Patrick O'Brian Books

The completion of the entire Aubrey-Maturin series of 20 novels. An essential reference to all who have the have bought the boxed set. Love it, Love it, love it!

This is a nice to have companion, but only if you have already purchased "A Sea of Words" of the same author, which should get priority if you have to chose
The book is interesting and useful. True that it might have contained more maps but overall it's good value for its cost

Don't waste your money on this guide. The maps are far and few and lacked the kind of detail I would have attributed to Patrick O'Brian companion. The comments made on each novel leave you wondering if the author ever actually read the books.

I am more than 1.2 way through the Patrick O'Brian / Jack Aubury series and being a sailor have enjoyed the books very much. This companion allows an even deeper appreciation for the series as it allows me to visualize the places where the historical fiction is taking place.

This is a must have book when reading the Aubrey-Maturin series. It brings to life the voyages through maps and synopses of each place the ships traveled. Also it explains that some of the locations are fictional but places them in likely locations. I really enjoyed this book and wish I had it when i began reading the series. You have to get it.

This is a fine biography of O'Brian, particularly in light of the problems faced by the author. In the first place, O'Brian attempted, at every turn, to suppress all knowledge of the facts of his early life. King was not, in short, an 'official' biographer who was presented with stacks of diaries and journals and invited to ask any question that might occur to him. Nevertheless, King was able to ground his narrative on a bedrock of serious scholarship and a first-hand awareness of his subject's work, ethos and experience.

It is said that a successful biography requires a degree of affection for the biographical subject, something that is complicated when that subject is, by turns, both secretive and irascible. The subject was also quite capable of utilizing his impressive erudition as a weapon, one that he could use as both a stiletto and a bludgeon. King is honest with regard to O'Brian's nature and shortcomings, but (without overlooking them) sees past them to O'Brian's significant strengths as a man and as a writer. Material success came relatively late, but O'Brian labored diligently, trusting in his monumental project and following his own lights. His tenacity and dedication make his eventual recognition all the more sweet and King charts the travails but also luxuriates, with O'Brian, in that ultimate recognition. The result is a narrative with a plot arc that one would expect to find in fiction, but here finds in real life.

I am not a fanatical O'Brian devotee and came to the book as a lover of good biographical writing. O'Brian fans, however, will relish the book as will students of biography. Ultimately it is very hard not to love a dedicated, talented individual whose tastes run to Jane Austen and Samuel Johnson and who feels utterly at home in the eighteenth century.

Dean King's groundbreaking biography of Patrick O'Brian has taken a real beating of late from Nikolai Tolstoy's recent and competing treatment of his stepfather's first 35 years. Having slogged through both biographies of the gifted but humanly flawed O'Brian, I am happy to say, no one wins. In fact, a pox on both their houses; I am going to forget what I have read and will just start rereading the man's work.

King gets credit for being the first to put together O'Brian's life. Even with all the inaccuracies so helpfully pointed out by Tolstoy, King was able to anchor the main points of that life in a way that make Tolstoy's criticisms often seem petty (more on that). Above all, it must be understood, King has written a biography more of O'Brian's work--what was written when, how it was received, the struggles for recognition--than of his life with all its hidden chapters and strange motivations. Given that King is a devoted reader of O'Brian's works, he can be forgiven for his breathless treatment of how O'Brian came to be known and revered especially in America for his Aubrey-Maturin series.

Which is not to excuse King's excesses of style. His chapter-heading quotations are odd choices that smack occasionally of invincible pretension. What Thoreau and Plutarch had to do with the matter at hand eluded me. King opens the bio with the episode of the writer Richard Patrick Russ changing his name to Patrick O'Brian, and King purports to know what Russ/O'Brian was thinking. King spoke with many people who knew O'Brian, but one is never sure about sources for particular passages because footnotes are wholly absent. Finally, there is a logical inconsistency that dogs King: having established that O'Brian consistently lied about his putative Irish background, King uses O'Brian's writings about himself often uncritically. Many of O'Brian's family refused to speak with King, so perhaps King just had to work with what he had.

