Tag Archives: jack aubrey

The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O’Brian: a short review

There’s some wonderful writing in this book–the first chapter, in particular, is a tour-de-force of historical reconstruction–but I find the book less than satisfying.

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The Letter of Marque by Patrick O’Brian: a review

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.

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