The intrigue and deceit I like so much in this series didn’t kick in until the last 40 or so pages, but in the meantime there appears a cannibal conveThe intrigue and deceit I like so much in this series didn’t kick in until the last 40 or so pages, but in the meantime there appears a cannibal convent of seagoing Polynesian Amazons who sail with severed scrotums nailed to the bows of their captured craft. And the book has enough amusing exchanges like this:
"...but the question is food. Now that fishing has failed us...I should like to know whether there is anything you can suggest. The pith of tree-ferns? Roots? Bark? Pounded leaves?"
"Sure we did pass a little dwarfish sorts of yam on the way up, an undoubted Dioscorea - I called out to you, but you were far ahead, snorting, and did not attend - yet they do not really thrive here, any more than the land-crab, alas, and I should place my chief reliance upon the shark. He may not be very palatable; his appearance cannot recommend him anywhere; but his flesh, like that of most selachians, is reasonably wholesome and nourishing. He is easily taken; and I recommend that his upper flanks should be cut in long thin strips, dried and smoked."
"But Stephen," said Jack, glancing toward the wreck of the Norfolk, "think what they must have been feeding on."
"Never let us be missish, my dear: all earthly plants to some degree partake of the countless dead since Adam's time, and all the fishes of the sea share at first or second or hundredth hand in all the drowned. In any case," he added, seeing Jack's look of distaste, "sharks are very like robins, you know; they defend their territory with equal jealously, and if we take ours over by the far channel no one will be able to reproach us with anthropophagy, even at one remove."
"Well," said Jack, "I am too fat anyway. Please to show me your yams."
Rival navies that had spent decades sizing up the other guy - though both were blinkered, parochial, and arrogant in their assessments - finally come Rival navies that had spent decades sizing up the other guy - though both were blinkered, parochial, and arrogant in their assessments - finally come to blows, and wake into that strange clarity war will provide. Each is surprised by the strength of the other. Fascinating stuff....more
Desolation Island’s long arc of calamity and humiliation continues here, with a fire at sea, an open boat, and rescue by HMS Java, just in time for thDesolation Island’s long arc of calamity and humiliation continues here, with a fire at sea, an open boat, and rescue by HMS Java, just in time for that ship’s historic ass-whipping at the hands of USS Constitution. What follows is so intricately dire that I felt relief at their deliverance, expected as it was. And they’re not home yet - though home is never more than a respite, for these two....more
Not that I had tired of Maturin as a too-perfect savant, incredibly wise, subtle, and generous – physician among floggers, philosopher among the cantiNot that I had tired of Maturin as a too-perfect savant, incredibly wise, subtle, and generous – physician among floggers, philosopher among the canting, counselor-critic to confused lovers - but I thought it was about time he did something human, all too human, something stupid like killing a man over a woman who’s all wrong for him. He cornered her married sugar daddy, provoked him to insult, and shot him down in a duel. (Poor Canning, I liked him, and I wonder if, as the series stretched on, O’Brian regretted killing off such an interesting character so early. I’m convinced that Maturin descends, on his Spanish mother’s side, from sage and stealthy conversos, which might have given them much to discuss.) Does this form a pattern – does Maturin shoot it out with all rivals for Diana Villiers? Her latest lover is an American planter, a type touchy in matters of honor. Could happen. Reading Post Captain, the previous novel, I wondered at the apparent contrast of Maturin and my other favorite historical-fictional character, set down in the same period - Conan Doyle’s endearingly vain and boastful Brigadier Gerard of the Hussars of Conflans, exemplar of the furia francese in a First Empire style, the thickest head and the stoutest heart in all La Grande Armée. Turns out they aren’t so different. Maturin may sound in my head like Michael Gambon reading the letters of Henry James, but he’s still “a man of blood,” as the Marine lieutenant Macdonald observed after a practice bout. Blood and folly. Anyway, this is a fun series. The prose is a tight texture of jokes, jargon, raillery, commands, and aphorisms in small sapiential gardens....more
A capriccio on late Byzantine and Venetian themes. One of de Chirico’s piazzas. Surrealist-Normalien lucubration. A film noir ruefully – posthumously?A capriccio on late Byzantine and Venetian themes. One of de Chirico’s piazzas. Surrealist-Normalien lucubration. A film noir ruefully – posthumously? – narrated by a police spy whose restless ennui and self-destructive bent make him the lover/accomplice/dupe of a femme fatale, and a tool in the hands of a mysterious boss, the secret power of the city. All of my favorite aphorisms on decadence and debacle, pressed into a short dream....more
Volume 2 of Braisted's history of US Pacific diplomacy and naval strategy in the quarter century between Commodore Dewey's hoisting of his pennant on Volume 2 of Braisted's history of US Pacific diplomacy and naval strategy in the quarter century between Commodore Dewey's hoisting of his pennant on the Olympia, flagship of the Asiatic Squadron, and the conclusion of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, which saw the world's sea powers agree to drastically curtail their fleets and pledge to avoid future arms races. A very dry read of 700 pages, though fierce old salts like admirals Fiske and Sims show through, however sedately Braisted paraphrases their prophetic articles and mercurial memos. Similarly irrepressible is Admiral Katō, who was at Tōgō's side on the bridge of the Mikasa during the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and represented the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Washington conference:
In a subsequent interview with Kanji Katō, the assistant secretary understood the admiral to affirm that he would commit suicide rather than return to Japan after agreeing to less than a 10.10.7 ratio [of British to American to Japanese capital ships]. The two parted after Katō gave his word as a samurai never to deceive Roosevelt during negotiations.