Patrick O'Brian

Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

Quotes

• "Come," he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to a distant sopha, "come and sit by me, and let us talk of bats."
  • The Unknown Shore (1959).

• "And pray, what in sea language is meant by a ship?"

"She must have three square-rigged masts, sir," they told him kindly, "and a bowsprit; and the masts must be in three - lower, top and topgallant - for we never call a polacre a ship."

• • Master and Commander (1970)

• "... He is not very sharp in some ways; and in his simple view of the world, paederasts are dangerous only to powder-monkeys and choir boys, or to those epicene creatures that are to be found in Mediterranean brothels. I made circuitous attempt at enlightening him a little, but he looked very knowing and said, 'Don't tell me about rears and vices; I have been in the Navy all my life.'"

"Then surely he must be wanting a little in penetration?"

"James, I trust there was no mens rea in that remark?"

• • Master and Commander (1970) ("rears and vices" is O'Brian's homage to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park)
• “But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”
  • Master and Commander (1970)

• “This short watch that is about to come, or rather these two short watches--why are they called dog watches? Where, heu, heu, is the canine connection?'

Why,' said Stephen, 'it is because they are curtailed of course.”

• • Post Captain (1972)

• "Jack,you have debauched my sloth."

• HMS Surprise (1973)

• "My God, oh my God," he said. "Six hundred men."

• Desolation Island (1979)

• “Other people's marriages are a perpetual source of amazement.”
  • The Commodore (1995)

Quotes about Patrick O'Brian

• (What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?) I don’t know, because I don’t know what you expect. Would finding all Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels be a shock?
  • Ursula K. Le Guin Interview (2015)

• Charles and I read to each other every night before dinner. We're working our way with great joy through Patrick O'Brian's sea stories. I think he's a storyteller on the order of Kipling. Marvelous stuff. They're just a delight.
  • 1994 interview in Conversations with Ursula Le Guin

See also

• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World