21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (Aubrey/Maturin Series) (Hardcover)

by Patrick O'Brian (Author), Richard Snow (Afterword) "STEPHEN MATURIN squared up to his writing-desk once more: he had been called away to attend to one of the ship's boys who in the..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lord Leyton, Captain Aubrey, Jack Aubrey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
For Aubrey/Maturin addicts, there could be no better gift: a new, albeit incomplete, story with freshly piquant details, wry humor and salty nautical action. Although the official word was that O'Brian had finished the series with 1999's Blue at the Mizzen, he was in fact working on a new installment at the time of his death in 2000. This short volume juxtaposes a facsimile of O'Brian's handwritten manuscript of the untitled novel with a printed version of the text, which corresponds to O'Brian's loosely edited, typed pages. As the tale opens, our heroes are off the coast of South America, trying to find a friendly place to put the Surprise in for victuals and water. Jack Aubrey has received the happy news that he has been given the rank of rear admiral of the Blue, and all is well for the time being. But the Catholic locals are surly at best to the mostly Protestant crew. To fix things, Stephen Maturin does some judicious buttering up and Aubrey reunites with Samuel Mputa, the region's Papal Nuncio and, incidentally, one of his "indiscretions" from his days as "a long-legged youth" serving on the South African station. The typescript of the third chapter ends mid-sentence, but the handwritten manuscript continues on to include a duel between Maturin and a romantic rival, leaving readers begging for more. Alas, this fragmentary but worthy addition to the series is truly the end of a literary era, leaving only readers' imaginations to fill in the rest of the story.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
The pages of O’Brian’s 21st Aubrey novel will leave readers hungry for more. Not surprisingly, 21 neither stands alone as a novel nor serves as a concise conclusion to the series. Instead, it sketches out the details of the start of another Aubrey mission. The bulk of the chapters offers set-pieces describing gunnery practice, grog, deck-swabbing, a hernia operation, and a reunion with Papal Nuncio Samuel Mputa. The pages also contain O’Brian’s trademark humor and eagle-eyed observations, if cut short. There’s nothing new here for seasoned readers except, perhaps, for an elaborate menu devised by an Argentine grandee. And yet that doesn’t diminish the power of this small, unfinished masterpiece.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (October 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039306025X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060256
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,996 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

119 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Final Gift to Patrick O'Brian Fans, October 22, 2004

By	Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

An excellent gift to the fans of Patrick O'Brian but, I am sure, of little interest to anyone else. Certainly it would be the worst possible introduction to O'Brian's wonderful nautical fiction. But for those of us who have for years read and re-read his tales, so beautifully written and so infused with the great friendship between his two central characters, this fragment of O'Brian's intended twenty-first novel in the series allows us to pay one last visit to these two fascinating men. And happily we find them in a time of comparative joy and leisure. Gentle humor abounds as Aubrey and Maturin tease one another, based on their sure knowledge of one another's quirks and modes of thought. Although it seems certain that the typewritten manuscript of the these three, rather short chapters would have received further polishing and likely substantial additions before the book was completed, what we have is not only recognizable, but very characteristic O'Brian prose, often illuminated by the choice of exactly the right adjective that is at once both unexpected and yet revealed as inevitable. I would go so far as to argue that even as it stands, the writing here more nearly approaches that of O'Brian's best books than that of at least the last few novels.

A unique feature of this final book is that it presents the printed text face-to-face with O'Brian's handwritten draft for that same text, and it can be fascinating to see how the prose evolved from pen to typewritten versions. But the typewritten text ended with still several handwritten pages yet to go, and the publishers have elected to present those last pages as they were found without transcription into print. As a previous reviewer noted, deciphering those handwritten passages can be a thorny task (after a week of it, there are still a number of words I can claim to read only tentatively and a few not at all). But I think the publisher was right in not attempting to integrate those last handwritten pages into the printed text drawn directly from what had already been typed up by O'Brian. First, there would have been a problem of continuity. As O'Brian worked on his manuscript, changes were being made in the storyline so that the remaining handwritten pages do not really reflect plot developments that had been typed up. And perhaps more importantly, much of this last handwritten portion bears evidence of being a rapidly written first draft, sketching out the storyline more than attempting to create anything close to an envisioned final version; some words are omitted, some are unintentionally repeated. Undoubtedly, these imperfections in these last few pages would have been corrected if O'Brian had had the opportunity to redraft them by hand (as seems to have been his usual working method) or typewriter, but for the publisher to transfer them into print would have required either a heavy hand in editing - thus departing unfortunately far from the O'Brian original - or acceptance of a stylistically incompatible finale. No, all in all I agree with the publisher's decision to leave these last several pages in O'Brian's own handwriting. For those of us sufficiently interested, decipherment at least to the extent of following the storyline is not too difficult a job, and it is a task that ultimately brings us closer to this most favored of authors as, in his last days, he once again sailed in company with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.

