The Truelove

If you are interested in learning what happens at sea when boredom, monotony, ennui and endless accounts of filler material taken from every one of the good, action packed adventures that began this series then this is the book for you. I happen to like learning what a day may have looked like at sea in that era but not to the extent that it is all that we learn about over all the pages except the last thirty when the action begins but is broken with an abrupt ending. Of course the action resumes where it left off at the beginning of the next book. In what is rapidly becoming a dissatisfying series, this is the supreme example of dissatisfaction up to this point in my opinion. As usual, I cant fault the writing but the point of this story seems to have been to sell one more book no matter the consequences of not providing an entertaining story. When I first read this series I thought every one of them was a masterpiece of naval historical work. Now that Ive been hooked by the genre, I can say many more recent writers have exceeded these last few books in story telling quality. Two that immediately come to mind are Dewey Lambdin and Jay Worrell. From the same timeframe when OBrian was writing, I value Dudley Popes work more highly. Considering my lack of memory of what the rest of the series holds I hope my opinion of these last few books is dispelled by those remaining. Like the last book, you could completely skip this one without losing anything in the overall storyline.

This 15th in the O’Brian series about unlikely friends Capt. Aubrey and Dr. Maturin during the Napoleonic period continues the tradition of the others in the series. It displays the author’s encyclopedic knowledge of the world of that era, both seagoing and by land. It also is intricately plotted with an auxiliary character, Clarissa, supplying the missing piece of an espionage puzzle that has occupied Dr. Maturin for the previous 6 books.

It’s also odd in that it somehow escaped my notice when I started reading the series in 1991, so this is actually my first exposure to this particular book.

Naturally, I took advantage of Amazon’s reviews by other readers and found a general atmosphere of disappointment surrounding it.

However, I think that aura is exaggerated. While it’s true that Clarissa herself is not a terribly believable or even particularly likeable character, the notion that a beautiful, accomplished, and evidently upper-crust female stowaway (who is, however, totally indifferent to the opposite sex for an unaccountable reason) could play havoc with a 19th C. warship’s company, both among the officers and on the lower deck, rings profoundly true. Likewise, because the story line follows a voyage across the Pacific with a “gunboat diplomacy” effort on an island sinking into civil war in the second half of it, there is an inevitable unity of plot that not all the O’Brian novels possess. (Recall that the author has set himself the task of never inventing a battle or storm, depending on ships’ logs and other official sources for his entire plot).

The fact that the privateer that triggered the civil war is only sighted on the penultimate page, and therefore we are deprived of our final, cathartic sea battle, is only important if you don’t read the next novel in the series, “The Wine-Dark Sea,” where we are treated to the chase and battle in the author’s typical fine detail.

Accordingly, I conclude this book is a worthy companion to the other 20 books in the series and well worth the time of any devotee of Age of Sail warfare, with Mr. O’Brian’s usual meticulous plotting, characterization, and well developed streak of humor. While I do not find Clarissa a believable character in herself, I do find her effect on the ship’s company totally believable and predictable, as well as Capt. Aubrey’s decision not to put back into Sydney and turn her in to the authorities when she’s discovered on board, wasting time and also condemning her to the tender mercies of officialdom who have treated HMS Surprise quite badly in the previous novel.

The Truelove takes its proper place in the Aubrey/Maturin canon. While I wouldn’t rate it among the best in that canon, it holds its own, and I look forward to seeing if it will continue to do so on a second reading.

Some rambles:

Unfortunately I didn’t read the prior book “Nutmeg of Surprise” first, and I missed out on some stuff.

This book is also called Clarissa Oakes, I’m not sure why they changed it to Truelove for the US Market.

Enjoyable, much more action oriented for Aubrey, and a lot of psycho/social observations for Maturin

It’s part of a series of books that are one long voyage (1813?). In some sense, it’s a more efficient technique for both the writer and the reader, most importantly it works.

Much of the internal dialog is switched to letters that Aubrey/Maturin write to their respective wives. I like this format better, and cleaner than the way the author normally writes some of the stuff that is in the heads of the characters. The author has done this before, but it really is done well this time. Maturin mostly journal writes, his letters to his wife are criminally sparse.

I like this series, and I like that the author is a ‘foodie’, he really likes to describe the meals and pudding. I bought the cookbook Lobscouse and Spotted Dog (Grossman and Thomas, 1997, ISBN 9780393320947 or 9-393-32094-4) from a used online book vendor here at Amazon, and hope to try some of the recipes. Allegedly the cookbook translates 19th century food ingredients to more modern tastes.

5-stars for a devotee of the Aubrey-Maturin series but perhaps only 3-stars if a standalone novel. Short on naval action in this continuing saga of the HMS Surprise circumnavigating the world but I welcomed the lull for its character exploration & experiences in the South Seas. This novel revolved around a female stowaway which set off Patrick O’Brian’s entertaining prose in a new light.

Every Patrick O’Brien novel – especially all of the Aubrey Maturin series – should be required reading for anyone who loves a great story with compelling characters, adventure, suspense and just the slightest touch of romance. Add to that that they are steeped in actual history – based on the logbooks of the RN captains who sailed in the era about which he writes – these are history lessons in the most entertaining form imaginable. Highest recommendation i could possibly give.

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