Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,897
edits
Aubrey-Maturin: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
mNo edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| (13 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:master_commander_r_8778.jpg|frame|Yes, in the first published edition, Jack Aubrey was played by a young Clint Eastwood.]]
{{quote|''"It is all one," said Stephen. "They speak in tropes at sea."''|
''This is about [[Master and Commander|the series]] of novels. For [[Master and Commander (film)|the film]], consult said page.''
The books start with Jack first meeting Stephen and getting his first command, and go on with no particular overriding plot, though there are several arcs carried through multiple books. Their beginning, middle and end points are also arbitrary; they read something like one very big novel.
# ''Master and Commander'' (1969)
# ''Post Captain'' (1972)
Line 26 ⟶ 25:
# ''The Thirteen-Gun Salute'' (1989)
# ''The Nutmeg of Consolation'' (1991)
# ''Clarissa Oakes'' (1992) [[Market-Based Title|(''The Truelove'' in the USA)]]
# ''The Wine-Dark Sea'' (1993)
# ''The Commodore'' (1994)
Line 45 ⟶ 44:
Now has its own [[Aubrey-Maturin/Characters|character page]].
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[A Father to His Men]]: Jack Aubrey, who looks after his personal followers (the midshipmen and lieutenants who serve under him) as well as he can throughout their careers. The midshipmen in particular, as they usually come to him as 11-14 year old children, and he takes a personal hand in their educations and moral well-being. He also has his foremast [[Nakama]] in his bargemen, common seamen who follow him from ship to ship and are the ones protecting his back when he leads a boarding action.▼
== A-E ==
▲* [[A Father to His Men]]: Jack Aubrey, who looks after his personal followers (the midshipmen and lieutenants who serve under him) as well as he can throughout their careers. The midshipmen in particular, as they usually come to him as 11-14 year old children, and he takes a personal hand in their educations and moral well-being. He also has his foremast [[
** Part of the reason Jack always feels terrible after a battle is that he has to write letters home explaining which of his friends died and how.
* [[A Man Is Always Eager]]: Jack Aubrey is often "pierced with his own sword", as a delirious Stephen once puts it, because he never will learn how to say no.
Line 88:
* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: Jack has to write letters home to the parents of the officers and the midshipmen killed under his command. Additionally, the authority of the position means that it's nearly impossible for a captain and his officers to really become friends, a kind of social burden that falls on Jack quite often.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:
** In ''Clarissa Oakes'' / ''The Truelove'', Jack, searching for a suitable material for Clarissa Harvill's wedding dress, lends her some of a bolt of high-quality scarlet silk that he bought in Batavia for Sophie. {{spoiler|This causes problems for Jack's marriage several installments later, in ''The Commodore'', when Clarissa shows up for dinner with Jack and Sophie wearing the dress, only to find that Sophie is wearing a gown made from the same bolt of silk!}}
** Too many to count show up in the context of single books. For instance, while outfitting the ''Sophie'', Jack
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Or in this case, Chekhov's Gunwoman. At the beginning of ''The Surgeon's Mate'', Jack, irritated and upset because he has apparently received no mail from Sophie during his imprisonment in Boston, has a brief fling with a young woman in Halifax, whom he meets at a ball celebrating the ''Shannon''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s victory over the ''Chesapeake''. {{spoiler|It turns out that the mail, several packets' worth, had been set aside especially for Jack, but nobody had thought to inform the post office clerk. This indiscretion comes back to almost wreck his marriage in ''The Yellow Admiral'', when Sophie is shown old letters that the young lady has written to Jack that he has unwisely kept. She throws him out of the house - or would have thrown him out of the house, except that he's already at sea - but Stephen, with the help of Diana and Clarissa Oakes, manages to save the situation.}}
** Another good example: In ''Desolation Island'', Stephen, while visiting Jack, accompanies the latter to his local club, where Jack participates in a regular card game. While watching, Stephen observes that one of the other players seems to be cheating, and informs Jack. Jack later tells Stephen that he called the other fellow on it. {{spoiler|The cardsharp in question is Andrew Wray, who pops up over the next half-a-dozen-so books to trouble Jack and Stephen, nearly wrecking the former's career and the latter's marriage.}}
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Dr. Maturin, frequently. The whole world could be blowing up around his ears, and he'd be prancing about the ship with a rare snake or a pair of mating insects or somesuch. Of course, that assumes he didn't cause the explosion in question, in which case see [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* [[Clueless Chick Magnet]]: Jagiello, the handsome Lithuanian nobleman and a close friend to Jack and Stephen. He speaks passionately of the day that he'd meet a woman who can see him as an equal -- considerably harder than it looks considering all the pretty ladies who throw themselves at him.
* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: Happens to Maturin early in the series, much to Aubrey's horror, and afterwards is a danger very much on his mind whenever he's at risk of being found out as a secret agent.
* [[Cold Sniper]]: We don't learn the exact details of the encounter, but Stephen apparently kills two villains with a rifle at long range... and then almost immediately brings them to a colleague's house, where the two of them calmly ''dissect'' the bodies.
Line 100:
* [[Come to Gawk]]: The pillory is shown in one novel. And then it turns into a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] when Maturin arranges hundred of sailors Jack has known over the years to come and guard Jack while he's there.
* [[Comic Book Time]]: O'Brian moved the series into this after a few books when he realized he was quickly running out of Napoleonic War years. O'Brian somehow manages to squeeze what would properly be at least five, perhaps even ten years' worth of action into a period of less than 6 months, roughly spanning June 1813 (the end of ''The Fortune of War'') to November 1813 (the beginning of ''The Commodore''). Time resumes its normal sequence with ''The Yellow Admiral''; the last completed book in the series, ''Blue at the Mizzen'', presumably ends in early 1816. [[Lampshaded]] when Maturin asks near the end of the series just how old his daughter is.
* [[
* [[Companion Cube]]: Jack's violin. He's had it since he was a boy and is very distraught when it breaks.
* [[Cool Boat]]:
▲* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Jack thinks ''Hamlet'' is an utterly hilarious play. See [[Crosscast Role]] below.
**
* [[Cool Boat]]: The ''Sophie'' in book one. The ''Surprise'' in most of the series. The ''Polychrest'' was probably intended to be this by her architect, but ends up useless and bizarre. Jack, being made of awesome, nevertheless manages to get some good use out of her.▼
▲** Also slightly subverted in book one, as the ''Sophie'' is very much the Age of Sail equivalent of a rustbucket. She's called a brig, a three-masted ship, but is actually a sloop, which is two-masted. (Yay for Royal Navy social promotion - a sloop is only a lieutenant's command, so any ship given to a commander automatically becomes a brig or better, regardless of what it actually is.) Worse, she's dead slow, under-sailed, under-manned and under-gunned. Through clever naval and (ahem) social engineering, Aubrey manages to turn her into a top-notch commerce raider anyway.
*** No, she is a brig, which is two-masted, and is called a sloop, which would have been single-masted. An "unrated vessel," such as a schooner or cutter, was a lieutenant's command; anything given to a commander became a sloop. (Having trouble understanding this? Don't feel bad - Stephen never quite got it all straight either.)
▲**
** The ''Surprise'' in most of the series.
*** Even the ''Surprise'' is outdated and undergunned compared to Frigates of the time (being 28 gun at a time when new Frigates had guns in the mid 30s, and 44 gun Frigates were starting to appear), but does have the advantage of being fast, especially into the wind. Even when built, the French classed her as a Corvette (a type of fast, light Frigate).
*** And the ''Surprise'' would have been even more outclassed if she hadn't been heavily rebuilt quietly off-page somewhere. The real ''Surprise'' (credited with the same recapture of the ''Hermione'') carried 24 8pdr long guns, or a bunch of carronades. Aubrey's ''Surprise'', however, seems to end up with 28 main-deck 12pdrs, which are about twice the size. In real life, she would be massively overgunned for her hull, and she is still outclassed.
**** Jack is the man who tried to mount a [[Big Freaking Gun|nine-pound chaser]] [[Awesome Yet Impractical|on a sixty-foot ship]]. Considering the leeway he has in the fitting out of the ''Surprise'' and how well he knows her, you think he isn't going to fit [[More Dakka|as many guns as he possibly can on her]]?
