| Patrick O'Brian Notes in Manuscript Revised: | ||||
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| Contributor | Overview The Lilly Library of Indiana University in Bloomington, IN holds a collection of POB manuscripts which it acquired a few years ago. The collection consists of the full text manuscripts of the first 18 A/M novels (except for LOM), and the biographies of Joseph Banks and Pablo Picasso. Perhaps more interesting is that they also have POB's notes for LOM through COM. I have obtained copies of the notes for TGS, NOC, TL, and WDS for the properly sorting, categorizing, or transcribing these notes. I have begun that task, aided by John Berg, Gary Brown, Bruce Trinque, and Susan Wenger. We will be gradually presenting these notes in scuttlebutt, summarizing and paraphrasing, and perhaps quoting as needed, beginning with The Thirteen Gun Salute. Depending upon how the general discussion goes, I hope to introduce a few pages each week for comment and analysis. The common reaction among those of us whom have seen these notes is the sensation of looking over POB's shoulder as he writes, seeing the creative process at work. I won't say much more at this time, as I would prefer to let you form your own opinions. In appreciation to the Lilly Library for making these documents available to us, I have offered to forward to the curator any summaries and analyses that we generate, in the hope that it may be of some use to the Library and future researchers. To that end, let me propose that all messages intended for forwarding to the Lilly Library should have an [LL] in the subject heading. Including the LL indicates your permission to have your message forwarded, for the Library to use as they choose. If you do not want your message forwarded, simply delete the LL from the subject heading. I look forward to your discussions, Don Seltzer
| More on the Lilly Library: "At the time of its dedication on October 3, 1960, the Lilly Library's holdings, numbering more than 75,000 books and 1,500,000 manuscripts, represented the combined resources of the University Library's Department of Special Collections and the private library of J. K. Lilly, Jr., given to the University in 1956 and 1957. In the intervening years its holdings have grown to nearly 400,000 books, over 100,000 pieces of sheet music, and more than 6,500,000 manuscripts. Materials in the Library range from major rare books such as the New Testament of the Gutenberg Bible, the four Shakespeare folios, and Audubon's Birds of America, to famous individual manuscripts such as George Washington's letter accepting the presidency of the United States, Robert Burns's "Auld Lang Syne," and J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, to extensive special collections in a wide variety of fields. To link to Lilly Library home page. A sample page of POB's notes.
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| Please note: each chapter is paralleled by a discussion which summarizes the comments made by those reading the excerpted material. Each such note is copyrighted by that note's author. This summary of the manuscript notes of Patrick O'Brian will be updated over time. Thirteen Gun Salute
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| Introduction by Introduction Don Seltzer | Thirteen Gun Salute Outline The notes for Thirteen Gun Salute begin with a four page outline, summarizing the proposed plot, apparently drawn up before POB started writing the book. Another dozen pages are more detailed chapter notes, created as the writing progressed. There is a single summary page, calculating chapter lengths and noting start/finish dates, with actual "working" days spent on writing. Approximately 30 pages of short, "scrap" notes are also included. The first outline page is interesting in that it is labeled XIII and XIV for the two books that would become Thirteen Gun Salute and Nutmeg of Consolation. In fact POB begins with "A tentative outline, dividing the main tale in two, ..." with both books to be a fairly short 90,000 words each. The first book is to end with some type of disaster such as the ship running aground. To further enhance their predicament, they will have recently received a letter carrying the rumours of bank failures. But POB is already planning ahead by leaving someone such as Sir Joseph Blaine, or Sophie Aubrey, or Diana Villiers with a power of attorney, so that everything will