King's writing is entertaining, and not always in a good way; it often leaves one with the feeling of not having reached the level of ept. The reaction to an early novel "was as if Beethoven's Ninth Symphony were being performed sotto voce." The potential American market for O'Brian's books "was like a Manila galleon lying halfway around the world, strange, unfathomable, immensely rich." One "watershed review was seeping into the minds of American book readers." At one point, having exhausted his store of merely strange figures of speech, King then compares O'Brian to the Little Engine That Could. I think that's projection at work. In any case, King demonstrates that immersing oneself in good writing doesn't necessarily spill over.

Tolstoy, having read and disagreed with King's bio of his stepfather, has given us a tedious and defensive account of O'Brian's life until his move to France in 1949. In the end, quite ironically, his biography leaves one less enamored with O'Brian the man than does King's.

Tolstoy's thickest problem is that he's too close to his subject for comfort. The most transparent example of this is Tolstoy's repeated criticisms of Dean King's errors--some factual but most on the writer's motivations--that themselves originate in O'Brian's lies about himself, lies that Tolstoy dismisses as "innocuous pretense" or "romancing." Tolstoy, in essence, just doesn't see what all the fuss is about, but as one of those O'Brian family members who refused to speak with King, he really cannot have it two ways. Likewise, Tolstoy swings between saying that O'Brian knew perfectly well that he was lying about his background (and what does that matter really?), the suggestion that O'Brian believed his own lies (and therefore is not culpable), and the idea that others wanted to believe O'Brian was Irish, so he had to follow along (and therefore should be forgiven).

It's in the substance of Tolstoy's defense of O'Brian--responding to what King unearthed in his research--that things get ugly, or amusing, depending on your point of view. King discovered that O'Brian had an affair shortly after marrying his first wife; Tolstoy gives O'Brian a pass on adultery because the girl was willing and the wife probably would never know! Tolstoy lets us know that "nothing can justify" O'Brian's leaving the first wife and two small children--one with a fatal disease--but he apparently thinks the situation mitigated somehow by the fact that O'Brian was "constitutionally ill equipped" for fatherhood (in fact he hated children), that his little daughter wasn't going to live long anyway, and that in any case he had met and moved in with his soul mate, the author's mother, a woman of wit and education, quite in contrast to the first wife. At one point Tolstoy cannot understand the first wife's bitterness, as O'Brian had done nothing (nothing!) to provoke it.

Tolstoy's biography is more accurate than King's (it helps to have the subject's diaries and papers), there is no doubt Tolstoy is a better writer (a family thing, perhaps), and I have to say his teasing out autobiographical elements from early short stories is very good indeed. But one must question both his judgment and his perspective. He started by wanting to defend O'Brian against what he saw as unfair treatment, but he ended up portraying a far more dysfunctional, far less appealing Patrick O'Brian than Dean King ever did or would.

Having been a rabid fan of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, and then joyfully discovering his two earlier sea novels, I encouraged every friends and family member I thought would be interested to read those wonderful books. Though biographies are not a favorite genre of mine, I was presented with this book as a gift because it was well-known among my loved ones that O'Brian's work had meant so much to me over the years.

I had no idea of O'Brian's persona.

Dean King is to be commended for putting together a very well constructed biography of an extremely difficult subject. O'Brian deliberately obfuscated his past, distorted facts and outright lied to even close friends throughout his entire life. His attempt to hide his own past must have been a terrible obstacle to writing this biography, but King did a wonderful job.

Ultimately, I realized that I would have keenly disliked O'Brian had I known him personally, and I'm glad that never happened. Instead, I can simply enjoy the fruits of his marvelous creativity.

Dean King is to be commended for his hard work and meticulous research; he is honest at those points when he doesn't have all the facts so presents what he feels is the "most likely" scenario. In summary, being neither iconoclastic nor apologist, King's unbiased and frank account of Patrick O'Brian's strange life and how it translated into the nuances of his novels is perceptive and engaging.

Dean King's books are among the classics. Dean King was written biographies of extra-ordinary people that are well-known, yet
are not known, at all. Patrick O'Brian and Captain James Riley are two leaders in their own worlds, yet their paths never crossed.

Dean King, the extra-ordinary man that he is, had the perception and insight to recognize extra-ordinary traits in O'Brian and Riley, and write their biographies.

