Master & Commander: Chapter One

Yes, I've read it before. Heck, I read it last year. And now I'm reading it again...twice...once (via audiobook) to hear the ebb and flow and to make mental note of places to read more closely and once (via the hardcover omnibus boxed set edition).

So join me as I participate in the 2008 Gunroom Group Read of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series. This will be the first (continually growing) entry, I'll update this as I work my way through. Bits are being posted at The Gunroom mailing list and I may snip bits of the responses as they come up from there.

In the meantime, may I entreat you (if you are interested in O'Brian, even vaguely) to join either The Gunroom or a newly formed Yahoo Group, Reading Jack Aubrey? The Gunroom is somewhat wide in its discussions, after all, it is about Patrick O'Brian "and everything else". But, if you can take the volume, you'll find a nice bunch of folks and learn much from what we call The All-Knowing List. Reading Jack Aubrey is focused on The Canon, and there are strict rules regarding spoilers, but the discussion there will benefit folks new to the series.

And so we begin...

I've hauled down the first volume of the O'Brian omnibus editions, and opened it to Master & Commander. I've loaded the iPod with Evenings in the Captain's Cabin and other appropriate pieces. I've unwrapped a virgin Moleskine for taking notes...

I'll post a couple of these today. In some cases, I quote (never extensively), in others I write, sometimes I do both. I've not reached any where near the levels of some of the more learned coves at The Gunroom, but someday...

A Minuet

(Master & Commander, omnibus hardcover version, pages 6-7)

...a witty, agreeable minuet, no more: but it was succeeded by a curious difficult, almost harsh last movement, a piece that seemed on the edge of saying something of the greatest importance...The rest of the quartet joined the fiddle and all of them worked back to the point from which the statement might arise: it was essential to get straight back into the current...He heard the noble conclusion and recognized that it was far beyond the straightforward winding-up that he had forseen, but he could take no pleasure in it.

No pleasure in the music, as that civilian in the rusty black coat has been bothering him!

What struck me about this passage is the internal (to Jack) description of the music in terms that are almost cosmic in scope. All from a "simple sailor"? Surely we swim in deep waters here...

Saturn Rising

(M&C, omnibus HC version, page 7)

Jack Aubrey looked out of the long, elegant windows into the night: Saturn was rising in the south-south-east, a glowing ball in the Minorcan sky. A nudge, a thrust of that kind; so vicious and deliberate was very like a blow. Neither his personal temper nor his professional code could patiently suffer an affront and what affront was graver than a blow?

Things are not starting well for the relationship. In fact, it appears here that the friendship will die before it is born.

The mention here of Saturn struck me a couple of ways. Jack is inside, looking outside. I assume that the windows are open, due to the heat or just warmth. The interior is probably lit—candles? So it is not as bright as we are used to...but Saturn? Spotting Saturn from inside a lit area with photon-soaked eyes?

So is there another connection with Saturn? Something astrological? Something to do with time? Or another "aspect"?

To Life!

(M&C, hardcover omnibus edition, page 7)

"Glory, professional advancement, prize-money."

What else is there?

The Gloves Are Thrown Down

(M&C, hardcover omnibus edition page 8)

"My name is Aubrey, sir. I am staying at the Crown."

"Mine, sir, is Maturin. I am to be found any morning at Joselito's coffee-house. May I beg you to stand aside?"

Tensions are still running high and things have been ratcheted up in my eyes. Indicating where you are staying so that the seconds may approach and propose the ground for the duel to be fought at?

Reading Things Into Looks

As Jack leaves the music room, he runs into several people he knows. One of them is the Commadant's secretary, who gives him a "significant look".

This man was involved in a shattered promise to Jack of a captured privateer. The ship was given to the secretary's brother.

What is behind the "significant look"? Jack's relationship with Molly Harte? The knowledge that Captain Harte is meddling with Jack's pending appointment to the "Sophie" by delaying the message and sending Captain Allen off as soon as possible? Which side is the secretary on?

Posted by Fred Kiesche at February 7, 2008 01:12 PM