This Blog

It's been 3 years, 4 months, and 22 days since I began this journey across land and sea. I have read 21 Aubrey & Maturin books and 24 Sharpe books, mostly in quasi-historical order. Basically one book per month as it happens. Some were shorter than others, of course.

I have come to love these tales of military adventure, set in the early 1800s. I have learned a lot about the British Navy and Army of the era. I have sailed around the world and experienced, second hand, thankfully, all sorts of trials and tribulations: countless battles, ship wrecks, fires, explosions, cannon fire, musket volleys, bayonet charges, and full on broadsides. Injuries, sickness, death, love, and loss.

If pressed, I'd have to say I liked the Aubrey/Maturin books slightly better, but it's a close call. I have a great fondness for the characters of Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Richard Sharpe, and Patrick Harper. Farewell, friends!

Sharpe's Devil

Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper in South America, c. 1820

***

Sharpe is recruited by an old acquaintance (from Sharpe's Rifles) to find out what happened to another old acquaintance; a certain Spaniard, Captain-General Don Blas Vivar. The good general was last seen in Chile, leading the fight to quell the rebellious locals on behalf of Spain.

Another local Spanish strongman, Miguel Bautista, has taken over Don Blas's Captain-Generalship, and Sharpe's old acquaintance, Louisa Vivar, wants her husband back. She is convinced that he is not dead. All other authorities will not assist...so she contacts an off-duty Sharpe. Good choice.

Harper takes a break from running an Irish pub, and joins with his old best friend. Strangely, Harper is now fat. Huh. Too much beer, Sharpe thinks. Don't worry, the terrible naval food found on board an Atlantic-crossing ship will take care of that extra weight soon enough (mostly).

En route the ship stops by the island of Elba to visit with...you guessed it...old Boney himself. It seems the British had him under tight lock-down in a small moldering house atop a hill on an island in the middle of nowhere (but didn't outright kill him). He was even allowed to entertain visitors, to some extent. Apparently it was very popular for ships to stop there and request an audience with the former Emperor.

Harper and Sharpe have all sorts of para-military adventures on land and sea, inadvertently participating in ship battles and sieges and running for their lives. Horses. Cannon. Gunpowder. Blood. Very common in these books, even here, at the end of the run.

Richard and Patrick come back, having satisfied their mission, and retire; Sharpe to France and Harper to Ireland. As far as the author knows, they lived happily ever after.

Waterloo

Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper survive the downfall of Napoleon, June 1815

***

The good old Duke of Wellington finally got his chance to face ol' Boney. It was a very tight run affair, but we know who came out on top without requiring a Spoiler Alert. Sharpe and Harper both play minor roles in the battle, as the long day of death and violence that was Sunday, June 18, 1815, progresses.

The people of Brussels (15km north) were on the doorstep to the battle. Napoleon marched quickly to force himself into position between two allies armies: the British and the Prussians, hoping to fight them separately before they joined. It almost worked. The Prussians were brushed aside first, then the British made their stand, knowing that the retreating Prussians were going to back them up. Eventually.

What an astounding battle! Waves of cavalry! Hordes of infantry! Masses of cannon! All packed into a cramped valley between two ridges. In the end, when it mattered most, it was the French method of unstoppable columns versus the British method of fragile lines of overwhelming, fast musket fire. The result was the same as usual: the thin red line holds (just barely) while pouring a rolling torrent of musket balls into the column. They can't miss. The column can only bring a fraction of it's firepower to bear. The dead pile up, but the drums keep beating and the men in back keep pushing and it becomes an increasingly murderous situation. After the column is halted and the musket butchery has had some time to do it's worst, the thin red line declares a bayonet charge into the smoke and death to rout the confused and panicking enemy. 

Even the much vaunted Imperial Guard, veterans all, the lapdogs of the Emperor, couldn't force a different outcome. Up to this point, they had been undefeated. Because they had not yet fought the British!