Once a true reader of good literature reads Dean King, he will become a reader for the long run.

For those of you who always thought that the father of Aubrey & Maturin was an Irishman, this book is a disillusionment.
This is a pathfinding biography (the word 'revealed' in the subtitle is only partly appropriate) of Richard Patrick Russ. Patrick Russ was an Englishman of German descent ('Russ' indicates immigration from further East in earlier centuries, possibly re-immigration), born in London in 1914. Of all years.
He is best known for inventing Patrick O'Brian, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. These 3 men somehow played or replayed different aspects of Russ's real life. To what extent is not fully disclosed yet.
Russ had changed his name to O'Brian in 45. When King wrote the first version of this book, O'Brian was still alive. He did not cooperate. King did not have the access to authentic sources that the second biographer, O'Brian's stepson, was going to have later. I have not read that second biography yet, so I can't talk about that.
The subject is as fascinating as a volume of the famous series of 'historical' novels. Russ seems to have been less than a perfect family man and friend, to put it mildly. The discrepancy to the morality in his novels' heroes is strong, but would we call somebody a hypocrite whose fictional creations follow standards that their creator had failed to meet? A question that King raises in his introduction.
Required reading for all who want to understand better where it all came from.
And since the book is out of print, I expect a properly updated version to show up sooner or later.

Not as interesting as Papillon, but that is probably also partly because you know what to expect, and it is also not the same setting. Less smuggling gear up the date, that sort of thing. After the nastiness of a prison island, I suppose this is not that surprising that it does not girp you in the same way.

Unlike some of the other reviewers who did not care much for "BANCO", I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Now, I confess not to have yet read "PAPILLON". So, my critique of "BANCO" is not reflective of what "PAPILLON" was about.

"BANCO" takes up from where "PAPILLON" left off. The author has escaped into Venezuela. He is deeply embittered and finds it difficult at first to readjust to life on the outside. He is set on revenge for he feels that he was framed for a crime he did not commit. As a way of working out his anger, the author becomes involved in an elaborate plan to stage a big robbery so that he can not only enrich himself, but also return to Europe and exact his revenge. While set on his plans for revenge, however, the author finds love and peace of mind.

"BANCO" stands as a fine example of what a person is capable of achieving in terms of self-improvement and spiritual renewal. When I finished reading this book, I felt very happy for the author, who had learned to cast aside the anger and rage he had bottled up inside himself during his imprisonment on Devil's Island, and find an inner peace for himself.

Everyone who reads 'Banco' does so because he/she was completely enthralled with 'Papillon' and are curious as to what happens to Monsieur Charriere. But this reader was foolish enough to think 'Banco' would be as good as 'Papillon'. Sadly, this sequel is a mere shadow of the original.

Why? Firstly, the book is poorly structured. The author bounces around quite a bit leaving discarding characters in its wake. He is also too selective on what he wants to say about his life. For example he does not tell us at all about his French wife even upon returning to France to meet with the rest of his family. And the final fifty pages are an over-blown flashback to his original trial where he claims emphatically that he was framed, perjured against, etc. After so many cries of "I'm innocent, really!!!" I'm beginning to wonder.

Still, overall I do recommend 'Banco' to those who have just finished 'Papillon'. Just don't expect so much and you won't be disappointed.

Usually I'm not very critical about books, but I feel like I have to make an exception. I STRONGLY advise to just read "Papillon" and keep it with that. Papillon is such a strong, adventurous and exciting story that you just want it to continue after you've turned the last page.
The first thing I did after reading Papillon, was going to the bookstore to buy Banco, expecting interesting details about his further life and adventures. Most of all I wondered if he would return to Lali and Zoraïma.
I regret to say that I have never read such a disappointing "sequel" before. Although the life of Henri Charrière is probably more adventurous than most of ours, the story really never gained my attention. The power of "Papillon" was that the story was enormously strong and it had an obvious focus. In "Banco" there isn't a focus at all, it just consists of a bunch of hardly interesting anecdotes. There isn't really ANY decent link between the story from "Papillon" and the life of Charrière as portraied in Banco.
For those who are interested if Charrière returns to lali and Zoraïma, I'll only give the hint that there are probably two lines spent on them in Banco. Let's make it clear, I am a HUGE fan of "Papillon", but that is exactly the reason that I would'nt advise anybody to buy Banco, unless they have sleeping problems.

