Rating: 
Summary: Not the most riveting Aubrey/Maturin installment, but....
Review: "The Truelove", the immediate precursor to Patrick O'Brian's "The Wine Dark Sea", is quite frankly not the most riveting installment in the Aubrey/Maturin saga. And yet it is an interesting psychological glimpse into the personalities of the officers and crew of Her Majesty's Hired Vessel Surprise, when a female stowaway, Clarissa Harvill, is discovered. She becomes quite literally the main attraction to Surprise's junior officers, and even a trusted veteran like Captain Thomas Pullings, falls prey to her charms. For once neither Captain Jack Aubrey nor Dr. Stephen Maturin are the main focus of this tale, devoted instead to the enigmatic Clarissa Oakes (She is married off to one of the junior officers later during the tale.), who provides Maturin with a tantalizing clue regarding a French spy working in Whitehall. Instead we see an idyllic sojourn in the South Seas marred by personality disputes, a brief battle on a Polynesian island between French privateers and Surprise's crew, and the eventual appearance of the French privateer Franklin, which will play a prominent role in the next novel in the series. This book still deserves highest praise for O'Brian's eloquent prose and vivid descriptions of Polynesian natural history.
Rating:
Summary: Not the most riveting Aubrey/Maturin installment, but....
Review: "The Truelove", the immediate precursor to Patrick O'Brian's "The Wine Dark Sea", is quite frankly not the most riveting installment in the Aubrey/Maturin saga. And yet it is an interesting psychological glimpse into the personalities of the officers and crew of Her Majesty's Hired Vessel Surprise, when a female stowaway, Clarissa Harvill, is discovered. She becomes quite literally the main attraction to Surprise's junior officers, and even a trusted veteran like Captain Thomas Pullings, falls prey to her charms. For once neither Captain Jack Aubrey nor Dr. Stephen Maturin are the main focus of this tale, devoted instead to the enigmatic Clarissa Oakes (She is married off to one of the junior officers later during the tale.), who provides Maturin with a tantalizing clue regarding a French spy working in Whitehall. Instead we see an idyllic sojourn in the South Seas marred by personality disputes, a brief battle on a Polynesian island between French privateers and Surprise's crew, and the eventual appearance of the French privateer Franklin, which will play a prominent role in the next novel in the series. This book still deserves highest praise for O'Brian's eloquent prose and vivid descriptions of Polynesian natural history.
Rating:
Summary: Another gripping narrative by Patrick O'Brian
Review: The late Patrick O'Brian had no peer when it came to sea stories. This is another in his series with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin as his protagonists. The two, although dissimilar in every way, are great friends and sail together, Aubrey as commander, and Maturin as ship's physician--and intelligence agent for the Admiralty. The period is the Napoleonic wars, the ship is His Majesty's hired vessel, the Surprise, a brig, and this story begins in Australian waters, having just left the penal colony there. Shortly after leaving, the Surprise is overhauled by a packet with orders to proceed to the Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, to protect British whaling interests there. Oh, and an ex-convict stowaway (Clarissa Harvill) is discovered in the cable-tier, hiding in the anchor rope. It takes Stephen Maturin to discover her past. Thus the story begins, and O'Brian, with his usual brisk narrative pace maintains your interest throughout. Patrick O'Brian had few, if any equals when it came to knowledge of square-rigged vessels and their history in battle. Many of his stories reflect actual actions, taken directly from British Admiralty history. Not only is his nautical terminology accurate, but he also uses period expressions that lend reality to his tales. I cannot find it in my heart to award anything he has written with less than 5 stars. Let me suggest that the reader would do well to start with the first book in the series, Master and Commander, and take them in order. The series is a saga that provides untold hours of pleasure. Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus, Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating:
Summary: Another gripping narrative by Patrick O'Brian
Review:
The late Patrick O'Brian had no peer when it came to sea stories. This is another in his series with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin as his protagonists. The two, although dissimilar in every way, are great friends and sail together, Aubrey as commander, and Maturin as ship's physician--and intelligence agent for the Admiralty. The period is the Napoleonic wars, the ship is His Majesty's hired vessel, the Surprise, a brig, and this story begins in Australian waters, having just left the penal colony there. Shortly after leaving, the Surprise is overhauled by a packet with orders to proceed to the Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, to protect British whaling interests there. Oh, and an ex-convict stowaway (Clarissa Harvill) is discovered in the cable-tier, hiding in the anchor rope. It takes Stephen Maturin to discover her past. Thus the story begins, and O'Brian, with his usual brisk narrative pace maintains your interest throughout. Patrick O'Brian had few, if any equals when it came to knowledge of square-rigged vessels and their history in battle. Many of his stories reflect actual actions, taken directly from British Admiralty history. Not only is his nautical terminology accurate, but he also uses period expressions that lend reality to his tales. I cannot find it in my heart to award anything he has written with less than 5 stars. Let me suggest that the reader would do well to start with the first book in the series, Master and Commander, and take them in order. The series is a saga that provides untold hours of pleasure. Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus, Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating: 
Summary: A lighthearted romp for the Surprise & crew...
Review: Anyone who is working their way thru the Aubrey/ Maturin series as I currently am, will find "The Truelove" a slight change from earlier installments. This time around Jack Aubrey isn't concerning himself with earth-shaking events & Stephen Maturin is devoting himself to his philosophical and naturalist inclinations, so instead we simply spend some time afloat with them and the other members of the Surprise along with something entirely new - a woman!