**** Fair point, but 28 12pdrs would have broken the back of the actual ship, even if you could physically fit them on. The 12pdrs would weigh about three times as much as the 8s.
* [[Corrupt Politician]]: Politicians don't feature too commonly, but corruption [[Truth in Television|was the norm]] for the day. Aubrey's father, General Aubrey, is an MP from a pocket district<ref>(basically, a very small constituency, none of whom can afford to piss off the landlord)</ref> that Aubrey later inherits. Aubrey's father wasn't too scrupulous, managing to get his son convicted of the 19th century equivalent of insider trading by not keeping a secret. Aubrey also has some unscrupulous political enemies.
* [[Crosscast Role]]: Jack played one-third of Ophelia as a midshipman. Yes. One-third.
* [[Cult]]: Several benign versions turn up among the Shelmerston sailors. Shelmerston is described as having a bewildering variety of obscure Christian (and even a few Judaic) sects. Many of the sailors are [[wikipedia:Sethians|Sethians]], who especially venerate Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. Knipperdollings and Thraskites are also mentioned, among others.
Line 117 ⟶ 119:
** Dr. Maturin is a natural philosopher first and foremost, a physician second, a spy third, and wraps it all up by being quite good at armed combat.
*** In ''The Letter of Marque'', he takes part in the assault on St. Martin to "cut out" (seize) the French frigate ''Diane'' with pistol and cutlass, shooting down the captain of the French warship during the proceedings.
** In later installments of the series, Aubrey is noted as being a member of the Royal Society (as is Maturin), specializing in astronomy and mathematics, having submitted several well-received papers and presentations to the body on various astronomical topics. He is a friend of the sister of the famous British astronomer William Herschel; the sister tutored him in the art of building telescopes, and Aubrey constructs his own observatory (which we first see in ''The Mauritius Command'' and later in ''The Commodore''). Jack is a friend and correspondent of Alexander Humboldt, and in the novel arc from ''The Thirteen-Gun Salute'' through ''The Wine-Dark Sea'', is described taking extensive measurements of air and sea conditions in various regions on behalf of the latter, having been provided with a complete set of state-of-the art instruments for the purpose. In the last completed book of the series, ''Blue at the Mizzen'', Jack and Stephen are seen convivially fraternizing with the members of a Royal Society expedition.
** Again in ''Blue at the Mizzen'', this trope is seen when Jack and Stephen examine the illegitimate son of the Duke of Clarence (eventually to become William IV) to determine his fitness to ship aboard the ''Surprise''. The examination is very much a tag team affair, as Jack quizzes the lad on astronomy, mathematics and navigation, while Stephen tests his knowledge of language and other liberal arts. {{spoiler|Notwithstanding Jack's initial concerns that an aristocrat might be a spoiled brat ill-prepared for life at sea, young Horatio Hanson turns out to be an outstanding officer who saves Jack's life at one point.}}
* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: Stephen is [[Heroic Bastard|illegitimate]] and an [[Parental Abandonment|orphan]], fostered in the back and beyond, sent from uncaring relative to relative, spends time in several prisons in Spain and Portugal, a Catholic who goes to a Protestant university in his mid-teens, survives the Terror, flees to Ireland, survives the 1798 rebellion, loses Mona, loses Lord Edward Fitzgerald, becomes a fugitive, and ends up penniless. All before the first page of the first book.
** As an adolescent, he also spends "a long time" locked in a prison cell with a convicted rapist. I'm just saying.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: While [[Horatio Hornblower]] is what most people thing of when they think of [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]], this is a close second. At no point in the Hornblower series does anyone say [[Precision F-Strike|"fucking"]], for starters, nor are issues like homosexuality, pederasty, bestiality, or porn mentioned much, if at all. Keep in mind ''Hornblower'' regularly has people [[Ludicrous Gibs|hit by cannon-balls]], and
** It needs to be taken into account that [[C. S. Forester]] was writing in the early part of the 20th century, a much more straitlaced era for mainstream literature; O'Brian, who wrote the series over a period spanning the late 1960's to his death in 2000, had much more freedom to write about the topics mentioned above.