didn't papillon leave you wishing he stayed with the pearl diver's in paradise, instead of being tempted back to civilization by its siren song? Well it turns out there is a lot more to this tale than the first book would have you guess, but surely papillon has many adventures before him, and good ones too, if i may be the judge. it seems everyone knows about the first book, because of the movie, and no one ever seems to realize there is more. if you made it this far to read my review, you just got to give banco a read. how papillon comes to peace with himself and his world IS THE STORY! i would rate this book higher than five if i could!

I will admit it, I am an ultimate Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series fan boy. I have read that series of novels repeatedly and enjoyed each one every single time. When I learned of this book I immediately bought it.

It was disappointing in comparison to the Aubrey/Maturin books. I agree with the reviewers who have characterized this as a 'boy's book'. The adventure is wildly implausible, the characters are much more heroic cardboard cutout than his later protagonists and the dialog (something he was clearly gifted with later in his career) seems false.

I am not sorry that I read it, as I said, it was more of a quest than a choice for me, but don't expect the same experience as you have had (or hopefully will have) with his later works. Buy a copy for your favorite 12 - 14 year old nephew, it will be a great introduction to Patrick O'Brian for him, then read it carefully before you put it in the gift wrap.

This book has it all! It's historical viewpoint is interesting, there is adventure, humor... even readers unfamiliar with O'Brian's work will enjoy this book. I left this book at the family summer cottage in June and over the course of the summer more than 10 people read it, different ages, genders, interests. ALL of them loved it. I ordered 4 for Christmas gifts.

But alas, it is really a boys' story. Though a precursor to Aubrey, including taifoons, ships, excentric scientists, adventurous overland travel in pursuit of something mysterious, it does not reach the appeal of the masterful series.
The research into the China reality of the time is not up to the standard of his later work. The characters are typical boy story cliches, the plot is rather simplistic, the diaologues are not what they would have been 20 years later. Not on the level of the short stories and novels of the same time either.
If you are an O'Brian aficionado, read it for completeness. If not yet, better start elsewhere.

Judging from this book, Patrick O'Brian was a fan of James Hilton's "Lost Horizon," the classic 1930s paperback that is said to be the first US paperback bestseller.

Hilton's wistful look at life in the remote Himalayas (in a fictional village he called "Shangri-La") was written in the 1930s in the shadow of the coming war, whereas O'Brian's book, though written in 1954, is set back in that same time period. And as the journey to Samarcand unfolds, O'Brian's heroes ultimately enter a land of icy, incredibly remote mountains strangely reminiscent of Hilton's lost horizon. Readers of both books will discover still more connections and resonances between them as they get to the later portions of the Road to Samarcand.

Still, there's much more to this book to like, particularly the deadpan humor and the deepening character development of what initially seem to be stock comic figures, in classic O'Brian style.

Patrick O'Brian published "The Road to Samarcand" in 1954, even before "The Golden Ocean" and "The Unknown Shore," the two "juvenile" nautical novels that in many ways were precursors of his later great series of novels featuring Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin. "The Road to Samarcan," itself a novel written for a youth audience, is less clearly ancestral to the later series, but there are at least faint foreshadowings, including the Professor Ayrton, the archaeologist cousin of the teenaged central character. Ayrton is both a formidible intellectual presence as well as a source of humor (he is utterly unable to master American slang, despite his easy confidence that he can speak the jargon like a native).

Although "The Road to Samarcan" does contain nautical elements (it starts aboard the schooner "Wanderer" in the South China Sea), most of the book involves wild, somewhat improbably adventures in the wilds of western China and Tibet, with encounters with bandits and murderous monks, along with the even greater peril of nature. As might be expected in a Patrick O'Brian tale, the narrative dances through a wide array of subjects, including wildlife, Chinese history, and Tibetan culture. It all makes for a "fun" read, even if it is not up to the level of the Aubrey-Maturin books.

