Ever since I learned to read, there’s been nothing better than to find a new author with a shelf full of books that I haven’t read[1]. Inevitably, though the day arrives when she (or he) becomes an old favourite with a shelf full of books I have read. The first I can remember was Rosemary Sutcliff; the most recent has been Patrick O’Brian. I’ve just reached the end of the Aubrey-Maturin series, though there are still a couple I’ve missed. I’ve always found finishing a series an ambiguous experience, and the following exchange from my blog has finally clarified the mixture of feelings.
‘Ambiguous’ for all love! Your future yawns darkly, meaninglessly and emptily before you, man! Isn’t that why you left Two Of The Canon unbroached? C’mon admit it, Quiggers.
There are those among us who would understand.
Posted by Rob Schaap at July 25, 2004 07:16 PM
Admittedly, my future yawns darkly, meaninglessly and emptily before me (apart from the Nutmeg of Consolation).
OTOH, I avoid the even greater risk of entering eternity with the series unfinished.
Hence, an ambiguous feeling.
Posted by John Quiggin at July 26, 2004 10:39 PM
Ah, I smoke it now.
Posted by Rob Schaap at July 26, 2004 11:22 PM
fn1. Since we’re now grading our tastes, I’ll use Orwell’s scheme and class myself as lower-upper-middlebrow. Give me 20 volumes of good respectable reads ahead of one work of tortured genius (not counting Ulysses), any time.
{ 23 comments }
Marvin 07.27.04 at 2:00 pm
I just finished The Nutmeg of Consolation, and have all the rest in the series to look forward to, plus The Mauritius Command, but I’m already sad and bitter about coming to the end. Sigh.
dsquared 07.27.04 at 2:16 pm
C’mon then, how does rank-dependent utility theory handle preferences like this? :-)
Cranky Observer 07.27.04 at 2:42 pm
You might want to consider not reading the last two books in the A-M series. POB had clearly run out of things to say by that point, but he was apparently also suffering from ill health and (at the end) emotional stress from the illness and loss of his wife. The last two books sadly did not reflect the incredible literary and entertainment value of those that came before.
Cranky
PS I used to get the POB Newsletter from Norton. I remember when O’Brian visited the US Navy base at Norfolk, Virginia. When it was time for him to give his lecture he expected to be taken to a small meeting room. Instead they led him on-stage in an auditorium where 3000 naval officers were waiting to hear him speak. Must have been an amazing moment.
JR 07.27.04 at 3:19 pm
Now that you’ve read them, it’s time to listen to them. Get the Recorded Books versions, narrated by Patrick Tull, and listen in your car (how much more Morning Edition can you stand, anyway?) It’s an entirely different experience.
jamie 07.27.04 at 3:22 pm
Right my lower middle upperbrow friend, your next assignment is the Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser. There’s a new one out next May which should leave you ample time to get through the eleven or so books in the current series.
…assuming that you haven’t already, of course.
Maynard Handley 07.27.04 at 3:47 pm
Have you read Alan Furst yet, John?
Brad Delong posted a rave review of _Dark Star_ on his blog maybe a year ago, and based on that I tried him out and was just as impressed as Brad.
With both you and Brad now recommending the Aubrey-Maturin books, I guess it’s time to give them a shot.
Matt McGrattan 07.27.04 at 4:30 pm
Furst is excellent but his books do get a bit samey after a while.
Take one cynical central/eastern European emigre in Paris, one mistress/lover, some moral ambiguity… stir… add some Nazis.. add some ‘eventually doing the right thing even though deceiving self into thinking one is doing it for selfish reasons’.. rinse, repeat. :-)
Still highly recommended but Le Carre does it with more variety/panache…
CalDem 07.27.04 at 6:04 pm
In this vein, try the Saylor series of Roman Republic mysteries, they are tremendous if you love historical fiction.
Cranky Observer 07.27.04 at 7:03 pm
> but his books do get a bit samey
> after a while
A lot of historical fiction writers seem to have developed quality problems after the invention of the word processor. Harry Harrison comes up with some great ideas, and during the 1970s he explored those ideas, but his new novels seem to be 70% cut-and-paste from previous work.
Cranky
Liz 07.27.04 at 8:35 pm
Rosemary Sutcliffe!
For those of you with children, do explore these great historical novels. My personal favorites are Knight’s Fee, Warrior Scarlet, and Mark of the Horse Lord.