** Jack and Stephen are much more joyful than Horatio and suffer through much less tragedy (though they have their share of troubles, by all means). Jack also believes in the Royal Navy much more than Hornblower.
** Which is what Lord St. Vincent says to Jack when the latter has the temerity to ask him for a ship in ''Post Captain''. Also a bit of a [[Precision F-Strike]] when it does show up (there's one from Thomas Pullings as well).
Line 128 ⟶ 130:
* [[Death by Materialism]]:
** French agent Duhamel, after helping Maturin and the British and being given passage to Québec for his troubles, dies in [[Black Comedy]] fashion. Having converted his entire fortune to gold (though out of what seems more prudence than materialism) and carrying it concealed around his waist, the poor gentleman then manages to fall in the gap between boat and ship (as Dr. Maturin often does) and sink to his doom, pulled down by the weight of the gold.
** Tragic example with {{spoiler|Dil, the Indian girl whom Stephen befriends in ''HMS Surprise''. He finally buys her the silver bangles that she always wanted -- and finds her dead, having been robbed and murdered for them.}}
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: French [[Interservice Rivalry]] -- literally deadly serious -- finally gets too much for the [[Consummate Professional]] Duhamel, who defects over to the British side and reveals Wray as the mole.
* [[Destination Defenestration]]: [[Noodle Incident|alluded to]] in Aubrey's dealings with [[Loan
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: very few instances in this series. The most notable one is probably more a case of "Did Not Do '''Enough''' Research" - on several occasions, a disease called the "marthambles" is mentioned. O'Brian apparently took it to be a nautical name for a disease better-known ashore under another name, but if he had dug a bit deeper into his contemporary sources, he'd have found that it was basically a fictional malady. He eventually says it's called the "galloping gripes" on land.
** Maturin being a Catalan separatist, a [[Anachronism Stew|century before]] such a thing existed.
** In the pre-Aubrey-Maturin book ''Unknown Shore'', the protagonists fall in with some coastal Indians who live "at the edge of starvation" but do not have the technology to preserve meat in any way. The in-story explanation for this is that their environment is too moist, but they are sealers: the seal poke, a sealskin bag full of seal oil, is a perfectly viable method of storing meat, and used by many different people who live along the Canadian coastline, particularly the Eskimo. Storing meat is, in fact, a survival skill not just possessed by human cultures that live at the edge of starvation, but by your actual wolves.
** Aubrey and Maturin first meet at a concert in Port Mahon to the sounds of "the triumphant first movement of Locatelli's C-Major quartet". Locatelli is not known to have written any quartets.
*** Actually, throughout the series O'Brian references pieces of music not known to exist, though often bearing a close resemblance to actual works (e.g., "Old" Bach's famous Ciaccona).
* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Diana, though she's an unusually ''skillful'' example of the trope. Jagiello tries but fails, since in Lithuania the peasants are expected to get out of the way when the noblemen come hurtling through -- [[Hilarity Ensues|which is decidedly not the case in England]]. The sailors' driving fails to qualify only due to their slowness, since they're used to hauling on the reins with a force more appropriate for the rigging of a small boat, though upsets are common.
* [[The Drunken Sailor]]: Prevalent. The amounts of alcohol routinely consumed by the characters are astonishing by modern standards. Sometimes a character (e.g., frequently, Killick when ashore) will be referred to as drunk "even by naval standards."
* [[Duet Bonding]]: Aubrey and Maturin.
* [[The Dung Ages]]: Often upheld on land, but ''strongly'' subverted in anything having to do with the Royal Navy, especially the ships. Much is made of the Navy's fanatical attention to neatness and cleanliness, to the extent that there are several funny moments where Stephen hears his shipmates remark disapprovingly on the slovenly/filthy state of a certain ship, but himself can't see much of anything wrong. On a more serious note, Stephen remarks several times that the Navy's devotion to cleanliness translates into a significantly lower rate of infection and disease aboard ship than on shore. (Note that on the one occasion where a plague stalks the ship's - in this instance the ''Leopard's'' crew, in ''Desolation Island''
* [[Eek!
