Patrick O'Brian: Critical Essays and a Bibliography

by A.E. Cunningham (Editor)

Patrick O'Brian is the well-known author of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, set during the Napoleonic wars. They are acknowledged by critics and readers alike as classic works of fiction and are attracting an increasingly wide audience. Patrick O'Brian is also a translator of note and the author of several biographies and other works of nonfiction. His first books appeared over forty years ago to wide and enduring critical acclaim.

Genres: Fiction, Writing, Essays, Nautical

184 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated, and often feels like the work of graduate students, but still a likeable enough collection of short pieces for people who want to mull over their Aubrey/Maturin.

2024 UPDATE: Doesn't really feel like the work of graduate students. Or if it did, it would feel like the work of good graduate students.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Published in the 1990s by Norton (O'Brian's publisher) I presume to provide a boost to O'Brian's growing popularity. If I'm not mistaken it preceded Dean King's biography/expose of O'Brian. Readable, and some of the essays stood out - I'm thinking of the piece on the medical world of Maturin's time. I also liked the short stories, and the assortment of review excerpts. A book of "critical essays" not published by a university press was about what I needed right now. As I said, it's readable.

The essay by Charlton Heston is an interesting artifact. At the risk of sounding insufficiently leftist, I always enjoy the odd juxtapositions of O'Brian's online fandom: conservatives, larpers, Janeites, re-enactors, history "buffs" (doesn't that actually mean history clowns?) and people that just love a good sloth joke.