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Patrick O’Brian: A Very Private Life
An intimate portrait of the reclusive and brilliant author, written by his step-son Nikolai Tolstoy. The English novelist Patrick O’Brian is much admired for his best-selling Aubrey-Maturin series of sea novels – the unexpected success of the series secured his place in literary history. Far less is known about O’Brian’s personal life, largely because he preferred to keep it that way. In A Very Private Life , O’Brian’s step-son Nikolai Tolstoy draws upon his step-father’s archives and papers to faithfully capture a life dedicated to the written word. This biography covers the latter part of O’Brian’s life, from the moment of his arrival at Collioure in the south of France in 1949, where he wrote all his major works, to his death in 2000. Throughout his career, O’Brian’s writing was supplemented by his translation work, which saw him translate the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Henri Charriere. Tolstoy also captures O’Brian as he conducted research for the biography of his close friend and neighbour, Pablo Picasso. Tolstoy maps his step-father’s literary career, from its poverty-stricken beginnings to the remarkable success O’Brian enjoyed later in life. He notes how through a cruel irony of fate, just as his step-father’s literary career attained greater acclaimed, O’Brian’s pleasure in his achievement began to diminish. This truthful, warm and insightful biography is a testimony to Tolstoy’s respect and admiration for his step-father, one of Britain’s most loved literary figures.
- GenresNonfiction
608 pages, Hardcover
Published October 31, 2019
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About the author
Nikolai Tolstoy
33 books35 followersCount Nikolai Dmitrievich Tolstoy-Miloslavsky (Russian: Николай Дмитриевич Толстой-Милославский; born 23 June 1935) is an Anglo-Russian author who writes under the name Nikolai Tolstoy. A member of the Tolstoy family, he is a former parliamentary candidate of the UK Independence Party.
Source: Wikipedia
The photograph by Justin K Prim.
Source: Wikipedia
The photograph by Justin K Prim.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2020
First off, this was much easier to read than the previous volume that deal with PO'B's early life. That previous one seemed to get bogged down in detail and analysis that didn't feel necessary or relevant unless you absolutely needed to know every detail of where he may or may not have lived or visited during the less-documented part of his life.
Thankfully the author seems to have learned from that and this second half is much more narrative-focused - and crucially, covers a part of O'Brian's life that feels more interesting as we find out how he came to write his most famous works. The author continues to respond to false and misleading claims made by other biographers where necessary, but not in as much obsessive detail as in the first book. The fact that this book covers the period where the author became part of O'Brian's family mean he is able to give numerous first-hand accounts and memories which add to the book and help to show that previous assessments of O'Brian's character and personality have largely come from those who didn't know him to the same extent and may well have misunderstood him.
If you haven't read the first book, there are recaps of the key previous details at times - as well as in the Appendices. It would probably be easier to rely on these rather than slogging through the first book, in my opinion. The whole thing could probably have been condensed into one volume, but as I said, this second part is much better and more enjoyable than "The Making of the Novelist".
Thankfully the author seems to have learned from that and this second half is much more narrative-focused - and crucially, covers a part of O'Brian's life that feels more interesting as we find out how he came to write his most famous works. The author continues to respond to false and misleading claims made by other biographers where necessary, but not in as much obsessive detail as in the first book. The fact that this book covers the period where the author became part of O'Brian's family mean he is able to give numerous first-hand accounts and memories which add to the book and help to show that previous assessments of O'Brian's character and personality have largely come from those who didn't know him to the same extent and may well have misunderstood him.
If you haven't read the first book, there are recaps of the key previous details at times - as well as in the Appendices. It would probably be easier to rely on these rather than slogging through the first book, in my opinion. The whole thing could probably have been condensed into one volume, but as I said, this second part is much better and more enjoyable than "The Making of the Novelist".
March 7, 2020
Feel guilty of invading his privacy, but enjoyed anecdotes about his writing; wish there had been more background on his creation of characters and plot.
