Synopsis
In this sadly brief beginning to the 21st and last in the incomparable and beloved series of novels by Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000), Jack Aubrey (now an Admiral of the Fleet) and Stephen Maturin (still a humble physician/spy) sail around Cape Horn to Argentina, where various dangers await them. However, O'Brian fans will be glad to know that, in this posthumous work, they also encounter Aubrey's illegitimate son, Sam, now a Papal Nuncio. As the fragment ends, the Surprise is again under sail, heading into the sunset for Africa. The text appears in a printed version bearing O'Brian's corrections, facing a facsimile of his meticulously written original manuscript, which continues the story to include a very interesting episode in the life of Stephen Maturin.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2004-10-30 | | Series: | Aubrey/Maturin Series |
| Size | | Length: | 144 pages | | Height: | 10.3 in | | Width: | 7.8 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 15.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
In response to the interest of millions of Patrick O'Brian fans, here is the final, partial installment of the Aubrey/Maturin series.
Blue at the Mizzen (novel #20) ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author's death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The three chapters left on O'Brian's desk at the time of his death are presented here both in printed version—including his corrections to the typescript—and a facsimile of his manuscript, which goes several pages beyond the end of the typescript to include a duel between Stephen Maturin and an impertinent officer who is courting his fiancée.
Of course we would rather have had the whole story; instead we have this proof that O'Brian's powers of observation, his humor, and his understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end.
Industry Reviews
"A lovely and welcome oddity: the much-loved author's final fragment, titled simply by its position in the canon....It's all there. The wonderful language. The leisurely pace. The rich detail. There's just no end. Readers will be left to their dreams."
Kirkus (08/15/2004)
"For Aubrey/Maturin addicts, there could be no better gift: a new, albeit incomplete, story with freshly piquant details, wry humor and salty nautical action....Alas, this fragmentary but worthy addition to the series is truly the end of a literary era, leaving only readers' imaginations to fill in the rest of the story."
Publishers Weekly (08/30/2004)
"The book is not really an addition to the vast O'Brian oeuvre...and still less is it an introduction for those who have yet to be initiated into the cult. It's a keepsake, a souvenir, for those diehards who have already made the whole 6,443-page journey and want one last look at Jack and Stephen as they embark on yet another mission....21 is a reminder, among other things, of how remarkably consistent a writer O'Brian was. Stylistically and thematically these chapters are indistinguishable from those written decades before, with no hint of weariness or flagging inspiration....The Aubrey-Maturin novels are to a certain extent a ship-in-the-bottle enterprise: a miniature world, lovingly rendered and hermetically sealed....The figures inside are so perfectly preserved, so exact and so lifelike, that you never tire of studying them, or of wondering at the patience, faithfulness and jeweler's-loupe ingenuity that managed to put them there."
New York Times Book Review - Charles McGrath (10/31/2004)
"This fragment...is both delightful and tantalising, with hints of a plot that might have involved Jack and Stephen with St. Helena or Napoleon himself....It shows an old man of great courage and willpower...."
Literary Review - Jessica Mann (12/01/2004)
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