Customer Reviews

The Far Side Of The World (Aubrey-Maturin, Book 10)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Patrick O'Brian is at fever pitch in this novel, the 10th in the A/M series. The action begins with the Joyful Surprise hitting the coast of Brazil, rounding the Horn, cruising the waters off Chile up to Juan Fernandez and the Galapagos, then heading west for the Marquesas, all in pursuit of the elusive Norfolk, an American frigate making trouble for British whalers. Aubrey's task is to stop her, if the mighty Horn and Pacific typhoons don't stop him and his resolute crew first.

O'Brian's descriptive power is almost overwhelming as he takes us on this journey into the unknown, for, indeed, not much was known of the Pacific then. It's almost as if we see it for the first time, too, in all of its infinite beauty, expansiveness and danger.

At this point in the series, O'Brian has me caring about these characters way too much for my own good. All of them, down to the ship's goat, are so well drawn in The Far Side of the World that it's almost heartbreaking for me to think there are only 10 books to go.

When I get there, there will only be one place to go -- back to # 1, to enjoy it all over again.

The tenth volume in O'Brian's wonderfully intelligent nautical series finds Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in Gibraltar, still aboard the Surprise. Their mission is to track an American ship down the Atlantic and on to the largely uncharted Pacific whaling grounds. While "Far Side of the World" contains none of the heart-pounding muzzle-to-muzzle naval battles that readers have come to expect in O'Brian's stories, it contains lots of imaginative plot twists nonetheless. A strange and tragic love triangle, a raft full of primitive lesbians, Maturin's disappointing visit to the Galapagos, and an oddly gripping denouement as the Surprises confront their American nemeses. The book is entirely afloat, with pit stops to refit, but no extended periods ashore with family or engaged in intelligence affairs. Maturin's friendship with Dr. Martin, a naturalist parson, provides comic relief at every turn.

O'Brian never fails to please. This book smoothly picks up where the last one left off, and leaves a thread or two dangling to launch the next volume. As always, the writing is brilliant and spare, the characters complex and developed, and the adventures well-researched, founded in British naval histories. Another great voyage.

I first discovered this series in the Grenadines almost twenty years ago when only the first two volumes were generally available in the US. Since, then, I've decided to read the entire series in order. This is not one of the best of O'Brian's efforts. The book starts out promising, with excellent sections on Brazil and Cape Horn but as the Pacific looms closer, the bones of the plot start to show. If I read of another improbable rescue of the principals, I may not have the fortitude to continue the series. Add to that a showy locquacity and the usual courtly pretensions of the Tories and you end up with what for me became a disappointment. I'm already well into the next volume and find it much more engaging.

Another good tale that follows some little known historical events and the tremendous dangers seafarers faced. Fun to see the Galapagos Islands before Darwin with hints of what's to come. There are fascinating details on whales and whaling that would interest even landlubbers. Some quite surprising twists, from lesbian cannibals of Polynesia to 18th century abortion procedures again shows the wonderful depth of O'Brian's storytelling. A very fun read.

Another good tale that follows some little known historical events and the tremendous dangers seafarers faced. Fun to see the Galapagos Islands before Darwin with hints of what's to come. There are fascinating details on whales and whaling that would interest even landlubbers. Some quite surprising twists, from lesbian cannibals of Polynesia to 18th abortion procedures again shows the wonderful depth of O'Brian's storytelling. A very fun read.

Throughout his brilliant Aubrey/Maturin series, O'Brian has delighted his readers with the uneasy juxtaposition of order and chaos. The tension between the two reaches a fever pitch in "The Far Side of the World."

The title itself resonates with the struggle. Perhaps it had a literal meaning during the Age of Sail but, today, with jet travel and the internet changing our entire conception of time and space, the phrase seems archaic, as though the natural order we so take for granted is about to be stood on its head, and O'Brian is, indeed, taking us to the "far side"-- into a dark, chaotic world dimly perceived, little understood.

For O'Brian, a single, solitary female is usually enough to create tension and discord in an otherwise well regulated Man of War. That happens with Mrs. Wogan in "Desolation Island" and Clarissa Oaks in "The Truelove". Both women are stand-ins for the ultimate female provocateur of the entie series, Diane Villiers, who nearly destroys Aubrey's career in "Post Captain" and temporarily turns Maturin into a heart broken opium eater.

