by the shame that is attached to the word "privateer" by the serving sailors of the Royal Navy. Aubrey feels this acutely.

But privateer or no, the command of the Surprise offers Aubrey the chance at redemption through a heroic action . . . possibly even reinstatement to the lists! And so Aubrey leads the Surprise into various actions, including a complicated night-time raid on a French-held port to steal a ship from under French noses. O'Brian writes these scenes as only he can.

But this novel is not only about Aubrey. Dr. Maturin continues to ply his intelligence trade. He also continues to struggle with his two demons - an addiction to opium and an addition to Diane Villiers, his estranged wife. Maturin has heard that Diane has fled to Sweden with the attractive Swedish colonel Jagiello after she heard (incorrectly) that Maturin was having an affair in Malta. And so Maturin heads north to confront her, and possibly Jagiello, with the truth.

All of these plots allow O'Brian to explore both Aubrey's and Maturin's characters in new ways. Aubrey has had his troubles before with the law, but those were always civil matters involving nothing more than unsavory characters. Here, Aubrey is confronted with shame for the first time. Maturin also must confront his own nature, for as a man of intellect and science, he is not proud to be addicted to either a drug or a woman. And yet he is.

"The Letter of Marque" may be the shortest of the Aubrey-Maturin novels so far, but there is a lot of meat on this small bone. Do not read this novel unless you have read those that come before - the characters won't make nearly as much sense. But you will be thankful once you get to this novel - it is well worth the wait.

Sea tales without peer: The Letter of Marque (the entire series for that matter) goes so far beyond the swashbuckling cliche as to make the comparison irrelevant. O'Brian's ability to evoke a place, an era, an age is to my mind unprecedented. The series is actually so many chapters of one great work that will hook you completey, and leave you in awe of the mind that contained them.

Wunschliste

This was a wonderful conclusion to The Reverse of the Medal. As Stephen notes at one stage in the book, Aristotle's definition of tragedy encompassed not only a great man being brought down but also the redemption and deliverance of a man who had been laid low. If that's true, then this book, in company with the last, forms a truly great example of the same. From the nadir of fortune that both Jack and Stephen experience in TRotM, LoM sees a complete reversal. Jack is more successful than he's ever been, Stephen has Diana restored to him, and the book ends on one of the happiest and most contained notes that I think I've ever seen in an O' Brian novel.

The period sense was, as ever, perfect. If ever there was a literary universe in which I think I would like to live, then the Aubrey-Maturin universe is one of them. The dialogue was a joy as ever. O' Brian is so good at using dialogue to show just how close a friendship Stephen and Jack have, just how much they mean to one another. It's such a joyous thing that even Jack's little bit of banter at Stephen about the fact that the sea going out is, in fact, called the tide, succeeded in bringing a huge smile to my face. I particularly enjoyed Stephen's conversation about how difficult it is to survive as an undergraduate at TCD. Things, clearly, have not changed that much. *g* ( )

Surprise returns to sea as a private warship, lots of people work at repairing the damage done to Jack's career, the General dies and Jack unexpectedly inherits his seat in the Commons, and Maturin reconciles (perhaps that's the word) with Diana. Oh, yes: There's a nice little cutting-out operation, accomplished with Babbington's help; Jack is once again rich. And poor old Leopard makes another appearance.

In general, I've always thought it makes more sense to think of the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel, as the overarching story is sometimes far more important that the current events chronicled in any particular book. This is one of the O'Brian books that I suspect doesn't work as a stand-alone novel; too much of the story is tied to things we long-time readers have been watching develop for years. Nonetheless, it gives O'Brian (and Jack) an opportunity to look at the Navy from the outside, and it's delightfully well-written.

This is perhaps my favorite Maturin novel; he's become very rich, which makes him (oddly, inconsistently) frugal. Stephen spends the entire story fretting about the upcoming reunion with Villiers--but when they accidentally encounter each other on a Stockholm road she (inevitably) just picks up the relationship as though it had never been broken. It's easy to see what the man dreads and loves about his wife and lover. ( )

This is the peak of the Jack and Stephen books, coincidentally (or not, if you have any feeling for number significance) being the twelfth in the series and forming a natural high point before the Far Eastern section of the cycle. I always have the feeling that O'Brian intended to pause or even finish the books at this point.

The ending is, like the rest of the book, charming, triumphant, poignant, beautiful and entirely unsentimental. ( )

I am reading this as part of a complete read through of the whole series, although I am reading other books in between helpings of O'Brian.
It took less than 20 pages to make me realise (for the umpteenth time) just how much knowledge of the human mind, elegance and fleetness of expression there is in these books.

This first chapter shows us how Jack is coping with his dismissal from the navy. The extra dimension to our familiar conflicts between Jack and Stephen with regard to catching the tide in that Stephen now owns the ship. This is a fact which Jack knows only with the very uppermost tip of his mind.
Stephens moral attitude to his sudden vast wealth and it's impact on him. His amusement at seeing the almost opposite impact of far more modest wealth on his friend Martin.

Oh yes its good to be back reading O'Brian again.

If you haven't tried them then you owe it to yourself to give them a go.

Must go - which that vittles is up ( )

Aubrey/Maturin #12 - Privateering is good to Jack and Stephen comes into some serious money and makes up with Dianna. ( )