Napoleon started with 73,000 men. Around 25,000 were killed or wounded, including 6500 captured. A further 15,000 missing. The French left this battle with just 45% of the men who started it!

Wellington started with 68,000 men. He lost 3500 killed, 10,200 wounded, and 3300 missing.

The battle proved decisive in ending the era of French dominance that began with the French Revolution in the early 1790s. Basically two decades of war on land and sea. Napoleon announced his second abdication on June 24, 1815; less than a week after this epic battle.

21

The final, unfinished voyage of Aubrey & Maturin

***

Coming in a just 65 pages, this book is an early draft of an unfinished novel. It would have been a wonderful read, I assume, as the story was shaping up nicely. As a new rear-admiral, Aubrey takes command of the Suffolk, a ship of the line, and a smallish squadron. The women-folk and kids are invited aboard for a maiden voyage. The Surprise is returned to the docks in England, and the Ringle is to be used as Aubrey's tender.

The admiral Lord Leyton wanted Maturin to help translate French for him; as he was going to stop by and visit an exiled Napoleon. I can only assume what was going through Maturin's head at the prospect of actually meeting his great enemy of all these years.

But that, like so much else, was not to be. What a wonderful series of books this has been; a delightful and educational journey through the British navy of the Napoleonaic era. I will miss it indeed.

Sharpe's Revenge

Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, and Sweet William Fredrickson, c. 1814

***

Oh, Sharpe, how do you do it? In every other book you are kicked out of the army and forced to clear your besmirched name. Enemies on all sides. Nowhere to turn. Nothing but kickin' butt and lovin' the ladies. Yee haw!

Sharpe takes part in the very bloody battle for Toulouse (10 April 1814), technically fought four days *after* Napoleon had surrendered in Paris. Good ol' Wellington took care of business, only to find that the war was over. Thus, the wonderfully successful British army from the Peninsular War was disbanded and scattered to the four winds. Some sailed home, some were assigned to the North American station, some shipped elsewhere. Many mustered out. Too bad, because Wellington is going to need another army before too long.

Sharpe and Fredrickson are set up by Pierre bloody Ducos, French intelligence agent and Napoleon traitor. Ducos wants ol' Sharpie to take the fall for some gold stolen from Bonie. Nice try, Ducos. It takes half the book, but Sharpe gets it sorted out.

Sharpe has major lady troubles in this one. His new wife robs him. His soon-to-be baby momma shoots him when they first meet. Always the ladies man, Richard.

Blue at the Mizzen

Aubrey & Maturin after the war, 

in hydrographical research vessesl Surprise, formerly of the Royal Navy

***

The twentieth book of twenty one is complete. I will dearly miss having unread volumes in this series waiting for me in the future.

The war is over...for real this time. Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and soon thereafter the Royal Navy begins to downsize to peacetime levels. Many a post captain and crew are put ashore, the lucky higher-ranking officers try to survive on half pay, the crewmen given nothing beyond their end of service pay out when they separate from their last ship.

Aubrey & Maturin have a secret mission (again). It's off to South America to aid Chile in their quest for independence from Spain. Nominally, the old friends are aboard Surprise, a private hydrographical survey vessel hired by His Majesty (we come in peace), but we know them better than that. Especially that old sea dog Stephen, whose work in the intelligence line quite surprises us, as easy as kiss my hand. "Light along there, Killick, with that pot of coffee." "Which I am, ain't I?" (muttering swear words under his breath).

O'Brian finds a few more ingenious ways to describe and even report the action. Last time it was dockside hearsay delivering devastating news of a death in the family. This time there are a number of significant nautical events that transpire "off camera". They are related to us in past tense, via a long serial letter we are watching Stephen write which includes details of all sorts of wicked weather we don't directly experience. 

There is still plenty of action, plenty of quality time for dedicated naturalists (even a whole ship full of interesting characters from the Royal Society, sailing 'round the world for fun and learning), and even some romance. Stephen has his eye on an old friend, wishing the connection to become rather something more. The jury's still out on that development.