But in "The Far Side", 19-year old Mrs. Horner creates more than tension and discord aboard the HMS Surprise. Her adulterous affair leads to utter chaos and despair. O'Brian seemingly ties the entire plot together with the letter "H". There's Mr & Mrs. Horner, Hollum (the adulterer), Higgins (the abortionist), Howard (the callous, blood-thirsty marine,) and last but not least, the Greek Tragedian, Homer. The poetical Lt. Mowett is reading the Iliad, and on a dark, stormy night Maturin opines that Homer's Iliad is not only, "...the great epic of the world...," it is also, "a continued outcry against adultery."

Although he has no "H", the ventriloquist, Comptom, is all about chaos. His ability to project his voice in a shrill, inhuman fashion is another blow to the natural order. After one weird stunt right in front of no one less than the Captain, Aubrey tells Maturin, "It was the strangest experience: there he was, telling me things to my face as though he were invisible."

Later, at night, Jack Aubrey botches a familiar violin transition and Maturin admits that, "I was uneasy in my mind before we ever sat down; and for once music has not answered." For Maturin to admit that his playing with Aubrey for once "has not answered"-- he's saying a lot! Their music binds the two together. Music is how they express their devotion to one another book after book. And, now, the beauty and internal logic of music, which is somehow related to the system of math and the harmonic path of planets and stars, which in turn, are the well-spring of time and navigation-- well, all of it is out of sorts.

The sweet balm of music is so much wormwood for Maturin because, not only is there adultery aboard ship, Maturin has been receiving malicious letters from home alleging the infidelity of his wife, Diane Villiers.

Adultery, in short, is chaos. And adultery, abortion and murder coalesce in one of the eeriest scenes I can recall from the entire series. Howard shoots a baby manatee, and that night its mother commences a human-like wail for its child, circling the ship and spooking the entire crew. Not even "time" can stand the strain anymore. A marine sentinel caught up in the terror forgets to flip the watch glass and Aubrey cries out, "God's my life. What the devil are you thinking of? Turn the glass and strike the bell."

If you're racing through the Aubrey/Maturin series, strike your topgallants and drift awhile through the waters of "The Far Side". It's quite a voyage!

As a fan of O'Brian I liked this book, but even I had to admit I found this one very uneventful except for its brief moments. Unlike the other books in the series so far, this one strained credibilty a bit, too. I found the idea that the Aubrey would carelessly fling himself off his own ship to rescue Maturin without checking a) whether anyone would know he was going to do so and b) that the jolly-boat astern was really there to enable him to rescue him absurd. This is compounded by their, what seems to me, highly unlikely luck in being rescued from this predicament ultimately by the "Surprise" from a desert atoll. This seemed so out of sorts with the general realism of the series. I felt that the prospect of them being marooned on a desert island was actually a very interesting one that O'Brian could have investigated with great results. Also, I am, for one, finding the endless books devoted to the war of 1812 rather tiresome. This war, at worst an irritant to the Royal Navy at the time of much greater danger from the French, seems to be occupying far too many books out of all proportion to its historical interest.

This was the first book of the series that I've tried and this book did not catch my interest. Maybe I would have enjoyed it if I'd read some of the earlier ones but this book was very dull and had little action. I'll stick with Horatio Hornblower.

When reading the Aubrey/Maturin series it is hard to think that perhaps any one book is better then the rest. Because of O'Brians brilliant use of language and subtlety, the best book always seems to be the one you have most recently put down. This seems to be the case until you read The Far side of the World. This book has all the elements that you love about the series - great dialogue, authentic naval warfare, love, intrigue, and more - all rolled into one. O'Brian is able to present early 19th century life to you in a way that can only be equalled by primary sources. I would recommend that you read the series in order , but if you had to read just one make it The Far Side of the World.

Reading this series in order, this is the latest I have come to, and the best thus far. While I have enjoyed all of the books (I found them often slow to start, but invariably engaging), this one, with its variety of locales and somehow less dense telling, stands out. By all means, read the whole series, but this is one to look forward to.