I will admit it, I am an ultimate Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series fan boy. I have read that series of novels repeatedly and enjoyed each one every single time. When I learned of this book I immediately bought it.

It was disappointing in comparison to the Aubrey/Maturin books. I agree with the reviewers who have characterized this as a 'boy's book'. The adventure is wildly implausible, the characters are much more heroic cardboard cutout than his later protagonists and the dialog (something he was clearly gifted with later in his career) seems false.

I am not sorry that I read it, as I said, it was more of a quest than a choice for me, but don't expect the same experience as you have had (or hopefully will have) with his later works. Buy a copy for your favorite 12 - 14 year old nephew, it will be a great introduction to Patrick O'Brian for him, then read it carefully before you put it in the gift wrap.

This book has it all! It's historical viewpoint is interesting, there is adventure, humor... even readers unfamiliar with O'Brian's work will enjoy this book. I left this book at the family summer cottage in June and over the course of the summer more than 10 people read it, different ages, genders, interests. ALL of them loved it. I ordered 4 for Christmas gifts.

But alas, it is really a boys' story. Though a precursor to Aubrey, including taifoons, ships, excentric scientists, adventurous overland travel in pursuit of something mysterious, it does not reach the appeal of the masterful series.
The research into the China reality of the time is not up to the standard of his later work. The characters are typical boy story cliches, the plot is rather simplistic, the diaologues are not what they would have been 20 years later. Not on the level of the short stories and novels of the same time either.
If you are an O'Brian aficionado, read it for completeness. If not yet, better start elsewhere.

Judging from this book, Patrick O'Brian was a fan of James Hilton's "Lost Horizon," the classic 1930s paperback that is said to be the first US paperback bestseller.

Hilton's wistful look at life in the remote Himalayas (in a fictional village he called "Shangri-La") was written in the 1930s in the shadow of the coming war, whereas O'Brian's book, though written in 1954, is set back in that same time period. And as the journey to Samarcand unfolds, O'Brian's heroes ultimately enter a land of icy, incredibly remote mountains strangely reminiscent of Hilton's lost horizon. Readers of both books will discover still more connections and resonances between them as they get to the later portions of the Road to Samarcand.

Still, there's much more to this book to like, particularly the deadpan humor and the deepening character development of what initially seem to be stock comic figures, in classic O'Brian style.

Patrick O'Brian published "The Road to Samarcand" in 1954, even before "The Golden Ocean" and "The Unknown Shore," the two "juvenile" nautical novels that in many ways were precursors of his later great series of novels featuring Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin. "The Road to Samarcan," itself a novel written for a youth audience, is less clearly ancestral to the later series, but there are at least faint foreshadowings, including the Professor Ayrton, the archaeologist cousin of the teenaged central character. Ayrton is both a formidible intellectual presence as well as a source of humor (he is utterly unable to master American slang, despite his easy confidence that he can speak the jargon like a native).

Although "The Road to Samarcan" does contain nautical elements (it starts aboard the schooner "Wanderer" in the South China Sea), most of the book involves wild, somewhat improbably adventures in the wilds of western China and Tibet, with encounters with bandits and murderous monks, along with the even greater peril of nature. As might be expected in a Patrick O'Brian tale, the narrative dances through a wide array of subjects, including wildlife, Chinese history, and Tibetan culture. It all makes for a "fun" read, even if it is not up to the level of the Aubrey-Maturin books.

This book tells the story of one man's first experience of the Yukon Quest, and the problems and triumphs he encountered along the way. Very informative for some-one like myself (an armchair musher!)covering aspects which would never occur to me i.e. arranging food drops in advance!

A real page turner, i finished reading the book in one day.

This is an amazing book!--I had no idea what it takes to compete in a major sled dog race. All those pictures we see of the "romance" of sled dog competitions don't even begin to cover the fatigue (of dogs and people), the logistics and the problems. It must be an incredible experience to even finish in a race like this. I'm glad the author let me experience a little bit of it through his book.