be happily resolved when they return at the end of book XIV. #1 They set sail with the Orkney seamen's song. A note about declaring the semi-offical nature of the cruise. The new seasick purser provides the foil for Stephen Maturin and Martin to explain the basics of seamanship. The Surprise is to chase a French ship, either a large privateer or a navy corvette, into the Irish Sea, culminating in its sinking or capture. #2 The purpose of the chase is to make them late in arriving in Lisbon, giving time for Sir Joseph Blaine to arrive in time to change their plans. Some notes about Sam and the Patriarch of Lisbon. POB wonders what season it is, because of importance in specifying the butterflies, birds, and monsoon. Decides that it is to be June or July, and the monsoons will need to be revised. #3 Blaine describes the revised plan, with the Surprise continuing on to Pacific to harass US whalers and fur traders. The frigate Diane, perhaps escorting an Indiaman, will carry out a mission to Pulo Prabang. The two ships would then rendezvous, maybe in the South China Sea. Returning eastward in the Surprise to Chile, Stephen would conduct an important mission. A note about Padeen. #4 Having laid out the plan, they return to England for Jack's reinstatement and appointment to the Diane, maybe in the House of Parliament. A reference to a naval victory and a friend who had never seen any combat. #5 The voyage to India and the East Indies. The beginning of letters carrying rumours of bank failures. A reference to Lord Macaulney's journey, and whether accompanied by an envoy. A note that he should be a Malay expert that hates Ledward. #6 Arrival at Pulo Prabang, with orchids, a Buddhist sanctuary, and court intrigues. A note to check Wallace for types of annuals and birds. A Dutch anatomist. #7 The plotting continues, but the French run low on hard money because of Wray's embezzlement. A note on the Buddhist sanctuary, which is to have a lake and an island, with orangutangs and orchids, "the lot". | Discussions in the scuttlebutt forum, April 18 - April 25, 2000 ------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 10:41:14 -0400 From: John Berg <johnberg@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: [SeaRoom] Patrick O'Brian's TGS Outline 1 [LL] As one can anticipate from several discussions on scuttlebutt and reading the Dean King biography, POB's notes may have been the basis of: Offers or previews to publishers,
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| Susan Wenger | Don Seltzer began the Thirteen Gun Salute outline earlier. Here is the rest of it: (note that the numbering is O'Brian's - this is his outline of how he's going to prepare Thirteen Gun Salute and the following book Nutmeg of Consolation). 7. continues with the chief of the French mission dying of a fever. There's a note for Ledward or Wray to seduce one of the Sultan's boys - with the note "Spleen" in the middle of the plot outline. 8. They miss their rendezvous and cruise, with the envoy impatient to reach Batavia or Madras, and strike in an uninhabited rock island. The envoy goes off to Batavia while the ship is repaired. (POB had a note to himself to see "Abbott" to check his facts/story). 9. There's a storm, and the ship is damaged, and must be cut down to a schooner. 10. Fighting with Malays, purser killed, they think the envoy could not have survived. Then, (crossed out, because he's going to use it in the next book instead): The Malays withdraw, but burn the hull of the ship. The same page that had the above, continued with his plans for book XIV, The Nutmeg of Consolation. I note that this page was harder for me to read than the other - I'm guessing that he wrote it with his other hand. XIV (Nutmeg of Consolation) 1. Very brief retrospect. The Malays are routed, but the burn the ship as they go. 2. Shows the Surprise with a small fleet of U.S. whalers and fur-traders. 3. NOTE 3 WAS ORIGINALLY To Chile: SM's contacts - O'BRIAN THEN RENUMBERED THE REST OF HIS NOTES WITH A NEW 3. 3. To New South Wales, with a note to himself that the monsoons will not serve - he probably had a monsoon chunk he'd originally planned to insert here. 4. Observations on the ports then get to. 5. Rescue of Padeen 6. Platypus episode. 7. The South Sea and Peru and Chile - Sam in an important role here. Because this page was hard for me to read, other members of the group may wish to add or make corrections here.