One final note: if given a choice between obtaining the American edition of this book published by Norton or the British edition issued by HarperCollins, I would suggest the latter. Although the Patrick O'Brian content of the two is the same, the UK edition also contains an illuminating introduction by William Waldegrave and, perhaps even more pleasing, it is printed on a superior paper stock for clarity and simply more luxurious feel.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED IT, BUT..., November 18, 2004

By	Peter R. Santell - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had just finished the 20th novel yesterday, BLUE AT THE MIZZEN, and then read this book, which came out just in time for me to finish THE AUBREYIAD.

The book has both a copy of the handwritten manuscript, and a typed up version of the work that O'Brian was able to revise before he died. The manuscript has more of the story that O'Brian didn't have time to revise, so about 5 pages are only found in manuscript form, and they aren't typed up. I really wish that the publisher had typed up these last 5 pages of the manuscript, because some of the manuscript is unreadable. The untyped manscript covers a duel, and would really make excellent reading. I'm afraid I don't have Dr. Maturin's ability to decode.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A shortened voyage., October 12, 2004

By	klownboy "klownboy" (Minnesota - Where if its not mandated, its prohibited.) - See all my reviews

I am grateful for any new crumb of an O'Brian seafaring tale that I can get my hands on. This one included. But even taking into account the unavoidably abrupt end of this novel fragment, "21" still lacks significantly due to some inexcusable decisions on presentation.

There were many ways that this project could have gone. Rumors of another author attempting to finish the work; pretending to the mastery of O'Brian's steady hand at the tiller. Rumors of a note-filled outline that would allow the reader to know the broad strokes of the story, even if it hadn't yet been filled with the flowing detail and observations that are the author's hallmark. It was hoped by many that whatever was to be released would remain true to O'Brian and his richly described world.

What we get in "21" is more, and less, than what we would want. O'Brian's handwritten manuscript is presented next to his approved typed pages. It reveals the steady flow of his narration, written out on the page in an almost finished form. Remarkable when considering the period dialect, obscure adjectives, and insightful eye for detail already present in this hand-scripted draft. Enlightening in what it reveals about the author's method and capability. In just 3 chapters the story is already off to a great start and promising more. Reunions, rivalries, complications are all well in motion when O'Brian is forced to take his leave, and the story left untold.

The decision was made not to present the final pages in a typed format on the excuse that O'Brian had not reviewed them in type prior to his death. They are presented only as facsimile copies of the author's handwritten notes. As a result, the last few storied words of O'Brian's unfinished tale cannot even be savored as they trail off into eternity, they must be deciphered, decrypted, almost mined from the page out of scrawled, scanned handwriting that in many places renders entire lines of text unreadable. Because of this short-sighted gimmicky decision, obtaining the last literary gasps of Admiral Aubrey and Dr. Maturin becomes not an act of story-telling, but one of crude indelicate interrogation (an activity that Dr. Maturin, and by extention, O'Brian, abhorred).

Instead of transporting me to the southern oceans and distant shores full of adventure, this presentation of O'Brian's final unfinished tale commutes me to an office cubicle where I find myself occupied with an activity more akin to deciphering old faded electrical schematics. I unfortunately have to knock my rating down from 5 to 4 stars.

Again I am grateful that even this much was presented, but in the end, one of the most important elements of O'Brian's work is intentionally missing from this book: it's accessibility.