In Honest Dogs: A Story Of Triumph And Regret From The World's Toughest Sled Dog Race, journalist and family man Brian O'Donoghue shares the story of his experiences upon entering the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race at the age of 41. Brian writes with wry humor of sharing the trail with his Alaskan huskies Khan, Hobbes, Scrimshaw, and Cyclone, as well as a diverse collection of rival racers and resident bush rats. Honest Dogs is a candid, vivid account of a punishing personal journey and relates the strategies, dreams, and disappoints of the contestants, the antics of the furry canine athletes, the sheer drama of the race, and the unworldly wilderness setting in which Brian and his dogs found themselves. Honest Dogs is highly recommended reading for armchair adventurers and dog lovers everywhere.

Once in a while you come across a book that you are sorry to see end.Honest dogs was one of those books for me.The chapter on going over american summit was very exciting.When I was in Anchorage for the start of this years Iditarod I got to see and pet O'donogue's lead dog "Khan". in person After reading this fine book I want to move to Two Rivers,Alaska and take up Mushing myself

.

The real problem with this book lies not in his treatment of his dogs, but in his treatment of other mushers. It is odd that he could be so critical of so many of the other mushers from the back of the pack. While not quite an armchair quarterback, he was definitely throwing some cheap shots from the sled runners. I had a suspicion while reading this book that he was searching for a way to justify his utter lack of speed, instead of just reveling in the moment. While it is nice to hear about a musher that cares deeply about his dogs (as most do), I felt that he simply did not have the rapport with his dogs that most succesful mushers have.

The Amazon review reads that this novel "is set in that corner of France that became O'Brian's adopted home". I am sorry, but that is not true. I am Catalan and my country is not in any corner of France. It is located in the North East of the Iberic Peninsula, in Spain. San Feliu de Guíxols, one of the towns appearing in that book, is located in Catalunya. In 1659, with the Pyrinees Treatment, Spain gave the North of Catalonia to France. That part of Catalonia, today in France, is beyond the Pyrinees (Perpinyà, Cotlliure, etc.). But most part of Catalunya is in Spain today. Catalunya is a nation, despite the Spaniards are oppresing us, they steal our money, humiliate our language and culture, and don't let us be what we are. Someday we'll be free again! Thanks and God bless Catalunya and the US.
Oh, by the way ... good book!

An excellent early work by Patrick O'Brian. It was fascinating to see the developing author of the Aubry/Maturin novels in this book. Even though the characters and story line were completely different the fledgling artist was clearly present. A very nice tale, indeed, from the 1950's.

This is a fascinating work. Not a casual read. You have to be prepared to let yourself sink into many lengthy "descriptive" passages about that corner of southern France where the east end of the Pyrenees officially marks the Spanish border. The Catalan world and language bridge the nations, and O'Brian is clearly enthralled by them.

The plot is outlined in other reviews: the story of Alain Roig, the middle-aged learned doctor returning from a long stay in the Far East to the Catalan town of his birth, in response to a summons to help in a huge family issue, and how it plays out to everyone's surprise and probably the family's initial dismay, though as one puts the book down one can consider that they will probably feel it was for the best - except unhappy Xavier.

Mostly, the plot is a framework for O'Brian to create an in-depth exploration of some unusual and troubling states of the human heart, and to develop, try out, aspects of writing technique. Xavier's night-long soliloquy about his frightening lack of true emotion, his dismay at being inhumanly cold in situations that seem to demand a wrenching involvement, is a kind of tour-de-force in both respects.

Some little things amusingly foreshadow the Aubrey-Maturin series: the experiment with switching from regular narrative form, to scripting as in plays: "XAVIER: (some statement) ALAIN: the reply)." He uses this when there is a sustained interchange between two people, just to get away from the monotonous "Xavier said...Alain replied..." And this foreshadows the point in one of the A-M series which many critics have tut-tutted about, where someone has a musical instrument and O'Brian just writes "Plays." exactly like a stage-direction.

Then there is the performer clad in the skin of a bear, foreshadowing Jack's Aubrey's perilous escape through France to Spain. Again ,this is something that has been criticized as being too far-fetched: I think O'Brian just didn't want to waste a neat idea. Of course, the references to Alain's life in Prabang clearly foreshadow the East Indies episodes of A-M. Then, too, the beautiful Madeleine gives a glimpse of Diana Villiers: "..she moved with incredible distinction...Her fine head poised....She was in spirits too, that brilliant day..." O'Brian really admires grace in movement, mentioned many and many a time about Diana, for whom the most apt adjective would always be "spirited." (Though Madeleine is unlike Diana in other ways.)