| ------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 22:48:01 CEST From: John Hutson <jkhutson@hotmail.com> Subject: RE: [SeaRoom] TGS Outline 1 [LL] --- One of O'Brian's notes for Thirteen Gun Salute that Don Seltzer summarizes and offers for discussion is: #7 The plotting continues, but the French run low on hard money because of Wray's embezzlement. A note on the Buddhist sanctuary, which is to have a lake and an island, with orangutangs and orchids, "the lot". Two questions: 1) From my memory (sorry, I don't have the text at hand) the French are highly embarrassed and disabled by the lack of funds. But I don't remember anything about this being due to Wray's embezzlement. (Not that I would put such a deed past him.) Did I miss this, or did the final plot change? 2) More intriguing, I think, is the suggestion that has been made on SeaRoom that Maturin's mountain paradise is actually Krakatua. If that is the case, it certainly adds an immense poignancy to the whole interlude. Any suggestion from the notes that O'Brian had this in mind? John Hutson, in Sarajevo ------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:20:41 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Moseley <moseleyc@math.unc.edu> --- On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, John Hutson wrote: 1) From my memory (sorry, I don't have the text at hand) the French are highly embarrassed and disabled by the lack of funds. But I don't remember anything about this being due to Wray's embezzlement. (Not that I would put such a deed past him.) Did I miss this, or did the final plot change? I don't believe it's explained in TGS. This explanation makes sense, since the French leader was portrayed as a careful man. He was ordered to take Ledward along as consultant (for good reason) but unfortunately taking Ledward meant taking Wray, who by then was completely useless, dissipated, and held in contempt by all. After Ledward took Abdul, one might expect Wray to indulge in high-stakes gambling, and he had no funds of his own. Chris Moseley Graduate student, Mathematics moseleyc@math.unc.edu UNC Chapel Hill ------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 16:01:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com> Subject: RE: [SeaRoom] TGS Outline 1 [LL] An excellent catch! O'Brian added the part about the funds having been embezzled by Wray AFTER he'd written at least through that piece of the outline - that part is at the bottom of his page with an arrow pointing to the part about the French being short of cash. He could have added that note to himself immediately after writing that line of his outline, or he could have gone back at any time later and added it to his outline. - Susan | ||
| Don Seltzer | Pages 3 & 4 of the outline for TGS repeat many of the same points, but go into greater detail. Outline page 3 is labeled XIII for book 13. POB begins by asking, "How plausible is this scheme?" The Surprise sets off for its South American mission despite Stephen Maturin's doubts. Sir Joseph Blaine has ordered them to stop first at Lisbon for an update in their plans. When they arrive, Blaine is already there, having made the journey partly by land from Corunna. Problems have arisen because the ambassador from Spain has learned of reports of Surprise's mission to aid rebellion in its S. American colonies. The leak of this secret information is suspected to be from whomever protected Wray and Ledward. Blaine denied the report to the ambassador, sticking with the original cover story of an independent privateer seeking US whalers and the China trade. Because of a small naval victory which might be tied into the escort ships for the French envoy's mission, it might be politically convenient to announce Jack Aubrey's reinstatement into the navy with his appointment to the frigate Diane. Pulo Prabang is described as a "piratical seafaring potentate" ruled by a Sultan. The purpose of the French mission is to encourage the building of ships to prey on the Honourable East Indies Company ships, with the French supplying money, weapons, and shipwrights. Ledward and Wray have been sent as part of the mission because they are no longer of any value in Paris, where they are viewed with contempt. Ledward is useful as a negotiator and Malay translator. Blaine's new plan is for the Surprise to continue on with its original cover story to the Pacific, but Aubrey and Maturin will carry the British envoy to Pulo Prabang in the Diane. Aubrey now has to quickly return to England, and assemble a scratch crew with just a handful of followers. Ashgrove cottage, the reinstatement, and uniforms. | ------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 21:03:35 -0500 From: Ned Fleming <ned@cjnetworks.com> Subject: Re: [SeaRoom] TGS Outline 1 [LL] Don Seltzer wrote: > created as the writing progressed. There is a single summary page, calculating chapter lengths and noting start/finish dates, with actual "working" days spent on writing. Approximately 30 pages of short, "scrap" notes are also included. > > The first outline page is interesting in that it is labelled XIII and XIV for the two books that would become Thirteen Gun Salute and Nutmeg of Consolation. What I find interesting is how skimpy his notes were (or appear to be). A mind as keen as O'Brian's would have (must have?) held an outline far more detailed than what has been presented here, else how could he have written the things? 3 or 4 sentences per chapter? Man, that's sparse! This is a writer who plays it close to the vest. Ned Fleming 5. Rescue of Padeen and maybe others (bush-rangers?) by Jack Aubrey {margin note - Stephen Maturin might be held as a captive for either ransom or hanging} {note added later - Stephen might be rescued by Padeen from "the equivalent of IRA" - I'm not certain that POB wrote "IRA" here- } {margin note - discussion between a priest and Stephen regarding the nature of spying and intelligence, and doing dirty work of the English} | ||
| Don Seltzer | Outline page 4 continues on with the more detailed plan for book XIII A note, carried over from the previous page, suggests that after the Surprise spends a convincing enough time harrassing US ships in S. America, it could chase a fur trading ship as far as the China Sea. That would set up a rendezvous with Aubrey and the Diane. Jointly, they could do battle with the French ships.
