Patrick O'Brian

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The author against the background of the HMS Surprise from the film Master and Commander

Patrick O'Brian (born December 12, 1914 in Chalfont St Peter , Buckinghamshire , † January 2, 2000 in Dublin ; actually Richard Patrick Russ ) was a British author known for his marine history novels.

His life

Patrick O'Brian was the youngest of nine children and had a difficult, disease-ridden childhood. After trying unsuccessfully to join the Royal Air Force during World War II , he worked as a British secret agent. During the war he met his second wife, the mother of Nikolai Tolstoy , with whom he first moved to Wales in the post-war years before they settled in Collioure , southern France. Here he wrote his famous novel series, which he began in 1969, until his death.

Patrick O'Brian died on January 2, 2000, three weeks after his 85th birthday, in a Dublin hotel.

reception

O'Brian wrote his first short stories and short stories as a teenager. It was followed by some less than successful novels and short stories, before he achieved worldwide success with the 20-volume, marine history Aubrey Maturin series . In addition to his novels, O'Brian wrote biographies of Pablo Picasso and the English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, among others, and was also able to make a name for himself as a translator.

In 2018, more than 100 previously unknown poems by O'Brian, dating from the early 1940s to the late 1970s, were discovered for publication in March 2019 under the title The Uncertain Land and Other Poems .

Aubrey Maturin series

The stories about the British naval officer Jack Aubrey and the Irish - Catalan ship doctor Stephen Maturin take place at the time of the Napoleonic Wars . A central point of this series is the friendship between these two different characters. On the one hand Aubrey, the passionate conservative officer of the Royal Navy determined by tradition, and on the other hand the introverted doctor and scientist Maturin, influenced by the spirit of the Enlightenment .

This series comprises 20 volumes with O'Brian as the author and on the basis of O'Brian's notes and preparatory work, the publisher was able to posthumously publish a final 21st volume in 2004, which contains the first three chapters and the planned end.

After the first books were initially hardly noticed, the number of readers rose steadily. Meanwhile, the books have been published millions of times and filmed with Russell Crowe in 2003 ( Master & Commander - To the End of the World ). Although the film was not particularly successful commercially, there have been reports since 2009 of preparations for a sequel based on Volume 11 (The Reverse of the Medal / Hafen des Unglücks) .

Narrative style

Against the background of the naval war against France and its allies, the novels also deal with philosophical questions, science and medicine, but above all with pre-Victorian society. Particularly noteworthy here is O'Brian's knowledgeable and authentic account of this period. He not only lets his actors speak in the language and jargon of their time, but also makes use of it in his narration, a relatively unusual style for modern historical novels. This earned him some comparisons with Jane Austen . However, the German translations do not do justice to this style of language.

But above all, the books are novels of marine history. Most of the action takes place at sea. Again, O'Brian shows a precise representation of life on the warships . He uses nautical technical terms throughout without explaining them. For readers who are not familiar with the subject, this can be daunting. However, many readers simply accept this fact because they then feel like the figure of Maturin who, as a “running gag”, constantly appears with nautical misunderstanding. Furthermore, O'Brian often integrates his stories very closely into the historical context or even makes full use of some events and lets his characters experience them. In addition, Aubrey has many parallels to Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald , a role model for the literary figure Jack Aubrey, a well-known British naval officer of the time.

Another of O'Brian's stylistic devices is the abrupt end in most volumes, often with just one sentence. The continuation of the plot expected by the reader can then be found in the next volume, which usually ties in seamlessly with the previous one. This makes the series of novels look like a single complete work (the “Aubrey-Maturin Canon” ), which is reinforced by superimposed storylines, such as Maturin's secret service activities, but above all the often problematic private and family life of the actors.

Works (selection)

author

Aubrey-Maturin series
  1. Master and Commander - Post Captain - HMS Surprise - The Mauritius Command .
  2. Desolation Island - The fortune of war - The surgeon's mate - The Ionian Mission .
  3. Treason's Harbor - The far side of the world - The reverse of the medal - The letter of Marque .
  4. The thirteen-gun salute - The nutmeg of consolidation - The truelove - The wine-dark sea .
  5. The Commodore - The yellow admiral - The hundres days - Blue at the mizzen - 21 .
Biographies
  • Pablo Ruiz Picasso. A biography . Norton, New York 1994, ISBN 0-393-31107-4 (EA London 1976)
    • German translation: Pablo Picasso. A biography . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1982, ISBN 3-548-27511-7 (EA Hamburg 1979)
  • Joseph Banks. A life . Collins Harvill, London 1987, ISBN 0-00-217350-6 .
stories
Books for children and young readers
  • The road to Samarcand . Hart-Davis, London 1954.
    • German translation: The road to Samarkand . Ehrenwirth Verlag, Munich 1954.
  • The golden ocean . Penguin, Harmondsworth 1972, ISBN 0-14-047073-5 .
  • Caesar. The life story of a panda leopard . HarperCollins, London 2000, ISBN 0-00-225954-0 .

editor

Translations

literature

  • Anthony G. Brown: Persons, animals, ships, and cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin sea novels of Patrick O'Brian . McFarland, Jefferson, NC 1999, ISBN 0-7864-0684-4 .
  • AE Cunningham: Patrick O'Brian. Critical appreciations and a bibliography . British Library, Spa 1995, ISBN 0-7123-1070-3 .
  • Dean King: Patrick O'Brian. A life revealed . Holt, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8050-5976-8 .
    • German translation: Patrick O'Brian. The man who lived twice . Ullstein, 2003, ISBN 3-548-25726-7 (novel biography)
  • Nikolai Tolstoy: Patrick O'Brian. The Making of the Novelist . Arrow Books, London 2005, ISBN 0-09-941584-4 (biography; EA London 2004).
  • Nikolai Tolstoy: Patrick O'Brian: a very private life , London: William Collins, 2019, ISBN 978-0-00-835058-1
  • Dean King et al: A Sea of ​​Words. A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales . Holt, New York 1995, ISBN 0-8050-3812-4 .
  • Dean King et al. a .: Harbors and High Seas. An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian . 3. Edition. Holt, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8050-6614-4 (EA New York 1996).
  • Jodine Perkins, Rebecca C. Cape (Eds.): Blue at the Mizzen. Patrick O'Brian and the 19th century. An exhibition . Lilly Library (Indiana University), Bloomington, Ind. 2008 (June 2-September 6, 2008).

Web links

Commons : Patrick O'Brian  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick O'Brian's unknown poems discovered in a drawer , theguardian.com, October 4, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018
  2. ↑ Another "Master & Commander" Sets Sail? ( Memento of July 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Dark Horizons, July 18, 2009, accessed July 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ Crowe Hints At A "Master & Commander" Sequel. , Dark Horizons, November 27, 2017, accessed July 23, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME O'Brian, Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Russ, Richard Patrick (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Chalfont St Peter , Buckinghamshire , England
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 2000
Place of death Dublin , Ireland