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Madeline's Reviews > Post Captain
Post Captain (Aubrey & Maturin #2)
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I've been reading the Aubrey/Maturin series for a few years now, and even though I'm not as loyal to these books as I am to other series, it's always nice to dip back into Patrick O'Brian's well-researched, well-written, and consistently delightful historical adventures.
Post Captain, the second in the series, is almost split evenly between scenes on land and scenes on various ships, and even though a lot of people prefer the ratio to skew more towards sea-based scenes, I liked the frequent changes of scenery. And it's always fun to see how Captain Aubrey functions on land opposed to how he functions at sea.
The story here gets off the ground when Aubrey learns to his dismay that he won't be paid for the capture of a foreign ship in the previous book, because it's been officially classified as a privateer and not a military ship. This information is revealed through this delightful exchange between Aubrey and his superior, where we see Patrick O'Brian proving once again that historically accurate dialogue isn't required to be stuffy and dry:
"'The Cacafuego was a thirty-two gun xebec-frigate, my Lord.'
'She was a privateer, sir.'
'Only by a damned lawyer's quibble,' said Jack, his voice rising.
'What the fucking hell is this language to me, sir? Do you know who you are talking to, sir? Do you know where you are?'"
Having already put himself into debt by spending money he thought would be paid, Aubrey spends a good amount of the book trying to do two things: stay one step ahead of his creditors, and get another assignment on a ship, as soon as possible. He's given the command of a ship that is, to put it mildly, a bit of a fixer-upper, and has to try to earn some money while balancing a difficult ship and a more difficult crew. And on top of that, Aubrey and Maturin get into some very Jane Austen-like shenanigans involving gossip, affairs, and marriage plots.
Basically my tagline for this book would be "If you thought Pride and Prejudice just needed more sea battles, Post Captain is for you!"
And now, in list form, some other delightful things that happen in this book:
-To stay out of debtors' prison, Aubrey has to escape England and go to Spain. Maturin's plan for smuggling Aubrey through the country involves disguising Aubrey as a dancing bear.
-Aubrey meets a Jewish man at a ball; a few paragraphs later, he murmurs "bar mitzvah" to himself in what I can only imagine as a tone of childlike wonder.
-Maturin has an affair with a sexy widow. Whenever they're alone, he calls her by her last name, and I can't fully explain why, but I was super into that.
-Aubrey rescues a sailor who falls overboard into shark-infested waters, and then he tells a story about how when he was younger he once dove off a ship and landed square on a shark's back.
-Maturin brings a hive of bees onto the ship and releases them into Aubrey's cabin so he can study their behavior, and then can't figure out how to get them back into their hive.
-Aubrey has a romance with a woman named Sophie (who I'm pretty sure he marries later in the series) and when he arranges for her to travel on his ship, goes into a full-out tizzy decorating the cabin in a way he that he thinks she'll like. This also requires Stephen to move his bees out of the cabin, which gives us this great conversation between Aubrey and Maturin while Aubrey is furiously decorating (seriously guys, I cannot say enough good things about O'Brian's dialogue):
"'We can shift the bulkhead a good eighteen inches for'ard,' said Jack. 'By the bye, you will not object to the bees going ashore, just for a while?'
'They did not go ashore for Mrs. Miller. There were none of these tyrannical caprices for Mrs. Miller, I believe. They are just growing used to their surroundings - they have started a queen-cell!'
'Brother, I insist. I should send my bees ashore for you, upon my sacred honour. Now there is a great favour I must ask you. I believe I have told you how I dined with Lord Nelson?'
'Not above two or three hundred times.'"
I love that so much. I swear, if I ever get married, the line "I should send my bees ashore for you" is going in my vows.
Post Captain, the second in the series, is almost split evenly between scenes on land and scenes on various ships, and even though a lot of people prefer the ratio to skew more towards sea-based scenes, I liked the frequent changes of scenery. And it's always fun to see how Captain Aubrey functions on land opposed to how he functions at sea.
The story here gets off the ground when Aubrey learns to his dismay that he won't be paid for the capture of a foreign ship in the previous book, because it's been officially classified as a privateer and not a military ship. This information is revealed through this delightful exchange between Aubrey and his superior, where we see Patrick O'Brian proving once again that historically accurate dialogue isn't required to be stuffy and dry:
"'The Cacafuego was a thirty-two gun xebec-frigate, my Lord.'
