Hussein: An Entertainment [Hardcover]

Patrick O'Brian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000

A delightful tale of an elephant handler written by Patrick O'Brian when a very young man. HUSSEIN tells the story of a young mahout -- or elephant handler -- his childhood and life in India and his relationship and adventures with elephants. Patrick was in his early twenties when he wrote it. Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard, his first book, was written when he was 14, but the dry wit and unsentimental precision O'Brian's readers savour is already in evidence. The book was feted on publication and O'Brian described as the 'boy-Thoreau'. The book was published in England and the United States, and translations appeared in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Japan. In 1938 O'Brian published his next novel, called Hussein: An Entertainment, a marvellously readable adventure story set in India. Reviewers in the United States were particularly enthusiastic: the New York Times compared Hussein favourably to Kipling's Kim, calling it 'a gorgeous enterntainment'. Thomas Sugrue wrote in the New York Herald Tribune: 'The story of Hussein is a swift-moving, well-written account of events so fantastic that moonshine was certainly their mother...Hussein, in quest after his Sashiya, is a hero as alive and as human as Tom Jones seeking his Sophia. '

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Patrick O'Brian's remarkable career could serve as the textbook model for a writer's life. An invalid in his childhood, he read voraciously, and produced his first novel, Caesar, at the age of 12, while his tutor wasn't looking. It was published three years later in 1930. Hussein (1938), his second novel, grew from a short story O'Brian submitted to an Oxford journal. Having been urged to expand the tale, he trotted out a thousand words a day until the book was done. Over the next eight decades, he produced more than 20 books, including the celebrated Aubrey/Maturin series on the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In the new introduction to his first two novels (now reprinted after many years), O'Brian discloses that although he had met a few Indians, both Muslim and Hindu, he had never been to India at the time he wrote Hussein. "The book is largely derivative," he explains, "based on reading and the recollections, anecdotes and letters of friends and relations who were well acquainted with that vast country: and it has no pretension to being anything more than what it is called, an Entertainment."

A delicious blend of Kipling and the Arabian Nights, Hussein is the story of a Muslim mahout (an elephant keeper for the British Raj) whose bravery and curiosity lead him on a series of lively adventures. After a scandal involving a hated rival, a deadly curse, and a beautiful woman, Hussein is forced to leave government service and make his way as an itinerant snake charmer and storyteller. His stories open into other stories, which connect with the action of the novel, and eventually our hero finds himself in a situation in which, like Scheherazade, his life depends on how skillfully he tells his tale. Even though it isn't "the real thing" as far as nationality or cultural origins go, Hussein is most assuredly the entertainment that O'Brian promised, and the impressive early work of a natural writer. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

This early work from the now-deceased OBrian (Blue at the Mizzen, 1999, etc.) has nothing at all to do with the Iraqi leader. Written when the author was in his 20s, the story tells of a young mahout (elephant handler) whose father and grandfather also trained the great beasts. The third-person narrative chronicles Husseins childhood, his love for elephants and for a girl named Sashiya. Forced to flee his hometown in India, Hussein begins a series of adventures that includes stints as a snake charmer, spy, and thief, but he eventually returns to claim his love. OBrians readable and gripping tale is aptly subtitled: it never strays beyond the realm of entertainment. Hussein doesnt claim the readers affinity as the protagonists do in such later classics as The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, in which the characters leap off the page and propel us from one event to the next. Also missing is the sense of place OBrian usually manages to convey in his far-flung adventures; perhaps because he hadnt been there, the landscape of India never comes alive. OBrians faithful fans will be better served sticking to his seafaring adventures. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 2nd edition edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002259532
• ISBN-13: 978-0002259538
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,073,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In addition to twenty volumes in the highly respected Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's many books include "Testimonies," "The Golden Ocean," and "The Unknown Shore". O'Brian also wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks and translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture's biographies of Charles de Gaulle. He passed away in January 2000 at the age of 85.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just practicing, February 12, 2008

By 

H. Schneider "Hamlet" (Pandistan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hussein: An Entertainment (Paperback)

O'Brian was one of my favorite writers of English prose. But every master has to start somewhere and not all starts are worth the preservation. I think this 'entertainment' is a demonstration why 'selected works' are usually preferable to 'complete works', unless one wants to make a living out of studying somebody's life work.
O'B wrote this when he was a student in Dublin in the 30s. He had no own first hand knowledge of the subject, but knew his Kipling and Arabian Nights etc very well. On that basis he fabulated an unoriginal story, which is far from charmless, but far from worthwhile too.
Actually I did like the first few chapters on the mahouts' lives quite a bit.
P.S. I have learned since that POB may not have been a student in Dublin after all, this may have been part of his active imagination or of his strategy to confuse his public.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Adventures in Colonial India, January 26, 2001

By 

Hans U. Weber (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hussein: An Entertainment (Paperback)

"Hussein" is a wonderful old-fashioned adventure story that will delight teenage readers as well as adults who have kept an open mind, a sense of humor and the improbable, and curiosity about an alien culture. O'Brian wrote this book under his real name (he was English not Irish) long before he began to write his Aubrey/Maturin novels. "Hussein" already shows his talent as a story-teller. He calls his tale "an entertainment" because he fabulated it largely based on his readings about India. "Hussein" is a romantic rags-to-riches story that runs coherently from Hussein's boyhood in a family of elephant handlers through his years as a fugitive until his unexpected fortune as a young man.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Effort A Gem, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hussein: An Entertainment (Hardcover)

As a new devotee of the author's later work ( the Aubrey and Maturin series) it is sheer pleasure to read O'Brian's first published work. It reveals the early wit and budding appetite for detail and character development he later hones to such perfection in the Commander series. As a novel, or more properly "an entertainment," this work stands nicely on it's own, sans the author's later reputation. The background for the story is exotic East India at the historically pivotal time of its British occupation. The plot lovingly chronicles Hussein's (our hero) journey through youth to adulthood intertwined with a love story as sweet as ripe mangoes. Possibly O'Brian's own biographical story is mirrored here but we are not privy to that by his admission. A fine fast paced read even with the slightly halting style, as the writer discovers his craft. This aspect is endearing rather than off putting, as it blends so well with the young hero's discoveries. In his adventures Hussein proves to be wise beyond his years, learns to keep his head in some very bizarre situations as he respectfully, if somewhat un-orthodoxically attempts to honor his family tradition, that of mahoot to a decidedly unusual elephant. A most excellent "entertainment".