The one thing that is completely lacking, in comparison with A-M, is any touch of humor. This story addresses itself to its characters and its settings with full seriousness. One would never, from this book, expect the overflowing, bubbling yet quiet wit that so totally pervades the A-M series. He must have mellowed by then.

Do not read this book if you are one of the many reviewers here who complain that books are "too long" or "too slow-moving," but if you like immersing yourself in an amazingly detailed world of people and place, you will enjoy it. But four stars, because I have to admit, in some ways the writing could be called a little self-indulgent.

For Patrick O'Brian's many fans of the towering nineteen novels of the Jack Aubrey series, the republication of The Catalans is an opportunity to get a different view some of the building blocks which in the series found their finest expression. The Catalan culture he paints so vividly, and the personalities and reflections of Xavier and Alain, the principal characters, representing aspects of O'Brians own character, resonate throughout with chords that are heard woven into the Aubrey books, but it must be said that whereas in the Aubrey series they are leavened with fine story telling, naval scholarship and above all wit, The Catalans is an altogether more introspective preparatory interlude.

Do not read this novel for a fast-moving adventure. But read it nonetheless, for there is much that is fine here. Xavier is a memorable, if off-putting, creature, and Alain's reflections have the immediacy of autobiography which adds some fascination. O'Brian's women are as always two dimensional creations which will continue to deny him a large appreciative female readership, but his descriptive passages are as wonderful as anything in his oeuvre, and The Catalans will haunt you long after you replace it on your shelf.

After having read most (but not all) of the naval historical novels of P.O'Brian, this book a very good and pleasant surprise. I did certainly like all of Maturin's and Aubrey's novels, but this is a much more profound immersion into human nature, feelings and behavior. The descriptions of the main actors and of the old style "Mediterranean" families around them (sorry for the previous real "Catalan" reviewer, this novel could have been written around the geographical details of many other corners facing this sea) are extremely well constructed and give a good and faithful picture of the culture and traditions of families around this region.
What could otherwise be a fairly trivial love story is used as a pretext to explore the deep feelings, the emotions and the driving forces of two very different men. Some pages reminded me somehow of the magical atmosphere in Sandor Marai's "Embers", certainly the long dialog at night between the two protagonists is very evocative in this sense. If you liked Marai's book, I am confident that you will enjoy this one.

For anyone who loves to listen the O'brian's novels read with eloquence and great vocal characterization, go for Patrick O'Tull's version. Seriously, he is much better than Simon's insipid performance.

Set during the War of 1812, The Fortune Of War is an audiobook novel following Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and his friend Stephen Maturin, a former secret agent. When Captain Jack Aubrey receives an appointment to command the best-armed frigate in the Navy, both men seek passage from the Dutch East Indies to England in a dispatch vessel; yet the war breaks out when they are en route, placing them in peril of life and limb. Grippingly narrated by John Lee, The Fortune Of War is a thrilling tale of survival on the high seas amid deadly conflict. 8 cassettes, 11 hours 35 minutes.

Set during the War of 1812, The Fortune Of War is an audiobook novel following Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and his friend Stephen Maturin, a former secret agent. When Captain Jack Aubrey receives an appointment to command the best-armed frigate in the Navy, both men seek passage from the Dutch East Indies to England in a dispatch vessel; yet the war breaks out when they are en route, placing them in peril of life and limb. Grippingly narrated by John Lee, The Fortune Of War is a thrilling tale of survival on the high seas amid deadly conflict. 8 cassettes, 11 hours 35 minutes.

I own the entire 21 books in this series, as well as all the Horatio Hornblower series. This audio book was purchased for a road-trip. Unfortunatley, I reached my destination before the book was finished. I plan to buy the additional audio books ofr future road-trips. . . .a good resaon to drive to California and back!!