What is over, however, by the end of this one, is, as the title of this book implies, Jack Aubrey's long wait for his Admiral's flag. Oh, it gives me great joy to report that he is indeed elevated to those lofty heights by the Royal Navy he so dearly loves. A lifetime of hard work, constant training, and great privation seems to have paid off for our dear old Jack. "Give you joy of the day, sir" and "Glass of wine with you, sir" indeed.

Sharpe's Siege

Richard Sharpe invades France, is abandoned with a small group, and survives, c. 1814

***

Pierre Ducos is really out to get our good Major Sharpe. Nice try, Ducos! It seems the Peer (Fieldmarshal Arthur Wellesley, at this point Earl of Wellington) wants to cross the Adour River and needs two things: some chassee-marées (boats) and a distraction.

Oh Richard! Kindly go kick some for us, would you now? That's a good lad. Sharpe is asked to lead a small force against an almost abandoned French fort. Resting under the fort's guns are the aforementioned ships. Intelligence intrigue follows, wherein some traitors deliberately catch wind of a proposed foray into the city of Bordeaux, which, sources say, is almost ready to rebel against Napoleon. 

Along the way Sharpe meets an American privateer, Captain Killick. I can't help but consider this guy, in name only, to be a nod to Aubrey & Maturin. This novel has a lot (for a Sharpe novel) of nautical flair; perhaps it is the Cornwell tip of the cap to O'Brian.

At any rate, Sharpe ends up alone, with his small force of men, trying desperately to defend a partially destroyed fortress from a much larger French attack. They make it out, in the end, but just. Sadly, our friend Major Hogan dies of the fever while Sharpe is gone.

The Hundred Days

Aubrey and Matruin during that tumultuous time, 1815

***

Oh, Patrick O'Brian, how could you do this to us? Do you know, at the time of this writing, that the end is near for these wonderful books? Written in September 1998, O'Brian himself was less than 18 months from the end of his life. Two most shocking deaths occur herein, both of them out of the blue, both of them striking to the core.

Author and book reviewer Christina Hardyment said of this novel: "There is another aspect to the novel, as it starts with deaths ... so that its recurring leitmotif is one of the subtlest sketchings of deep, deep grief in literature."

The Hundred Days is originally a name given to that period of time after Napoleon escapes his exile in Elba and before he meets his final defeat at Waterloo. It was actually 111 days, but the tumultuous period provides an exciting back drop to our nautical tale.

In this wonderful novel, the nineteenth, Aubrey & Maturin are called upon to prevent a plot by Barbary Cost pirates and Adriatic muslims to finance a large group of mercenaries to delay the arrival of the Russian and Austria forces to the Waterloo campaign. Napoleon wishes to fight the allies piecemeal, and defeat them separately. Our friends also set in motion plans to derail much of the French naval activity in these waters, mostly via clandestine operations to set fire to the ship yards and dock facilities that side with the emperor returned.

Adventures throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa are to be had within. At the close of the novel, we see our friends richer via prize money and off again to South America, to pursue the mission which was interrupted by Napoleon's return.

Back to our dear author. He will find time to write number twenty (Blue at the Mizzen) and be in the midst of number twenty-one before he is no more. Fascinating.

***

I will truly be sad to complete this reading endeavor. As many have stated about these books:

The New York Times book review said "Taken as a whole, the Aubrey-Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind, so much better than the competition that comparisons long ago ceased to be relevant: they are uniquely excellent."

Sharpe's Christmas

Richard Sharpe in war and peace, at Christmastime

***

A pair of interesting short stories, Sharpe's Christmas and Sharpe's Ransom, originally written to be published serially, at Christmastime, in the London paper The Daily Mail. This collected, re-written, and printed copy is another of the labors of love worked on by The Sharpe Appreciation Society. A slender volume of 95 pages total, this was a quick read.