| ------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 17:58:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Deb Blackburn <dlblackburn@yahoo.com> Subject: [SeaRoom] Re: The Original Opening of Master and Commander To POB Group Thank you for POB's manuscript version of the opening of Master and Commander. This rough draft has cleared up a sort of mystery that I sometimes run into. Why it is that I sometimes find a sentence with an extra/alternate word. I see now that it was part of the O'Brian creative process. He had meant to go back and make a choice. Now it is up to the reader. Example in The Ionian Mission: 1st paragraph on pg 70, "But now he had been wounded in three several places: Example in Post Captain: 3rd paragraph of pg 236, '. .. and the cabin was filled with the opening movement of Boccherini's Corelli sonata, . . . (although Corelli may have been meant to be cello). ------------------- Lois | ||
| Chapter 1 Susan Wenger | Subject: TGS Chapter 1 notes In O'Brian's chapter notes for "The Thirteen-Gun Salute," Chapter One: Surprise sails to Chile/Peru, with the status of a letter of marque. Someone is telling tales. Diana is pregnant, Stephen Maturin is having problems with his bank. Mrs. Williams is "subdued." Padeen is transported for having stolen laudanum from a shop. The Orkneymen sing a shanty FOR STEPHEN. (Note - in the book itself, Stephen isn't even present when the noise the sail and sing - Jack wonders about easing off the sail and re-setting it in Stephen's presence, so he can hear the shanty). In O'Brian's more detailed notes, he has a page of references for his shanties. They include: Masefield's "Sea Songs" (1906) "A Sailor's Garland" (1924) "Shanties From The Seven Seas" S. Hugill 1961 (publishing notes - he evidently planned to use this work and was seeking permission from the publisher) So much for O'Brian's having relied on 19th Century sources! He asks in a note to himself for page one of this chapter if shanties were sung on shore, or if that would bring bad luck (notes to himself: doubt it) - the shanties were to ease the work. On page 4 of the Chapter, he notes the shanty for hoisting the lower yard: Afore the wind, afore the wind
| Discussions from the week of April 24, 2000 Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 11:11:43 -0400 From: Ridge Kennedy <srkennedy@email.msn.com> > Heisa, heisa > Vorsa, vorsa > Vou, vou > One long pull. > More power > Young blood > More mud. There's a fine version of this chantey on one of the Boarding Party recordings, A Fair Wind and Following Seas (available from your favorite, Internet bookseller, I believe). They constructed their version from the text contained in a book: The Complaynt of Scotland (1541). No music, of course, so they composed the chant. Odd choice of chanteys for POB to make, it seems to me, but perhaps he thought it more seamanlike for a man o' war's men than a merchantman's ditty. R. ------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 12:02:21 -0400 From: Don Seltzer <dseltzer@draper.com> Susan Wenger wrote: >In O'Brian's more detailed notes, he has a page of >references for his shanties. They include: > >Masefield's "Sea Songs" (1906) >"A Sailor's Garland" (1924) >"Shanties From The Seven Seas" S. Hugill (1927) Susan originally had the correct 1961 date for the publication of Hugill's book, by Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., which I mistakenly changed to 1927. I was confusing it with another POB note for W B Whall's "Sea Songs & Shanties", which included a citation of "The Complaynt of Scotland". POB uses good sources. Checking on-line, I found that Hugill's book is still in print in paperback, published by Mystic Seaport. Among the reviewers' comments are: " The Shantyman's Bible Reviewer: A reader June 12, 1997 Stan Hugill was the last living shantyman in the United Kingdom, having sailed on board ships where shantying was still alive and well. He gained his information and his songs from primary sources, all of whom are no longer available. Every person who works to keep the maritime traditions alive, particularly the sailors' work songs of the 18th and 19th centuries, owes Stan a huge debt for developing an interest in a dying custom in time to preserve some of it. Stan was above all a meticulous scholar and born educator; Shanties from the Seven Seas is the outcome of an incredible amount of recollection substantiated by extensive research. Among professional shanty singers we refer to this book as Stan's Bible, and if one is interested on an enthusiast's level in maritime music, Shanties from the Seven Seas is a must-read. Stan has written many other books and papers, but this is the one that without fail will be found in a maritime historian's library. Stan Hugill died in May 1992, but he has left us with a priceless legacy of knowledge " Captain Whall's book has been republished many times, and is still in print. He was born in 1837 and died in the 1920's. Originally, he intended a career in the Church, and studied music at Oxford. In 1861, he went to sea and served with some veterans of the Napoleonic wars. He is quoted as saying, "Since 1872, I have not heard a Shanty or Song worth the name. Steam