Mike Fitts has always been a valued friend and colleague, but the nicest thing he ever did for me was turn me on to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels — which, if you haven’t read them, are best described as being about a couple of fascinating characters living and fighting their way through the Napoleonic Wars, mostly at sea. But that’s pretty inadequate. You’d have to read them.
I’ve often mentioned the books here on the blog, but the only person I can remember responding that he’d even read them was Burl Burlingame, so Burl, this is for you, too. My eldest daughter subscribes to The New Yorker, and she is aware of my obsession (I’m now reading the early books in the series for the fourth time), so she made a point of showing this to me. And I very much enjoyed it. I suspect that the artist is an O’Brian fan, as well. Who else would have looked at New York tour buses and thought of this?
So what we have here is a couple of first-rates (four-deckers!) at the start of an engagement loosing their full broadsides. They each throw about the same weight of metal, but the one on the right would appear to have had the weather gage, given the direction in which the American colors of the bus to larboard are blowing. Their captains each seem to know what they’re about, except I’d have to fault both of them for firing full broadsides too soon. Rippling broadsides, with each gun firing as the target bears, would have been wiser, and less of a waste of powder and shot. Of course, in the case of the vessel to starboard, the full broadside may have been fired for strategic reasons. You’ll note that he has suddenly spun his helm sharply to larboard, possibly with the intention of boarding the American in his smoke. Either that, or he means to cut even more sharply so as to rake his stern. Either way, the captain to the right appears to be more of the Nelson school, as in Never mind maneuvers, always go straight at ’em, a true fighting captain who is taking full advantage of the weather gage…
Now for the rest of you, I’m sure that didn’t make much sense. But I thought Mike and Burl would enjoy it.
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Bruce McCall! He’s a kind of genius at fake-pulp Boys Science illustrations, generally showing wildly inappropriate gigantic constructions. Used to do stuff for National Lampoon.
http://www.american.com/graphics/2007/september/Futurology-sept-oct.jpg
Brad, I’ve been waiting and hoping for a sequel to “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World.” (I’ve always enjoyed the books, too.)
Now read “Black Ocean” for a history fix. Then move on to the Flashman series, damn your eyes.
Have you read the Alexander Kent “Bolitho” books about the same time period? He is also a naval officer but his career starts with The American Revolution through the Napoleonic Wars. They are very good I will still always prefer the “Hornblower” books.
Kent has a good series set in the 20th century too.
Wonderful stuff from the New Yorker. McCall did one of his imaginative diagrams of the magazine’s office, including the “reputed secret office of Sy Hersh.” A reporter with sources so deeply hidden that his office location is covert.
I should go back and read Hornblower, having read O’Brian. Wonder what the comparison will feel like.
The same man that wrote the Hornblower books (Forrester?) wrote an excellent WWII book called The Good Shepherd. It is about an American destroyer captian being in command of a convoy escort soon after the US entry into the war in the North Atlantic. It does a fantastic job examining his doubts
According to Keegan’s “The Price of Admiralty”, each deck’s gunnery officer would order his guns to fire at the best instant to either strike below the waterline or (if they were firing ‘hot shot’) to set fires in the rigging; at the range of the two in the cover, probably the latter.
SGM, I thought “Master and Commander” was a fine film, although my obsessive reading of the novels make me a harsh critic. I thought Russell Crowe did a surprisingly good job of evoking Aubrey, even the lighter side of his nature. But Paul Bettany — an actor I usually enjoy — was too flat as Maturin. Stephen Maturin is probably too complex a character to render in two hours, though, so I don’t blame the actor.
As for a sequel — that would be tough, since the film robbed from so many of the books.
What I’d like to see is a multiple-episode series on HBO, a la Band of Brothers, that takes the novels one at a time, with two or three hours to a novel. That would be wonderful…
I agree with you about Bettany, not all how I imagined Maturin, although he had flashes. One problem is that Maturin’s character is almost entirely internal.
I thought the movie in general was brilliant, with a perfect ending.
Yes, Brad, an HBO mini-series would be great! Unfortunately, I just don’t think that O’Brian’s books have enough potential gratuitous sex for the soft porn content that most HBO series have. Maybe The History Channel could do it.
(‘Course, I’m still waiting for the never produced final season of “Deadwood,” so I don’t think HBO is taking my druthers in account lately. I seem to have lost all my pull with them. I wonder what happened…?)
A&E did a few Hornblowers that weren’t too bad if you haven’t seen them and need a nautical fix.
As for the sex, there’s plenty of that in the first novel, what with Molly Harte and all that. It takes place in the background, but maybe that would be enough to grab the audience — or at least persuade the moguls that the audience would be grabbed.
Then, the second one could pull in women with the Austenesque plotline.
Tell me where to make my pitch, and I’ll make it…
Larry David as Maturin!
Actually, Maturin would be really tough to cast. I think John Hurt could have done it when he was much younger.
Ian Hart is a possibility. He’s pretty versatile. And Jason Isaacs could do the “reptilian eyes” thing (Maturin is often described that way).
Ben Kingsley? Also too old, I guess. I don’t know.
Basically, there’s a brilliant British actor out there who could do it; I just don’t know his name… Oh, and one American — Edward Norton.
How about Alan Cumming? To me, he looks kind of like Maturin.
While I don’t think he exactly looks the part, I think Andrew Scott has the range to handle the layers of the character. He’s amazing as Moriarty in “Sherlock.”
We forget how young these people were. (The firebomber of Japan, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, was only in his 30s at the time.) The problem with Maturin is that he behave like an old man when he isn’t, and Aubrey behaves like a young man, when he isn’t.
I actually thought Nick Stahl would be an interesting Maturin.
Now who can play dashing Col. Harry Flashman, now that Malcolm McDowell has got too old?