Customer Reviews

The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Ardent fans of Patrick O'Brian know that he is one of the best kept secrets of English literature. His ability to project the complex, at times contradictory inner life of his characters -- and Aubrey and Maturin are certainly among the most fascinating ever to be inked upon paper -- allow this 20-novel cycle to transcend the usual narrow focus of the Traditional Sea Novel. O'Brian is not content with narratives merely devoted to warfare or adventure (although there's plenty to be had here): he also delights in portraying the conventions of English society, the developments in early 19th-century science (through Maturin's incessant experimentation), and various scenes of amateur music-making.

An omnibus edition of the series is a welcome notion, given the shelf space required by 20 volumes (even in paperback)! While I am no connoisseur of typefaces, the font used in re-setting the text is 'cleaner' and more attractive than the one used previously -- which is extremely important if you plan to traverse the 6500-plus pages of the omnibus edition!

But I have a major reservation with Norton's omnibus edition: there is little evidence that the publishers bothered to proofread their newly re-set text. Not only are there the usual, minor misspellings (like 'sorpething' instead of 'something'), but some far more problematic ones -- the kind that leave you with the nagging feeling: "surely O'Brian didn't write that." My favorite (so far) is in Book Two (Post Captain), which describes Canning's "great delighted laugh, a crowing noise that rose from a deep ass..." (see page 738). Checking the text of the previous hardback and paperback edition confirmed that O'Brian referred to Canning's vocal range ("bass"), not his nether regions.

Another serious problem with the omnibus text is the recurring omission of paragraph breaks used to mark alternating voices. Including more than one speaker within the same paragraph makes for some very confusing, even misleading passages. One should know that Norton's previous editions laid out the dialogue much more clearly (and consistently).

So, in a certain sense, this new edition is probably not the best introduction to O'Brian's multi-volume masterpiece. Newcomers should, if possible, go back to the previous edition which, after all, is still in print. Cheaper too, if you don't mind getting paperbacks.

Norton's compilation of O'Brian's masterly Aubrey/Maturin novels is an affront to every O'Brian fan, every reader or writer of good English, and every publisher of integrity and worth. This set of volumes is a sad example of publishing for profit with no thought to quality.

What passed for galleys were obviously scanned and digitized by a pack of non-caring, barely English-speaking pinchpennies. It is obvious that little or no effort was made to proof pages once the scanners had done their worst, turning words like "home" into "horne" and phrases like "not sail or spar" into "not sailor spar." Almost every page is sprinkled with nonsensical punctuation, the obvious and predictable result of detritus that any self-respecting digitizer would have cleaned from equipment or copy before beginning each scan. Worse, paragraphs are wrongly divided, so that O'Brian's lively dialogue becomes difficult -- at times impossible -- to follow.

In their original form, O'Brian's finely crafted phrases read as if one were hearing a tale spoken aloud by a master storyteller. In Norton's compilation, O'Brian's magic is turned to clunkery at best and gibberish at worst.

O'Brian is a genius. Read his work. But not in this edition. If you know people who work at Norton, teach your dog to lift his leg on their shoes.

I'll rate this collection at three stars because the story is amazing. The books appear to be well constructed and solid. I'm convinced they will last longer than I will! However, the appalling amount of typographical errors is really annoying! Just about the time I get myself thoroughly transported through time to another world my eye skips over another typo and trips my suspension of disbelief. I've only read through the first two volumes of this set and I can't even begin to count the glaring errors. I certainly hope the publishers will re-issue this set of books after some careful editing.

I guess the $110 price tag made me assume these would be a finer quality product. The novels themselves are my all-time favorites, but they are more enjoyable in the trade paperback editions or in their previous hardcover format (admittedly more expensive if bought as a set). As mentioned in other reviews, this particular edition suffers from extremely distracting, pervasive editing problems. I honestly believe the computer scanned the works in, and no human ever took a look at it. These are over the top, blatant errors that seem as if they would be caught by any copy editor. In the tradition of another reviewer, here's another cringeworthy editing stumble: from Desolation Island, p. 1829, Mrs. Wogan says "I yearn for fur, a deep, deep bed of fur, and a fur nightgown tool!" Hmm. Additionally, the pages are so thin, you can see the print on the other side of the page. The covers of the books themselves are so flexible; it is almost like reading a paperback. His dedications are not included (I know that's minor, but I'm a big fan!). The physical aspects don't matter anywhere near as much as I resent reading PO'B's words all jumbled together or with commas instead of periods half the time. I like that they're all in one set, but I would rather have paid more to get a nicer edition. Maybe that's their marketing strategy. I hope that they come out with a better edition! This one is destined for eBay.

For those that are familiar with them, the books in this set are similar to The Library Of America editions of the American classics (both are printed and bound by the same company, R.R. Donnelly & Sons). Although the paper is necessarily thin these editions are much better quality than the British individual hardbacks.

