Farewell, Jack Aubrey

By Morley Swingle

Special to the Post-Dispatch

Sunday, Dec. 26 2004

   Imagine the excitement if Mark Twain were to hurl from the void a sequel to Huckleberry Finn or if Harper Lee's Atticus Finch were to take on one last long-shot case as important as the one he tried so valiantly in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

   Fans of the remarkable Patrick O'Brian will experience such a thrill when learning that Jack Aubrey and his ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, the heroes of the wonderful "Master and Commander" novels, have set sail on one last adventure in O'Brian's unfinished novel: "21: The Final Voyage of Jack Aubrey."

   Richard Snow, editor of American Heritage magazine, has called "Master and Commander" and its sequels "the best historical novels ever written." I started reading them in November 2003 on the recommendation of the late Jack Morris, longtime head of the criminal division of the Missouri attorney general's office. Knowing I had written a historical novel set in Missouri, Jack encouraged me to read "Master and Commander," the story that was made into a 2003 movie, based on book No. 10 in the series, "The Far Side of the World." It starred Russell Crowe as Aubrey, Paul Bettany as Maturin and a refurbished three-masted American-built ship named the Rose as Aubrey's ship.

   Over the next five months, I devoured all 20 books in the remarkable series. I read them late into the night. I read them in motel rooms during change-of-venue trials. I listened to them as books on tape while driving or running. I proselytized about them to friends and complete strangers. If you are a book lover, you know the sublime and addictive feeling of discovering afresh a great writer.

   The 20 incomparable books began with "Master and Commander," published in 1969, and ended with "Blue at the Mizzen," published in 1999. O'Brian died Jan. 2, 2000, at age 85, having penned only the first three chapters of the next installment. I read "Blue at the Mizzen" slowly and carefully earlier this year, savoring what I thought would be my last dose of O'Brian's amazing grasp of naval history and periodic detail, his deft characterization, his keen study of human nature and emotions, and his witty and elegant writing style.

   "21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey" is a treat. Page by page, the book presents both O'Brian's typewritten manuscript as well as a reproduction of his hand-written first draft. One-third the length of a typical O'Brian book, "21" picks up where "Blue at the Mizzen" left off, with Aubrey finally promoted to the rank of admiral and embarking on yet another voyage.

   Although fans will relish the latest installment, landlubbers unfamiliar with the O'Brian books would be well advised to start their own voyages, instead, at the very beginning with "Master and Commander."

   "Master and Commander" and its sequels constitute a monumental literary achievement. They achieve that rare feat in literature, getting even better as the series progresses. Some series, like the Tarzan books or the Wizard of Oz tales, lose something in quality as later books were churned out. Not with O'Brian. From beginning to end, his books are uniformly excellent.

   The heart of the novels is the friendship between Jack Aubrey, the brave and impetuous captain of a British fighting ship, and Stephen Maturin, the intellectual physician (and espionage agent) who signs on as Aubrey's naval surgeon. Their adventures with war, women, wildlife, water and weather cover 15 years and the 20 novels. Each book can stand alone, but as a whole, they weave a fascinating and riveting tapestry of life between 1800 and 1815, one long tour de force nearly four times the length of "War and Peace" - and infinitely more satisfying and readable.

   Great historical fiction breathes life into historical figures and lets them walk the Earth again. Like a time machine, it drops us into places long gone and puts us deep in the midst of events now occupying only dusty pages of history. As effectively as the life's work of Louis L'Amour brings to life the American West, O'Brian's opus paints a vivid and accurate portrait of life on British warships in the Napoleonic era.

   O'Brian is a master of characterization. Aubrey and Maturin will endure forever alongside the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Scarlett O'Hara, Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn. These entertaining, complex, flawed-yet-likable characters are the lure drawing the reader back for book after book. Sure, the epic battle scenes of wooden ships blasting each other to smithereens with broadside after broadside in the expanse of vast oceans are breathtaking, but the ongoing story of these men dealing with the challenges and problems of day-to-day life makes the novels relevant to today's readers, reminding us that although times and tools change, the complexity of being human does not.

   O'Brian has few equals as a storyteller. Whether pulling the reader into the excitement of captaining a wooden sailing ship during a fierce storm or captivating the reader with the gripping personal life of a man whose love for a woman is challenged by the distance separating them, by temptations of the flesh and by devotion to duty, O'Brian makes you want to keep turning every page.

   For example, a scene in "H.M.S. Surprise" has Capt. Aubrey generously and surreptitiously offering grog to Dr. Maturin's pet sloth, culminating in Stephen's complaint that Jack had "debauched" the sloth. The scene is as entertaining as the cat-and-the-painkiller episode in "Tom Sawyer."

   O'Brian really separates himself from the pack in his devotion to historical detail and his craftsmanship in working those details smoothly into the story. In some historical novels, like those of James Michener and John Jakes, the story occasionally sags as a paragraph of straight history is cobbled into the narrative. O'Brian manages to avoid taking the lectern, choosing instead to hide his erudition in the layers of his story. From the spotted dogs and drowned babies (both suet puddings) served at the captain's table, to the difficulty of sailing into the wind, to the difference between a frigate and a man-of-war, O'Brian educates while he entertains.

   As Geoff Hunt, the illustrator whose paintings grace the covers of the O'Brian books, has written: "Nothing can quite match the electrifying instant when historical research jumps into life."

   While the last voyage of Aubrey and Maturin is short and ends abruptly (in mid-sentence), it is satisfying nonetheless. "21" leaves us with a last image of Jack Aubrey in the flush of excitement sailing onward to a new adventure. As long as libraries exist, he will live on.

   Farewell, Jack Aubrey.

Morley Swingle, a lawyer and writer, is the prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County and the author of the historical novel "The Gold of Cape Girardeau."