Clarissa Harvill is a cipher & altho Patrick O'Brian reveals more about her as the book draws to a close, there are still many things left unsaid in her interactions with the other crew members. Maybe this reviewer did not read carefully enough, but allusions and omissions regarding Clarissa sometimes left me confused. However, the pleasure of O'Brian's writing is such that, even tho I'm often a little lost when reading his books (especially when it comes to naval terms), I'm never bored. This definitely should not be the first book in the Aubrey/Maturin series you pick up, but do pick it up once you've started following their adventures. You won't regret it!
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat dull but enigmatic story
Review: As an avid reader of the Aubrey/Maturin series I found this book to the one of the weakest in the series. That's probably because I enjoy the sea battles most and this was primarily a leisurely cruise. The story certainly does confirm Jack Aubrey's previous contention that women aboard a ship causes nothing but problems! A puzzle for me is why the title was selected since the role of the HMS Truelove was so minimal? The one battle in the book was not particularly heroic but to O'Brian's credit he doesn't duck reality. Finally, knowing how O'Brian weaves characters from book to book, I'm sure it was necessary to become intimately acquainted with Clarissa who probably will play an important future role regarding the final exposure of the top spy in the British Government. As always, I look forward to reading the next book in this wonderful series, The Wine-Dark Sea.
Rating:
Summary: Something of a chore
Review: Calling "The Truelove', whose story is primarily that of Clarissa Oakes, a woman who has been sexually abused from early girlhood until she boards Aubrey's ship [and, one might argue, until she leaves] a light hearted romp is misleading. Hardly the first time this series has dealt with the impact of a woman has on 'the wooden world' that Aubrey, Maturin and ever changing cast of supporting characters inhabit, this time it shows everyone at their worst. Jack, who prides himself on vast experience at understanding his crew, is thick headed and oblivious, Stephen, ever the romantic, sympathetically sends Clarissa, who admits not only to disliking children but to throwing an infant down a well, to stay with his wife and their newborn, Pullings is befuddled as well as bewitched, and, well, suffice it to say no one comes off smelling like roses. Since Clarissa [like all O'Brian's 'strong' females] is a man in a skirt [for a woman in uniform check out the aptly named Killick, in all his shrewish glory] and so lacks verisimilitude. She is puzzling as a character because she is so vague and inaccurate that she never resolves as one. While I suspect O'Brian got her impact on the sex starved, 'territorial' crew more accurately, it hardly makes this grim story fun. While "The Truelove", like all the O'Brian I've read so far, is readable, [and for those making their way thru the series an unavoidable chore], it is hardly a lark.
Rating:
Summary: Weakest Link in the Chain
Review: I have to agree with other reviewers who find The Truelove to be the weakest book in a great series. It needs to be read for continuity, but devotees of Aubrey should temper their expectations. The book is slow, very slow, with the plot congealing at a fraction of the pace set by Preserved Killick's various pudding monstrosities.
The professional reviewers paid so little attention that they got the chronology and places wrong (the main action is in Hawaii, not Tonga). They, as I, probably found themselves nodding at the pages and pages devoted to Clarissa Oakes, a stow-away, and her inexplicable (except perhaps due to the desperation of enforced shipboard celibacy) charm. Why Aubrey or Maturin would be genuinely interested in such a creature is about the only mystery in this volume.
Oh, you have to read it to keep up with the series. But the characters have been away from Sir Joseph, England, and real combat for way too long, with too many loose ends. About halfway through this book I was taken with the conviction that the Surprise had become Die Fliegende Hollander and was doomed to sail around Australasia forever.
Rating:
Summary: Dog Watch, Best Cur-tailed
Review: I love all of the Aubrey/Maturin books, and all get five stars from me. But this, the fifteenth in the brilliant twenty-volume series by Patrick O'Brian, is not the strongest of the bunch. It is different from the others in that there are no scenes of naval warfare and only a trivial, and somewhat belabored, battle for a Polynesian island. The true action lies in the long voyage across the Pacific with a young woman stowaway. Clarissa's own personality is quirky and shaped by a childhood of abuse, which causes no end of consequences on a ship of men starved for female companionship. Jack and Stephen, as always, deliver wonderful dialogue and a subtle interplay. Jack's shipboard authority and management style offer a different side fo the man. Patrick O'Brian could write. Even when he wasn't at his best, he could write. Five stars for The Truelove.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Very Best
Review: I love all of the Aubrey/Maturin books, and all get five stars from me. But this, the fifteenth in the brilliant twenty-volume series by Patrick O'Brian, is not the strongest of the bunch. It is different from the others in that there are no scenes of naval warfare and only a trivial, and somewhat belabored, battle for a Polynesian island. The true action lies in the long voyage across the Pacific with a young woman stowaway. Clarissa's own personality is quirky and shaped by a childhood of abuse, which causes no end of consequences on a ship of men starved for female companionship. Jack and Stephen, as always, deliver wonderful dialogue and a subtle interplay. Jack's shipboard authority and management style offer a different side fo the man. Patrick O'Brian could write. Even when he wasn't at his best, he could write. Five stars for The Truelove.
|