The reason for the poor rating is not for the quality of the books, nor of course for what they contain, but for the very poor type-setting and proof reading. I picked up a re-reading of the novels at 'The Mauritius Command' and it has numerous misprints, sometimes two or three a page, and is simply the worst book have read for type-setting errors. Subsequent novels are better but still may have half a dozen or more misprints.

Those wishing to replace their paperbacks with this set would probably be wise to wait for a second edition; maybe this won't be long coming, as W.W. Norton should be embarrassed by this one.

In the essay on Patrick O'Brian to be found on its website, the W.W. Norton Company comments upon O'Brian's rare civility in dealings with his publisher. Certainly Norton has repaid him with an incivility perhaps even more rare by subjecting his great work, now that he is dead and unable to protest, to an editor who obviously neither reads nor understands English. Other reviewers here have enumerated the kinds of error that make almost every other page of The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels difficult, sometimes impossible, for a close, careful and experienced reader to decipher and will certainly leave young, less experienced readers baffled and ultimately disgusted with the works themselves. I wish only to suggest, to anyone wanting to read these novels for the first or second or hundredth time, or to give them as a gift, that he or she find another edition and avoid this one. And to suggest, also, that whoever at Norton wrote, in the O'Brian article on that website, that his publishers were sorry they would not be seeing him again, should reconsider that statement. His publishers ought to be very, very glad to be beyond the man's reach after having offered him this appalling insult.

I read through the first 5 books in the paperback format. Realizing I was hooked I went ahead and ordered this box set figuring it would save money and shelf space.

I wish I hadn't. While the series is excellent and it was certainly convenient to always have the next episode at hand when I was ready for it, the editing and proofreading for this set were abysmal.

The worst aspect is the pervasive lack of paragraph indentation, causing alternating dialogue to run together and become confused. Combined with the frequent omission of words, reading this set requires some persistence to decipher, above and beyond O'Brians use of period speech. To add further annoyance, there are marked inconsistencies in the names of ships and people, particulary recollections of previous encounters in the later books (where presumedly different proofreaders were at work). There are at least three iterations for the HMS Java, for example. Mr. Wetherby becomes Mr. Witherby (consistently).

Last, the material quality is questionable. The dust jacket on the first volume was folded in the wrong spot, so that the portion over the spine was misaligned by about half an inch. The paper stock is also very thin (perhaps necessarily), and the text on the reverse side of the page is easily visible even when the page isn't separately lifted.

Great idea, poorly executed. O'Brian's work deserved better.

O would that my dear wife had read the Amazon Reviews of this particular edition before her kind-hearted purchase of this set as a Christmas gift this year. Or that I had not so strongly hinted that this would be a good permanent addition to the library. I'm now wending my way through '21' on my read-through of this set (my third tour through the series), and for all the love I have of omnibus editions, the Aubrey/Maturin series, and the compactness of having only five hardbound volumes on my precious bookshelf space instead of 20 or 21 trade paperbacks, I find myself bitterly regretting having given away our Aubrey/Maturin paperbacks to another reader.

In addition to the aggravatingly distracting typos that appear mentioned by other reviewers, this edition has some serious problems for those who might wish to get an archival set to enjoy over many years. Of the five volumes, two of them came with ribbon bookmarks that instantly frayed and had to be tied off with a splice that would make a squeaking reefer of a midshipman blush to show it to his sea-daddy. The cloth covers took up stains from ambient contact with the environment around them that would make Chips rush to the yards for a new coat of gold leaf and some knee-bracing twere it a man-o-war. After a single reading, this set of books looks like it's been through a So'Wester off the Cape, a raking by a tarty Ship of the Line out of Marseilles, and a flensing session after the barky's been disguised as a dirty Yankee whaler for a week. The pages are so thin -- and the obverso text visible enough -- that sometimes the text looks like one of Sir Joseph Blaine's double-cyphers in the wrong reading light.

It's enough to make this poor reader think he's been put up in the pillory on some nefarious charge of stock market malfeasance. The money's gone, and I still swear to do my duty to God, King, Country, and O'Brian and continue to re-read this set until it falls apart, but I fear that will be well before I raise my broad pennant blue at the mizzen.

I agree that this is a great way to get your hands on the entire set of books for a very reasonable price. However, the quality of these volumes is a little suspect. The covers of these "hardback" books are only slightly more stiff than the softcover versions. I'm not sure if I would have purchased these books if I would have had a chance to touch them before hand. Caveat emptor!

Patrick O'Brian, having devoted most of his life to rendering English prose with exacting precision; recreating the prolix syntax of the 19th century; and describing unfamiliar and complex activities and phenonema (e.g., all aspects of the operation of a square-rigged ship, tne fauna of the Galapagos) with piercing clarity, would roll over, "broach to", and sink six feet deeper in his grave if he could read the appalling omnibus edition of his masterwork, riddled as it is with lacunae of every description. Heed the warnings of other reviewers herein and stick with the individual editions. Honor the author!