There is a peculiar appropriateness and not a little poignancy about this final episode of O’Brian’s sweeping saga of Naval life – and so much else – in the early 19th century. It’s an unfinished work – barely started actually, when he died in 2000. Written after Blue at the Mizzen this is a final view of Jack (Aubrey) and Stephen (Maturin), sailing off – this time with both their families aboard, to who knows what final encounters. Sadly we will never know the outcome but it does seem apt that this tale, long and episodic as it was, should outlast its teller and see its characters continue their adventures out of our view, though perhaps in our imagination. What we have here are some three chapters, in first draft form, with a few incidents well developed and others sketched out for later improvement. They are laid out in manuscript facsimile and typescript form, so that we can view O’Brian’s working methods.
Although brief, it contains many delights for addicts – the fact that Stephen’s daughter Brigid should be so much more of an able sailor than Jack’s twins for instance. While it is not much, it is lavishly laid out and well augmented with foreword and afterword to make it up into a book, but it is all there is, and all there’s ever going to be, so a diehard fan will be grateful. PW
Pub Harper Collins 2004/2010 144pp