* [[Everyone Has Standards|Even French Intelligence Services Have Standards]]: Wray and Ledward murdering their own agents to safeguard their own fortunes is the main reason behind Duhamel's defection.
* [[Evil Matriarch]]: Mrs. Williams is overbearing, badgering, and apparently loves to make Jack and Sophie's lives hell. For all that, though, she ''is'' a decent manager of money, though she is not above running illegal schemes to make it.
== F-J ==
* [[Fixing the Game]]: It's strongly implied that the reason Jack loses many pounds at whist in book 2 is because his interlocutors are cheating. That Jack accuses them of this loudly and in public is the driving force behind a [[Smug Snake]] picking up the [[Villain Ball]].
* [[Foreshadowing]]: In one of the later books, there is a section describing a transit on a post-chaise which includes a quite narrow and tricky bridge coming at the bottom of a hill. A couple of books later {{spoiler|Diana, who was said to be somewhat overly aggressive as a driver and dismissed concerns about that specific bridge, is revealed to have been killed in an accident on that very bridge.}}
* [[
* [[Frozen in Time]]: Around book 7, O'Brian realized he was running out of Napoleonic War in which the story could take place, so he put the year 1813 on constant loop for the next 10 books). Fans like to characterize certain actions as taking place in 1812 or 1812a.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: Padeen is a very large, strong man whose compassionate nature makes him an excellent nurse. {{spoiler|Also, his patience and friendliness eventually coaxes Stephen's autistic daughter, Brigid, out of her shell.}}
Line 154 ⟶ 159:
*** Of course, the entire fanbase is, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|by definition]], [http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobtitles.htm the Aubrey/Maturin fanbase].
*** It doesn't help clarify matters any that in that day and age, it was quite ordinary for heterosexual men to use endearments such as "my dear" when talking to their close male friends. Jack generally prefers to address Stephen as "brother", though.
* [[Historical Domain Character]]:
* [[Historical Domain Character]]: both the French captain Christy-Palliere and the British Heneage Dundas really existed. Interestingly, ''Master and Commander'' in particular was heavily based on the real-life exploits of Captain Cochrane (particularly the [[In-Universe|Sophie-vs-Cacafuego]]/[[Real Life|Speedy-vs-Gama]] duel, accurate down to the number of guns and the number of crew), who really was captured by Christy-Palliere in the same way that Jack Aubrey was captured--and the real-life Christy-Palliere was so impressed by Cochrane's exploits that he refused to accept his sword in surrender, the same as Aubrey.▼
** The French [[wikipedia:Jean-Anne Christy de la Pallière|Christy-Palliere]] and [[wikipedia:Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois|Admiral Linois]], and the British [[wikipedia:George Heneage Lawrence Dundas|Heneage Dundas]], [[wikipedia:George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith|Lord Keith]], and [[wikipedia:Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith|"Queenie"]] really existed.
▲*
* [[Honey Trap]]: French agents try to compromise Stephen in Malta with Mrs. Fielding, the wife of a captured British officer, in combination with implied blackmail (Lt. Fielding's death sentence would be continually delayed so long as she cooperated). It doesn't work; Laura Fielding is too nervous, and Stephen too perceptive that something is up. He manages to get Laura to tell him the truth, and then works out a plan to protect her from French intelligence by pretending to be her lover.
* [[I Never Got Any Letters]]: after the [[Honey Trap]] situation described above, which quite naturally leads to rumors, Stephen writes a (partial) explanation of the matter to Diana, basically asking her to trust him. Unfortunately, he left the letter to Wray, and so Diana does not receive it. This leads to a misunderstanding between the two that persists from ''Treason's Harbour'' to ''The Letter of Marque'', when Stephen finally tries to break with Diana for good--only to finally piece together the truth and reconcile with her.
Line 162 ⟶ 169:
* [[Instant Leech Just Fall in Water]]: * In ''Blue at the Mizzen'', Stephen Maturin and Christine Wood fall into brackish West African mud. Afterwards, each is covered with "astonishingly numerous and avid leeches." They use salt (brought by Christine for this purpose) to remove the leeches.