April 15, 2025
I struggled with the distinction between this as a biography of its subject and a partial autobiography of the author.
Having the author write in first person and reference so many others, apart from Patrick O'Brian as the main subject, relative to himself (my mother, my grandparents, etc) rather than to Patrick ('his wife', 'his parents in law', etc) was both a little confusing, requiring as it did a bit of mental gymnastics to work out the relevant connection to Patrick, but also I think prevented the author from achieving the objectivity so necessary to credibility.
The author's main advantages are a long and close family relationship and access to private records and documents, so his is likely to be the closest to an accurate account of the life under review. However the close personal relationship is only very occasionally recognised to create a very positive bias. Nor does he acknowledge that O'Brian is very unlikely to have been totally transparent with him as a stepson anymore than anyone else, even though he notes an increase in what O'Brian shares with him after O'Brian's primary confidante, his wife Mary, had died.
Structurally, I found most of the early section very hard to follow, being evidently set out chronologically but in fact skipping back and forth a great deal. I noted repetitions of some material, understandable perhaps but only occasionally acknowledged as 'as previously' or similar, which was confusing.
Most irritating though was the author's use of this platform, a book about his very famous stepfather, to re-hash in detail quite superfluous to the narrative, his own legal issues. As I noted earlier, the book was about O'Brian, not Tolstoy.
When considering my final opinion of the book, I also have to be consistent in either concluding based upon the book as an independent work, or through the prism of my opinion, such as it can be based on publicly available information, of the author. For O'Brian, who tried so hard to maintain a separation between the two, I find this fairly easy. I probably would have respected him as a scholar and author but would have struggled with some aspects of a difficult character, which appear to have in common some elements I have found impossible to continue to include in my own life.
For Tolstoy, I hope I am not too inconsistent in setting this distinction aside, given that he doesn't attempt to make it himself, and find it significantly lowered my appreciation of the book. After all, O'Brian wanted to be private and not nearly so much of his life needed to be made public to refute the (I imagine most distressing) allegations made against him in later life. So who was it really written for?
Having the author write in first person and reference so many others, apart from Patrick O'Brian as the main subject, relative to himself (my mother, my grandparents, etc) rather than to Patrick ('his wife', 'his parents in law', etc) was both a little confusing, requiring as it did a bit of mental gymnastics to work out the relevant connection to Patrick, but also I think prevented the author from achieving the objectivity so necessary to credibility.
The author's main advantages are a long and close family relationship and access to private records and documents, so his is likely to be the closest to an accurate account of the life under review. However the close personal relationship is only very occasionally recognised to create a very positive bias. Nor does he acknowledge that O'Brian is very unlikely to have been totally transparent with him as a stepson anymore than anyone else, even though he notes an increase in what O'Brian shares with him after O'Brian's primary confidante, his wife Mary, had died.
Structurally, I found most of the early section very hard to follow, being evidently set out chronologically but in fact skipping back and forth a great deal. I noted repetitions of some material, understandable perhaps but only occasionally acknowledged as 'as previously' or similar, which was confusing.
Most irritating though was the author's use of this platform, a book about his very famous stepfather, to re-hash in detail quite superfluous to the narrative, his own legal issues. As I noted earlier, the book was about O'Brian, not Tolstoy.
When considering my final opinion of the book, I also have to be consistent in either concluding based upon the book as an independent work, or through the prism of my opinion, such as it can be based on publicly available information, of the author. For O'Brian, who tried so hard to maintain a separation between the two, I find this fairly easy. I probably would have respected him as a scholar and author but would have struggled with some aspects of a difficult character, which appear to have in common some elements I have found impossible to continue to include in my own life.
For Tolstoy, I hope I am not too inconsistent in setting this distinction aside, given that he doesn't attempt to make it himself, and find it significantly lowered my appreciation of the book. After all, O'Brian wanted to be private and not nearly so much of his life needed to be made public to refute the (I imagine most distressing) allegations made against him in later life. So who was it really written for?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews