{"id":7788,"date":"2020-12-07T04:30:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T12:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=7788"},"modified":"2024-11-27T18:22:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T02:22:46","slug":"announcing-the-aubrey-maturin-chapter-a-week-4-year-read-along-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/announcing-the-aubrey-maturin-chapter-a-week-4-year-read-along-odyssey","title":{"rendered":"Announcing the Aubrey\/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is the official sign-up post for the Aubrey\/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Odyssey. Yes, you read that right. This is a four year<\/em> challenge to read what some call the greatest historical fiction series ever written, the Jack Aubrey\/Stephen Maturin nautical series by Patrick O’Brian. Join me in a long, slow read of this masterful account of life at sea (and on land) during the Napoleonic era. This reading odyssey will require a heart of oak but the journey will be well worth the effort.<\/p>\n

Why These Books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What makes this series worthy of such commitment and effort? First of all, the Aubrey\/Maturin series is a grand and epic story filled with naval action, humor, music, romance, espionage, and scientific exploration. Stretching over twenty volumes, it reads like a single continuous narrative, a chronicle of the lives of the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon friend Dr. Stephen Maturin. But it is so much more than that. Written over the course of thirty years, between 1969 and 1999, the series is an acknowledged masterpiece of historical fiction. Richard Snow of the New York Times Book Review<\/a> called the books “The best historical novels ever written.” And lest you think these books appeal mainly to men, Nicola Griffith of National Public Radio<\/a> can hardly contain herself as she describes them:<\/p>\n

This is Jane Austen on a ship of war, with the humanity, joy and pathos of Shakespeare \u2014 and brilliantly written. I have read them perhaps 20 times. I will read them many more…I can’t wait to introduce others to Patrick O’Brian’s erudition, perfect balance of exuberance and restraint, and unerring eye for the exact word and the comic detail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lucy Eyre of The Guardian <\/em><\/a>is as equally enthusiastic:<\/p>\n

There are two types of people in the world: Patrick O\u2019Brian fans, and people who haven\u2019t read him yet. This second category includes many women who are put off by the seemingly excessive focus on ships. This worried me, too. I thought it would be all battles and no women: perhaps even (shudder) a seafaring Lord of the Rings…<\/p>\n

What really makes O\u2019Brian nothing like Tolkien is the humour. The sailors\u2019 indulgence of Stephen\u2019s hopelessness with all things naval, Stephen\u2019s wry reactions to peculiar sea habits, the droll not-quite-insubordination of Jack\u2019s steward. Jack\u2019s mangling of languages, Stephen\u2019s persistent bewilderment at naval customs. O\u2019Brian skewers the pompous in their own words. It\u2019s Jane Austen at sea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like to think of the series as one long 6500-page novel, and it is quite possibly my favorite of all the books I’ve ever read, on par with Don Quixote<\/em> and Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Like Tolkien’s Frodo and Sam, or like Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are the epitome of male friendship, and their relationship is the heart of the series. So, when all is said and done, why these books? Simply put, there is nothing else quite like them, and they will reward the reader many times over.<\/p>\n

Why Now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So why am I hosting this read-along now? The answer is pretty simple: It’s been ten years since I last started reading the books and six years since I finished them, and that’s too long. I miss the characters, the history, the language, the humor, the music, the ships, the heroism, the camaraderie, and all the rest that goes in to making the series so enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Why Take Four Years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is this read-along organized to be four years long? Well, the last time I read the series it took me four years, so I thought I’d do it deliberately this time and make it an enjoyable and regular part of my week. The chapters are too long to make these books part of my normal chapter-a-day read-alongs, and these are not the kind of books I like to rush through. So I thought a chapter a week might be about right. Each chapter is about 30 pages long and is divided into several unnumbered sections. A chapter might be read throughout the week in small portions or all at once on a chosen day. I plan on doing my reading on Sundays while listening to Musical Evenings with the Captain<\/a><\/em>. I have created an Aubrey\/Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Schedule<\/a>\u00a0that organizes the books as follows:<\/p>\n

Year 1:<\/p>\n