Liz 07.27.04 at 8:38 pm
I went looking for Rosemary Sutcliffe to put up a bit more, and found her essay on writing the last book:
http://www.trussel.com/prehist/dreamt.htm
Cranky Observer 07.27.04 at 9:05 pm
> Harry Harrison comes up with some
> great ideas
Got my historical Harrys mixed up there; I was thinking of Harry Turtledove when I wrote the above post.
Cranky
Tom T. 07.28.04 at 12:22 am
I’ve just read Master and Commander. It pulled me in so thoroughly that it wore me out. My plan is to try to limit myself to two or three per year.
John Quiggin 07.28.04 at 1:00 am
DD, surprisingly enough, my behavior is consistent with my (rank-dependent) theory. Fear of the low-probability worse-case event (failing to complete the series at all), leads me to plough through rapidly, rather than maximising expected utility by reading two or three per year like tom t (arguably one per year would be optimal).
Kieran Healy 07.28.04 at 2:23 am
By _far_ the best two or three paragraphs written on the appeal of the Aubrey/Maturin books is by “Mrs Tilton”:http://www.6thinternational.org/2004/01/tory_porn.html. And I speak as someone who’s read the series twice.
ChrisPer 07.28.04 at 2:26 am
Have you discovered Dorothy Dunnet’s two master series, the Lymond and Niccolo books?
A paean to literacy, to joyous revelling in the depth of language and history.
Danny Yee 07.28.04 at 2:04 pm
I’ve already reviewed of the Aubrey/Maturin books… I haven’t read the last two yet either – I’ve been putting that off partly to have something to look forward to and partly out of a fear that they wouldn’t live up to expectations.
lucienc 07.28.04 at 6:40 pm
Mr. Quiggin, Mr. Yee:
Go ahead and finish the last books in the series – there are some important developments with the characters you won’t want to miss. Then go and get “The Unknown Shore” and “The Golden Ocean”, both by O’Brian. They are precursors to the Aubrey/Maturin series, are quite good, and you will recognize in both early versions of Aubrey and Maturin and their relationship.
Also, as everyone who has read the series will attest, you are going to be re-reading the whole series again in the next few years – and probably again after that. They are addictive and I think get better with re-reading – there is so much there that I always pick up something I missed the last time around.
lady c 07.28.04 at 10:05 pm
A rousing “Yes!” to Lymond and Niccolo. Dorothy Dunnet is something special. She introduced me to a whole chunk of history, especially in the eastern Med, that I had never paid attention to before. Lymond is one of the most remarkable characters ever written. Her ability to sustain a convulted plot for multiple volumes is unmatched by any of the fantasy saga writers I’ve yet found. And the richness of the language and history means that you can start the series all over when you’ve finished, easing that bittersweet feeling of completion.
harry 07.28.04 at 11:14 pm
Following up liz’s comment, have you thought about just re-reading all of Rosemary Sutcliffe? You probably read them sufficiently long ago that its worth re-reading them. I plan to next year, when daughter is old enough for me to read them to her. But, and I’m sure liz will agree, I was planning to do it anyway, regardless of whether my children would be amenable to having it read out loud. Similarly Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece and Penelope Lively (all, I admit, slightly lesser authors).
E Newman 07.29.04 at 6:06 pm
Wallace Stegner’s “Angle of Repose” will get you started on many excellent books. “Crossing to Safety” too. You will cry when you run out of his books.
Temperance 07.30.04 at 1:31 am
Forget Steven Saylor, he couldn’t write his way out of a wet paper bag. For a really good series about a detective in ancient Rome, you want Lindsay Davis’s Marcus Didius Falco series, starting with the wonderful Silver Pigs.
Rosemary Sutcliff’s books about Romans in Britain: The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, Sword at Sunset [the book they should have based the movie King Arthur on], Dawn Wind, and The Shield Ring. The connection between all these books is a ring passed down from father to son. But The Mark of the Horse Lord is her very best.
ChrisPer 07.30.04 at 2:26 am
Roman detectives?
Let us descend into the inferno…
Richard Sapir, The Far Arena. “Gladiator is frozen, restored to life in 1980, hangs out with Latin-scholar nun, and TOTALLY aces an Olympic fencer bye-the-bye. Been looking for another copy for years. Just one novel but at least he was smart enough to stop when the premise got old. Based on the historian’s dream of being there or having just ONE witness turn up here.
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