* [[It's Personal]]: implied for the captain of the ''Waakzeimheid''; after the first few exchanges of fire, he is seen wearing a black coat, and chasing ''Leopard'' despite suicidal weather for battle. Jack wonders if his son had died in their skirmishing.
▲* [[It Got Worse]]: A few examples, but the end of ''Desolation Island'' springs to mind.
* [[Joke Character|Joke Ship]]: The ''Polychrest.''
* [[The Klutz]]: Stephen somehow contrives to get into accident after accident at sea, ranging from falling out of the boat to somehow turning a complete somersault in a particularly violent sea. As a result, the seamen around him look upon with real affection and considerable respect for his medical prowess--and stand wary in case he manages to take yet another improbably at every possible opportunity.
Line 168 ⟶ 174:
** Stephen and Diana, for much of the series. ([[They Do]], in ''The Surgeon's Mate.'')
** Padeen seems to be stuck in one of these in regards to Clarissa.
** In the later books,
== K-O ==
* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Used [[Truth in Television|accurately]], as during that period only the very most intimate friends or lovers would address one another by unadorned first name. Except for Jack, all of Stephen's old comrades/shipmates - and by the end of the series he has amassed a very wide circle of naval friends - address him by his professional title, and even Jack addresses him as "Doctor" during, so to speak, business hours. Diana Villiers, Stephen's great love throughout most of the series, most frequently calls him "Maturin" before their marriage (and even occasionally after), and Stephen reciprocates by calling her "Villiers". In fact, Jack, Jack's wife Sophie, Diana, {{spoiler|and later on in the series, Sir Joseph Blaine and Christine Wood}} are the only people who are entitled, by the intimacy of their relationship, to address Stephen by his first name. (It should be emphasized that [[Last-Name Basis]] does ''not'' imply coldness or distance in the relationship; for instance, Tom Pullings, who has been a close friend of Stephen's ever since their first commission together in the ''Sophie'', invariably addresses him as "Doctor". Stephen, however, does customarily address Pullings as "Tom" in informal conversation. Stephen and Diana, during their long courtship, are another obvious example.)
** Jack's very old shipmates, especially those who follow him from commission to commission - his "followers" - invariably address him as "Captain" out of their deep respect for him, no matter how close their relationship is. Jack will customarily address old friends/subordinates such as Pullings, James Mowett, William Babbington (and later on in the series, William Reade) by their first name in informal conversation; when naval business is being done, he will call them "Mr. (insert surname here)" or address them by rank.
Line 174 ⟶ 182:
* [[The Laws and Customs of War]]
** There are numerous scenes, usually in passing, where Jack will read the Articles of War to the crew in lieu of a sermon on Sunday.
*** The emphasis with which Jack reads these regulations, with their hair-curling repetition of "shall be punished by death", varies according to his mood and the situation on board ship. When all is well, he'll skim through the Articles so as to let the men get on with the important business of having their Sunday dinner; but when he's angry about something (as at the beginning of ''Clarissa Oakes'' / ''The Truelove''), he'll read the Articles in a most impressively menacing fashion.
** Also discussed repeatedly in contexts such as when, early on in the series, Stephen quizzes one of the officers about the custom of showing "false flags" to trick a potential enemy. The officer explains that this practice is quite legal as tactical deception in pre-battle maneuvering, but that the ship's genuine national colors are ''always'' raised before battle is joined. This is quite important because if it's not done, the ship can legally be treated as a pirate vessel!
** It causes a few problems sometimes: one character, Dutourd, in ''The Wine-Dark Sea'' takes it as an absolute affront that his possessions and money are claimed after it's been legally established that no, he had no letter of marque or anything similar - the closest thing he could produce was a well-wishing letter from the French Minister of Marine - and was thus being treated as a pirate, saying that he was robbed. He goes on to cause trouble for Stephen later.
Line 208 ⟶ 216:
* [[Out-of-Genre Experience]]: The books are Napoleonic-era historical novels, but chapters here and there turn into a [[Spy Drama|espionage drama]].
