most people I know who like these books ARE GURLS. My dad couldn't get into them.
how do they compare to the Hornblower/Ramage/Bolitho books?
― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)
Actually I gave one of these to my dad since he's a big fan of Sir Walter Scott, but I don't think he liked it that much. He complained about all the technical nautical jargon.
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)
I read in the paper that he was a fuck who abandoned his family? Gossip please.
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)
He definitely did do same back in the late 1930s or so, I gather, and carefully hid his traces as long as he could before remarrying and eventually settling in France.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)
The Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian don't rate as high literature, but they do qualify as well-written entertainments. Sometimes that is plenty good enough.
On the plus side, the author's knowledge of the period and the subject matter are encyclopedic. He manages to inject doses of humor, shrewdly-observed psychology, exciting scenes of violent action and enough interesting trivia to freight a xebec-frigate. His main characters lead interesting lives and visit interesting places, although they only come alive in a sort of Pinochio, joint-creaking, splinter-tossing way.
On the down side, not even a godling could squeeze 20 volumes' worth of blood out that particular turnip. He did pretty well for the first dozen, though. Not too shabby.
I'd put O'Brian somewhat above Edgar Rice Burroughs, somewhat below, but nearer to, Tolkien, in terms of being a popular author of a very long serial tale of derring-do. People will still be reading him sheerly for pleasure 50 or 60 years from now, I would guess.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)