Rob Baker’s Reviews > Master and Commander > Status Update

Have to switch to percentage finished for the update since my copy has more pages (459 total...75 more pages) than the one listed here on Goodreads.

"There are parallel sets of laws in different keys that have nothing to do with one another and that are even downright contradictory....

Buridan's ass died of misery between equidistant mangers, drawn first by one and then the other....There are these double loyalties--another great source of torment" (354-355).

"It might be just as well if everybody were impotent," said Jack sombrely. "It would save a world of trouble" (307).

"'The identity I am thinking of is something that hovers between a man and the rest of the world: a mid-point between his view of himself and theirs of him -- for each, of course, affects the other continually. A reciprocal fluxion, sir" (278).

"'He was a sin-eater...

'When a man died, Cheslin would be sent for; there would be a piece of bread on the dead man's breast; he would eat it, taking the sins upon himself. Then they would push a silver piece into his hand and thrust him out of the house, spitting on him and throwing stones as he ran away'" (220).

The 1800s version of your doctor going in the next room to consult WebMD.com :)

"'May I use the room next door?' asked Stephen (the ship's newly hired physician), adding in Latin, so he might not be understood by the loblolly boy, 'it might discourage the patients, were they to see me consulting my printed authorities'" (147).

"A four-pounder (cannon) may not throw a very great weight of metal, and it may not be able to pierce two feet of oak half a mile away, as a thirty-two-pounder can; butit does throw a solid three-inch cast-iron ball at a thousand feet a second, which is an ugly thing to receive...and when it is fired it leaps back as though it were violently alive" (138).

Jack's joy for living, for ships, and for the sea is a very endearing quality:

"The sound of the creaking blocks, the gently straining cordage and sailcloth, the angle of the living deck and the curved line of guns in front of him sent such a jet of happiness through his heart that he almost skipped where he stood" (96).

Sometimes it feels like this book is 75% nautical jargon I don't understand. Cool but mostly meaningless words:

"'Trice up. Lay out.'

The calls agin, and the topmen hurried out on the yards. They cast off the gaskets, the lines that held the sails tight furled to the yards; they gathered the canvas.

'Sheet home. Hoist away. Cheerly there in the foretop. T'garns'l sheets. Hands to the braces. Belay'" (76).