O'Brian was one of my favorite writers of English prose. But every master has to start somewhere and not all starts are worth the preservation. I think this 'entertainment' is a demonstration why 'selected works' are usually preferable to 'complete works', unless one wants to make a living out of studying somebody's life work.
O'B wrote this when he was a student in Dublin in the 30s. He had no own first hand knowledge of the subject, but knew his Kipling and Arabian Nights etc very well. On that basis he fabulated an unoriginal story, which is far from charmless, but far from worthwhile too.
Actually I did like the first few chapters on the mahouts' lives quite a bit.
P.S. I have learned since that POB may not have been a student in Dublin after all, this may have been part of his active imagination or of his strategy to confuse his public.

"Hussein" is a wonderful old-fashioned adventure story that will delight teenage readers as well as adults who have kept an open mind, a sense of humor and the improbable, and curiosity about an alien culture. O'Brian wrote this book under his real name (he was English not Irish) long before he began to write his Aubrey/Maturin novels. "Hussein" already shows his talent as a story-teller. He calls his tale "an entertainment" because he fabulated it largely based on his readings about India. "Hussein" is a romantic rags-to-riches story that runs coherently from Hussein's boyhood in a family of elephant handlers through his years as a fugitive until his unexpected fortune as a young man.

As a new devotee of the author's later work ( the Aubrey and Maturin series) it is sheer pleasure to read O'Brian's first published work. It reveals the early wit and budding appetite for detail and character development he later hones to such perfection in the Commander series. As a novel, or more properly "an entertainment," this work stands nicely on it's own, sans the author's later reputation. The background for the story is exotic East India at the historically pivotal time of its British occupation. The plot lovingly chronicles Hussein's (our hero) journey through youth to adulthood intertwined with a love story as sweet as ripe mangoes. Possibly O'Brian's own biographical story is mirrored here but we are not privy to that by his admission. A fine fast paced read even with the slightly halting style, as the writer discovers his craft. This aspect is endearing rather than off putting, as it blends so well with the young hero's discoveries. In his adventures Hussein proves to be wise beyond his years, learns to keep his head in some very bizarre situations as he respectfully, if somewhat un-orthodoxically attempts to honor his family tradition, that of mahoot to a decidedly unusual elephant. A most excellent "entertainment".

I have read several of Patrick O'Brien's naval stories, which are simply outstanding. I was curious to see this, one of his earliest writings, from dozens of decades ago. Also, being an elephant lover, the topic sounded interesting.

The book is quite good. It reminds me a bit of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Hussein is a book of fictional tales about a boy who becomes an elephant mahout (rider/trainer) and has many adventures in India. It gives you a good taste of the early 20th century Indian culture, and is quite entertaining. Each chapter is pretty much a different story, and could be read by anyone from age twelve and up, I would guess. I thought about recommending it as good stories to read children, but a couple of the chapters include killing and violence and deceit by the young man Hussein, so it is not exactly a children's role model.

Still, adults will like it. I found most of the stories to be believable and interesting, but it is not the equal of O'Brien's later works. As a first publication it is a great book, but not the five star quality that his later works achieved.

Not much really happens in the novel, and for a young American reader like myself a lot of work has to be done to recapture the moments in the story. That being said, I think the novel a resounding success for its humor and its style, and its capturing of the struggle of the poet to be born. It's sort of a poor man's Portrait of the Artist (Kavanagh himself was a big fan of Ulysses), but with more heart and less of a savage wit (contrast Tarry's mother with Dedalus' mother).

The poem at the end and the awkward interactions between Tarry and the women in the book are alone worth the price of admission.

Despite its disappointing ending and despite its flawed, episodic structure, Kavanagh's novel is enjoyable reading for someone who is looking for a prose equivalent of his poem "The Great Hunger." This comedy of country manners points its satiric barbs both inward at Tarry Flynn and outward at his family and his country neighbors. The novel makes of country life matter worth considering--as Kavanagh argues in his poem "Epic"--and matter worth ridiculing. This ambivalence may be a flaw for one seeking unity of tone, but for me the ambivalence became charming ambiguity.

In this novel, Kavanagh manages to recreate Monaghan life superbly. And for me, now living away from Monaghan, it has often provided a welcome return. A fantastic insight into a lifestyle only recently gone by.