Gather The Letter Of Marque (Aubrey Maturin, #12) Designed By Patrick OBrian Textbook

this book in, and its theth wonderful outing in the "Aubrey/ Maturin" series,

In this tale Aubrey, after taken off the list of postcaptains for a crime he did not commit, will get assistance from his friend and ship's Surgeon and not to forget spy, Stephen Maturin.


This same Maturin has bought for Aubrey their former ship the "Surprise", and to take command of this vessel as a privateer, or more politely termed as a Letter of Marque.


Together, and with their crew, they will set sail to look and confront the French, and if successful against the French by beating them hard and convincingly, can Aubrey redeem himself enough from the private hell of his disgrace, and while doing so also make a name of himself that government and Admiralty will restore him as a Navy man once again.


What is to follow is an fabulous seafaring adventure, in which Aubrey and Maturin will do anything to make the Admiralty and government of Britain make notice of them in a most decisive and determined way, and this is brought to us

by the author in his own wonderful and authentic fashion.


Highly recommended, for this is another magnificent addition to this great series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Brilliant Letter Of Marque"! This was a wonderful conclusion to sitelinkThe Reverse of the Medal.
As Stephen notes at one stage in the book, Aristotle's definition of tragedy encompassed not only a great man being brought down but also the redemption and deliverance of a man who had been laid low.
If that's true, then this book, in company with the last, forms a truly great example of the same, From the nadir of fortune that both Jack and Stephen experience in TRotM, LoM sees a complete reversal.
Jack is more successful than he's ever been, Stephen has Diana restored to him, and the book ends on one of the happiest and most contained notes that I think I've ever seen in an O' Brian novel.


The period sense was, as ever, perfect, If ever there was a literary universe in which I think I would like to live, then the AubreyMaturin universe is one of them.
The dialogue was a joy as ever, O' Brian is so good at using dialogue to show just how close a friendship Stephen and Jack have, just how much they mean to one another.
It's such a joyous thing that even Jack's little bit of banter at Stephen about the fact that the sea going out is, in fact, called the tide, succeeded in bringing a huge smile to my face.
I particularly enjoyed Stephen's conversation about how difficult it is to survive as an undergraduate at TCD, Things, clearly, have not changed that much, g one more obrian down only eight more to go, lol!
thoroughly enjoyed this one, which had almost everything i love most about these books: storms, action, gruesome descriptions ofs surgery, a delightful scene of capt.
jack aubrey, r. n. swimming with a seal, etc,
loved the character stuff too jack and stephen continue to change and develop even after all this time and i love them more than ever stephen bought jack the HMS surprise as medicine for his exploded ego and now they are sailing around antagonizing the french per their custom but they're privateers so there is kind of a casual friday energy.
there is a boat fight involving horses on the boat in this one In this twelfth volume of the series, the Reverend Martin gives some advice on happy endings to an aspiring naval author: “When Mowett told me he meant to write a very ambitious piece called “The SeaOfficers Tragedy”, based on Captain Aubreys career, his victories and his misfortunes, I told him I hoped he would make it end happy.
“I cant possibly do that,” says he, “Since it is a tragedy, it must end in disaster, ” I begged his pardon for disagreeing, but I had the support of the greatest authority in the learned world, Aristotle himself, in saying that although tragedy necessarily dealt with doings of greatminded men or women, in a high and serious manner, it by no means necessarily ended unhappy.
”.

This passage felt like a wink from the author after all the vicissitudes Captain Jack Aubrey and Naval Surgeon/naturalist/spy Stephen Maturin endured in “The Reverse of the Medal”, for in this volume, our heroes face many more challenges and battles on land and sea, but surmount them all, more or less, to arrive at their own happy endings, at least for the moment.


I have enjoyed revisiting this series via audiobook and the wonderful readings by Patrick Tull, and this seems like a good place to take a break before beginning the next round of voyages, battles, misunderstandings, botanizing, and intrigue, with the South Pacific, Australia, and South America ahead.


Reread/I laughed, I cried, What a joy. The story rolled memorably along until the lastpages or so when it took a detour into snoozetown with the tedious love woes of the Doctor.
that, plus another placeholder ending, degrades the overall enjoyment of the book, but not the series, I'm profoundly in love with Diane Villiers, Steve Maturin's estranged wife. Both these characters turn over another leaf in this glorious tale of the continuing Aubrey/Maturin saga, Captain Jack Aubrey has been struck off the naval list because of enemy agents framing him for a stock exchange crime he did not commit.
Many know he has been framed and the enemy agents guilty of the entrapment have fled the country, Aubrey is presented with HMS Surprise, which Steven Maturin has bought out of his inheritance, Therefore, Jack Aubrey is sailing the ship as a Letter of Marque a privateer, He is still fighting for his country and trying to clear his name and win reinstatement back into the Royal Navy.

