The Nutmeg of Consolation (Aubrey-Maturin) [Audio CD]

Patrick O'Brian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007 | Series: Aubrey-Maturin (Book 14)

Shipwrecked on a remote island and threatened by Malay pirates, Captain Aubrey and crew barely escape before facing a diplomatic crisis at the harrowingly dreadful penal colony in New South Wales.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Shipwrecked! When Captain Aubrey and his crew go aground on a remote island, they labor to construct a seaworthy schooner from the wreckage (taking breaks, of course, to play cricket.) Their subsequent adventures lead them to the dreaded penal colony at Botany Bay, and then, as always, back to sea. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers will welcome the reappearance here of elegant Stephen Maturin, one hero of O'Brian's excellent 19th-century seafarer series. Maturin is a ship's doctor, naturalist, spy, musician, ex-opium eater and, we're reminded here, terrific swordsman. His "brother" is Capt. Jack Aubrey, RN, MP, popular hero for his success against Napoleon, less introspective but as subtly drawn as Maturin and as avid a musician. Last seen in The Thirteen-Gun Salute the two were shipwrecked on a barren isle in the South China Sea. After a bitter fight with Dyaks and Malays they reach Batavia, where Governor Raffles gives Aubrey the eponymic Dutch sloop ("a tight, sweet, newly-coppered, broad-buttocked litle ship, a solace to any man's heart") to continue his circumnavigation of the globe. As usual the chief joys are in the details of the food, drink and clothes of the era, with those of the rain forests, kangaroos and platypuses added here. On the other hand, early Sydney's squalor is matched by its brutality.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc.; Unabridged edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786160489
• ISBN-13: 978-0786160488
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( O ) > O'Brian, Patrick

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

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joint Review of All Aubrey-Maturin Books, October 26, 2003

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (Paperback)

Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The saga continues, July 25, 2000

By 

John C. Mckee "cmckee6" (Spring TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (Paperback)

The Nutmeg of Consolation finds our friends about halfway through a circumnavigation that began 2 books ago. This is the story of their travails in extreme south east asia. The story deftly builds on earlier plot lines and concludes several angles in an almost shocking manner.

This is a book that must be read in the context of all the others that came before. I have read the series through book 19 and have read them in order. As many, many other commentators have mentioned, this series is really one book with twenty chapters (e.i. the individual books) and should be read in order. Not only does this help understand the chracters but allows the reader to move along with the protagonists and understand their reasoning.

The series is masterful and one easily begins to understand the somewhat obscure jargon and period expressions. However, I have benefited from the growing cottage industry in companion books to this series, especially Dean King's "A Sea of Words". This is a good guide to fully appreciating the scope and breadth of these beautifully written novels.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most entertaining entries into the entire series, October 18, 2005

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (Paperback)

Although THE THIRTEEN GUN SALUTE was one of the least eventful books in the entire Aubrey-Maturin series, THE NUTMEG OF CONSOLATION is one of the most action filled. The books in the series are not, in the end, really about action, but it nonetheless can be a lot of fun when it takes place. The major incident in the previous novel had been the wrecking of the Diane on uncharted rocks near a remote island and the start of this one has the surviving crew members working hard to build a smaller vessel out of the remains of the Diane to sail to the nearest port. Instead, they find themselves under attack by pirates, led by a memorable female who briefly and seemingly befriends Maturin. Later, after being rescued by a Chinaman who comes to the island looking for the makings of birds nest soup, Jack and his crew take charge of the refitting of a Dutch vessel that had been sunk and salvaged that Jack renames The Nutmeg of Consolation. After a long chase of a French privateer and the reuniting with the Surprise, the rest of the novel focuses on a trip to Botany Bay, the novel ending suddenly after a near fatal encounter by Stephen with a male duckbilled platypus. All in all, it is an exceptionally satisfying novel, the only possible complaint that there is little time for the political or interpersonal interplay so fascinating in the other novels. Also, O'Brian, who delights in being not only a first-rate storyteller but a teacher and instructor, gets to do less of the latter here. Still, I can't imagine anyone failing to be thoroughly entertained by this fine novel.

Some reviewers complain that at this point in the series, it is beginning to get a little tired. I do not experience that, though I can acknowledge that the series here begins to struggle against the limitations that were set for it by O'Brian's having set it so late in the Napoleonic wars. O'Brian acknowledges in the preface to the series as a whole that he probably make an error by having Jack become a captain and commander at around the mid-point of the Napoleonic era. As a result, when the series was doing so well and the demand for additional books so great, he was sometimes hard pressed to come up with new twists. Also, the chronology ceases at some point to make much sense. Voyages that would actually take two years must, so that more stories can take place before the end of the Napoleonic wars, effectively take up no more than a few months. As a fan of the series, I am more than willing to suspend my disbelief in order to have a few more stories than ought to be possible squeezed it. It is, in the end, one of the few concessions that any reader has to make to the series, but it is a concession in a good cause.