'She was a privateer, sir.'
'Only by a damned lawyer's quibble,' said Jack, his voice rising.
'What the fucking hell is this language to me, sir? Do you know who you are talking to, sir? Do you know where you are?'"
Having already put himself into debt by spending money he thought would be paid, Aubrey spends a good amount of the book trying to do two things: stay one step ahead of his creditors, and get another assignment on a ship, as soon as possible. He's given the command of a ship that is, to put it mildly, a bit of a fixer-upper, and has to try to earn some money while balancing a difficult ship and a more difficult crew. And on top of that, Aubrey and Maturin get into some very Jane Austen-like shenanigans involving gossip, affairs, and marriage plots.
Basically my tagline for this book would be "If you thought Pride and Prejudice just needed more sea battles, Post Captain is for you!"
And now, in list form, some other delightful things that happen in this book:
-To stay out of debtors' prison, Aubrey has to escape England and go to Spain. Maturin's plan for smuggling Aubrey through the country involves disguising Aubrey as a dancing bear.
-Aubrey meets a Jewish man at a ball; a few paragraphs later, he murmurs "bar mitzvah" to himself in what I can only imagine as a tone of childlike wonder.
-Maturin has an affair with a sexy widow. Whenever they're alone, he calls her by her last name, and I can't fully explain why, but I was super into that.
-Aubrey rescues a sailor who falls overboard into shark-infested waters, and then he tells a story about how when he was younger he once dove off a ship and landed square on a shark's back.
-Maturin brings a hive of bees onto the ship and releases them into Aubrey's cabin so he can study their behavior, and then can't figure out how to get them back into their hive.
-Aubrey has a romance with a woman named Sophie (who I'm pretty sure he marries later in the series) and when he arranges for her to travel on his ship, goes into a full-out tizzy decorating the cabin in a way he that he thinks she'll like. This also requires Stephen to move his bees out of the cabin, which gives us this great conversation between Aubrey and Maturin while Aubrey is furiously decorating (seriously guys, I cannot say enough good things about O'Brian's dialogue):
"'We can shift the bulkhead a good eighteen inches for'ard,' said Jack. 'By the bye, you will not object to the bees going ashore, just for a while?'
'They did not go ashore for Mrs. Miller. There were none of these tyrannical caprices for Mrs. Miller, I believe. They are just growing used to their surroundings - they have started a queen-cell!'
'Brother, I insist. I should send my bees ashore for you, upon my sacred honour. Now there is a great favour I must ask you. I believe I have told you how I dined with Lord Nelson?'
'Not above two or three hundred times.'"
I love that so much. I swear, if I ever get married, the line "I should send my bees ashore for you" is going in my vows.
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Reading Progress
January, 2018
–
Started Reading
Finished Reading
January 30, 2018
– Shelved
January 30, 2018
– Shelved as:
historic-fiction
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Cynthia
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Jan 31, 2018 05:33AM
"I should send my bees ashore for you" is just lovely.
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What a perfect review, Madeline. How I love the bees and the bear! And yes, this is for Jane Austen fans who would like a few more sea battles...and somewhat less restrained dialog.
I'm about midway through my fourth or fifth re-read of this glorious book and the whole series--because once I start I can't stop. I'm just at the point where Sophie and Diana have their falling out and a better, more believable description of 19th century upper class female fury I have never read. "But I tell you what, Maturin, if you really want to frighten a woman, offer to slash her across the face with your riding whip, and look as if you mean it."
This section also has the delightful Teapot, Mr Lowendes, who expounds upon Grecian poetry: "Sometimes my fancy runs to Sapphics, sometmes to catalectic Glyconics and Pherecratreans--the Priapic metre, my dear sir. Are you a Grecian? Should you like to hear some of my Priapean odes?"
On my first read I was too busy worrying about cross-catharpins and the exact nature of xebecs to notice such delights but with time these other pleasures unfold. I give you joy and three Huzzahs for a lovely review.
I'm still chuckling over your description of the Polychrest as a "a bit of a fixer-upper"!