** Or period romance fit to compete with the likes of [[Pride and Prejudice]].
== P-T ==
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Harte, Aubrey's hated admiral, shows a moment or two of decency in ''Treason's Harbor'', mentioning that it is his habit to try to buy the liberty of Algerine slaves whenever possible. {{spoiler|This comes mere pages before he and Aubrey sails into an ambush; Harte's ship is blown up with no survivors, and Aubrey escapes by the skin of his teeth.}}
* [[Perpetual Poverty]]: Jack's seamanship and amazing fortunes at sea earns him huge amounts of money from captured prizes. His equally amazing misfortunes on land often mean that at the start of every new book, his fortune is either lost or is in danger of being lost, with him hunting for a source of revenue that would clear his debts.
Line 251 ⟶ 260:
* [[Sweetie Graffiti]]: Jack carving his name into the ''Surprise''.
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Mowett and Rowan, two hands from the gunroom who endlessly compete in poetry afloat and drinking ashore.
== U-Z ==
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Stephen is short (one source gives his height as 5'6"), dark, variously described as "scrawny" or "squat", pale, sloppily dressed (he has an unfortunate habit of smearing ink or grease on such nice items of clothing as he is able to obtain), his only remarkable feature being his pale eyes. Nonetheless, after many trials, he's able to win the hand of the dazzling beauty Diana Villiers.
** Jack is big, strongly built (and rather stout, though probably not obese by modern standards), ruddy, blond, with twinkling blue eyes, and '''absolutely''' covered with scars from numerous battles, including a mostly-missing right ear. He's a good deal better-looking than his friend Stephen, but he's no Adonis either. ''His'' wife is the lovely blonde [[English Rose]] Sophie Williams.
*** Once pointed out by a female prisoner, who happens to see him swimming naked. Maturin replies 'Perhaps he is a bit cut about. But you will notice that his scars are all received honorably from the front, except those that are from the rear."
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]
** Early on the aphorism "Today's wardroom joint is tomorrow's messdeck stew" is introduced
** Usually O'Brien gives both reliable and unreliable versions of events to contrast them, but occasionally only the crew's version will be told, leaving the reader guessing as to what actually happened.
*** In ''The Commodore'', Preserved Killick, Jack's steward, tells Barret Bonden, the Captain's coxswain, about domestic unrest in the Aubrey household. This is in fact something of an aversion of the trope, as Killick, who has served under the Captain since the beginning of the series, is as well-acquainted as anyone else alive with what makes his master tick; and he's talking to another very old shipmate and friend, Bonden, who knows Jack just as well as Killick does.
Line 265 ⟶ 275:
** In ''The Nutmeg of Consolation'', Jack is displeased when Stephen tells him that he's arranged to have the gunpowder resupply of a French frigate (which Jack very much desires to engage and, if possible, capture) cut off. This is because Jack feels that it wouldn't be a fair fight to take on a ship that can't shoot back. {{spoiler|However, the Frenchmen encounter a Dutch merchantman and confiscate her store of gunpowder, thus ensuring that they'll have enough for the battle.}}
** In ''The Surgeon's Mate'', the American commander Lawrence of the U.S.S. ''Chesapeake'', mortally wounded in battle with the H.M.S. ''Shannon'' at the end of ''The Fortune of War'', is buried in Halifax with full military honors, the funeral being attended by every senior British naval officer on hand including Jack (who is still recovering from serious wounds sustained in the capture of H.M.S. ''Java'' by the ''Chesapeake'' in the previous book).
** And as for ''The Fortune of War'', the climactic ship-to-ship battle between the ''Shannon'' and ''Chesapeake'' is organized in a punctiliously formal way that shows beyond a doubt that both captains regard each other as [[Worthy
** Throughout the entire series, there are many, many incidents which show a strong feeling of professional kinship among the men who sail the seas and serve their respective countries in their navies. This is closely related to [[The Laws and Customs of War]] (see entry above); there is a strong sense of what is "done" and "not done" in naval warfare and an equally strong code of honor and respect between professional naval officers, which becomes a plot point on more than a few occasions.
* [[Yank the Dog's Chain]]: If everything's going well by the end of one book, expect it to have changed by the start of the next.
Line 272 ⟶ 282:
{{reflist}}
{{The Big Read}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Historical Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]
[[Category:Sea Stories]]
[[Category:
| |||