Once again I was enthralled by this twelfth story of the Royal Navy saga set in the time of Napoleon and the British/American War ofto.
I can't wait to start on the next one, Splendid stuff. I'm returning to this series after a very long break, and I'm glad that I did, It's possible, after all, to read books wrong, which can end up spoiling the book for reasons that are nothing to do with the book itself.
In the case of the Aubrey/Maturin series, the uniformity of their excellence in terms of writing, their largely characterdriven, relatively shapeless novelistic plotting compared poorly, I thought, to the more intricate, complex and subtle mechanisms of Dorothy Dunnett.
Of course, that's the wrong approach, They don't suffer in comparison at all, They are completely different animals, To read them for the thrill of clever plot twists that have been deviously woven into eight massive volumes is both pointless and a bit stupid, and I'm glad now that I've achieved this perspective, because the pleasures of O'Brian's novels are in some ways richer than Dunnett's, for all that Dunnett will always edge out O'Brian as one of my favourite writers.


Jack Aubrey is in a sorry state at the start of The Letter Of Marque, struck off the naval lists after a trumpedup charge, he is morose, shorttempered and depressed.
Stephen Maturin has purchased The Surprise, however, and with the titular letter and a crew half of old naval hands and half of doughty pirates, they set out to restore Jack's fortunes.


The aforementioned uniformity of excellence of these novels tends to render each succeeding novel susceptible to accusations of sameness.
Certainly there is progression. Each book is a chapter in the ongoing history of our heroes' friendship and careers, They age and change in circumstances and temperament, There are voyages, there are battles, there are some exchanges of intelligence, observations of flora and fauna, and occasional visits to hearth and home and family, where Jack can blunder cheerfully and Stephen can mope for his estranged wife.
The story develops, the characters grow, the world opens up around them, a world so fully and perfectly realised that we come to understand that what we mistook for sameness is, in fact, recognition and comfort and familiarity.
Each book gives exactly what it sets out to give, and so long as we don't mistake it for something it's not, we can fully enjoy them in all their warmth and generosity.
For all love. Jack Aubrey is a naval officer, a postcaptain of experience and capacity, When The Letter of Marque opens he has been struck off the Navy List for a crime he has not committed.


With Aubrey is his friend and ships surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also an unofficial British intelligence agent.
Maturin has bought for Aubrey his old ship the Surprise, as a private manofwar, Together they sail on a voyage which, if successful, might restore Aubrey to the rank, and the raison d'être, whose loss he so much regrets.
This one may be my favourite of the series thus far with a great blend of action, personal adventures, and the excellent narration of Ric Jerrom.
.stars

In a nutshell this volume of Aubrey and Maturins adventures covers a short, though very eventful, series of engagements in the Surprise under the titular letter of marque granted them by the crown, making Aubrey and company privateers or in other words government sanctioned pirates.
No doubt driven by his anger over the injustices he has suffered of late Aubrey proves to be a harsher than normal taskmaster to his crew, half of which are made up of old Surprises, the other of new men recruited from the population of privateers found in abundance in the town of Shelmerston.
Most of the tension in the novel revolves around Aubreys audacious plan to fulfill his commission from the government in such a way as to gain the greatest amount of glory without losing any face or credit to the Royal Navy forces tasked with providing him assisstance.
Also complicating Aubreys ultimate goal of reinstatement on the Navy List is his pigheaded in Maturins opinion at least adherence to his sense of personal honour and stubborn refusal to accept help that in any way implies his complicity in the scheme for which he was convicted.
Subplots around Maturins use of laudanum and its wider implications both for himself and members of the crew, as well as his relationship with Diana round out the story.
Oh, and both of our heroes take some very hard knocks, getting seriously injured, though in very different contexts and situations.
Poor Stephen seems to be habitually able to find new and devastating ways of falling down,

You could certainly say that for all the vicissitudes to which OBrian puts them he really does not like making his main characters suffer and here, after only one novel, he has provided both of them with a very happy ending indeed.
Of course, I dont imagine this to be a permanent state of affairs, but considering the level to which poor Aubrey had sunk by the end of sitelinkThe Reverse of the Medal he has certainly made a precipitous rise.
For his part Stephens bliss may be shortlived and no doubt will be, given its source, but both our heroes really cant complain of their treatment at OBrians hands.
. . at least for the moment, .