Timeline-wise, the first tale, Sharpe's Christmas, naturally follows the novel Sharpe's Regiment (so it was perfectly slotted into my reading order). The French are almost totally evicted from Spain. Just a few bypassed forts contain lonely soldiers. The inhabitants of one of those forts are preparing to make a break for it, and run for the frontier, cross the Pyrenees and get back home. Hogan wants Sharpe to guard a road the fleeing troops might use. "But sir! It's bloody Christmas!" "Don't worry, Sharpe, they probably won't come that way." Wrong. A two front skirmish and meeting an old friend/enemy. A Christmas miracle!

Sharpe's Ransom is set after retirement, timeline-wise after the novel Sharpe's Waterloo. Of course I read it well out of order, but that's OK. I got a few hints about upcoming events in Richard's life. He's now a farmer. How quaint.

Always fun to spend some time with my favorite gutter rat/alley cat turned soldier extraordinaire. Don't get on Sharpe's bad side. You won't like him when he's angry.

The Yellow Admiral

Aubrey & Maturin attempt to avoid Jack being passed over for flag rank

***

Aboard the Bellona, on the Brest blockade, Aubrey and Maturin are trying to keep the losing Frenchies from sallying forth to sea. Napoleon has met his match on land, with Wellington's forces pushing deeper into France itself. Jack's prospects of becoming flag rank are in jeopardy, as his votes in the House of Commons and his decisions in and around his Woolcombe estate have made some powerful enemies. What can be done?

A tough winter, spent asea, tacking back and forth near Brest with the inshore blockade squadron, ends with the exile of Napoleon and the end of the war. The Bellona heads back to England to be paid out and disbanded. The peacetime Royal Navy will be decidedly smaller, making commands even rarer. Maturin hits upon a novel idea: take the Surprise back to South America to assist with rebellion. Under cover, of course. To do so, Jack will need to leave the Navy. The higher ups in Intelligence promise that he will be reinstated with seniority after the mission. A wonderful chance to clear his name and accumulate glory.

Jack takes Sophie and the kids on the voyage as far as Madeira. As they explore the island, Jack gets word from the Admiralty: Napoleon has escaped exile! The war is back on! And Aubrey needs to take command of whatever ships are nearby and blockade the Mediterranean near Gibraltar. We're back, baby!

Sharpe's Regiment

Richard Sharpe returns from Spain to England, before returning from England to Spain to invade France, c.1813

***

Good ol' Sharpie got the right girl, finally. Again. Things are indeed looking up for the alley cat officer, formerly from the gutter. 

At the outset of this tale, Sharpe's dilapidated regiment, the South Essex, is in desperate need of reinforcements. They have been rotated off the line, set to light guard duty while they await fresh men from jolly old England. Turns out, the men aren't coming. Something damned strange is afoot back home, and Sharpe is sent to figure it out (and bring the new recruits back to Spain).

When Sharpe gets back to the home base, he finds it nearly deserted. "Where is half my regiment?" he says. "Missing." they say. A old soldier tells him that the missing regiment is still recruiting soldiers. "Whaaa?" Harper and Sharpe then hit upon a classic buddy comedy idea: dress as ruffians and try to get recruited. Then they'll get to the bottom of this strange situation.

Sharpe learns that the South Essex rearguard is being illegally "crimped"; the recruits, hidden away in a swampy wasteland, are being trained then auctioned off to other Army units while the officers (and some higher ups) pocket the poor soldier's pay. Not cool, bad guys. Guess what? Sharpe puts an end to it (eventually), and winds up with the charming Jane Gibbons (whom we've met before) as his new blushing bride. He leads the new dudes back to the old dudes and participates in the clearing of the last French forts blocking the way into France itself. Goodbye, Peninsular War, hello Napoleon's doorstep.

Now we're getting somewhere! Sharpe is still a Major at the end of this one, but there is an opening for the command spot (Lt. Colonel) for the South Essex. Methinks there'll be a promotion in Dick's future.