spoilt them." The term Shanty or Chantey for a sailor's work song does not seem to go back to Jack Aubrey's time. The term was first used in the mid-1800's. Dana, for instance, does not use the expression. POB's final notes on the page are a reminder to check Laughton, LG Carr, "Shantying & Shanties", Mariner's Mirror 1923. Also, enclosed in a box for emphasis, "I must read Dana again." Don Seltzer ----------- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 15:00:23 -0400 From: Adam Quinan <quinans@interlog.com> > >In O'Brian's more detailed notes, he has a page of references for his shanties. They include: > > > >Masefield's "Sea Songs" (1906) This is a link to Masefield's sea Songs article. Also a source for arthur ransome's sea chanty quotes. http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/mase_top.htm -- Adam Quinan ------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 16:09:05 -0400 Non-member submission from ["Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>] >Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com>: >> Heisa, heisa >> Vorsa, vorsa >> Vou, vou >> One long pull. >> More power >> Young blood >> More mud. I've seen this chanty before. Can't say where, offhand, but I believe I recall the accompanying explanation well enough to shed a little light. It sounds the way it does because much of it is actually not English at all, but badly garbled Norse phonetically force-fit back into English words. The "Young blood/More mud" ending matches what I recall. The only variation I notice is that "One long pull" was just "One pull" in the version I saw. ------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 17:19:14 -0400 From: John Berg <johnberg@mindspring.com> "Stan Hugill died in May 1992, but he has left us with a priceless legacy of knowledge " I add; Indeed his book is available from Sea Room, and his voice is preserved as well. Shanties From Seven Seas by Stan Hugill, --The definitive book on sailor's work songs containing more than 400 songs, their music and histories of each song. 16 illustrations. Shipboard work songs and songs used as work-songs from the great days of sail collected by Stan Hugill. The standard collection of shanties with full text with many local variations. Contains more than 400 songs, their music and histories of each song. Publisher Mystic Seaport, 428. pages, 6 x 9 inches, , P, List price 19.95, Your Price 15.95, B00221. Stan Hugill in Concert by Stan Hugill, --The sounds on this CD are amazing. From the rasp of saw through splintered mainmast, the crack of a boom snapping under the strain, the gargle as stoved boats sink, to the roar of a nor'easter--and they're all coming from the throat of one old man. Shanties take on authenticity when Stan Hugill sings, and people gather to listen. Publisher Mystic Seaport, C, List price 15.95, Your Price 15.95, B00738. John ------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 12:55:30 -0700 (PDT) From: Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [SeaRoom] LiL NOTES: Predicting page length I've seen O'Brian talk about his writing process. He would wake up at night and go walking, walking, walking. Thoughts would stream through, coalesce, stuff would fall into place. He'd go back to sleep, and in the morning he would start writing, writing, writing, and it seemed to just come to him. Who would have expected that he started out with a very firm outline AND WORDCOUNT in advance of the whole book! He had a few set pieces he planned to insert in the books; stuff he'd written earlier, stuff he'd researched when planning the books - and then he wove his tales around those incidents. At the proper point in his story, he would simply pick up on an actual historical event, insert his characters onto the scene, and Bob's your uncle. I wouldn't have expected him to plan word-counts so accurately around those episodes. As I get further into the notes, I'll see just how accurate his anticipated word-counts really were. Susan | ||
| Chapter 2 Susan Wenger | Thirteen Gun Salute: Notes for Chapter Two Two pages of more detailed notes. Interesting: the next page of notes is marked for "IX or X" on top, and at the bottom it is marked "for XIV" _ I guess it was an idea he didn't use earlier, and saved for a later book. Or perhaps this was added much later while organizing his papers, and he simply mislabeled. Pursuit of enemy (Shelmerstonians assert she is no smuggler) The Surprise pursues an enemy vessel, of extraordinary speed. Surprise is too deeply laden this early in the voyage and the winds are too light for her to benefit in the chase. Stephen using a telescope realizes with inward horror that an Irish rebel he knows, named perhaps Connel, is aboard. [Note: in the book, the name is changed to Robert Gough] SM moves mass of iron near the compass, and the chase escapes. [NOTE: In the book, Stephen contemplates doing so, but it wouldn't work _ in the notes, O'Brian intended for him to actually do so]. O'Brian then made a note for his discourse on intelligence vs spying _ hatred of all tyranny but intelligent systematic state tyranny far above all. Perhaps to be included in the next chapter, in a discussion with an Irish dissident, perhaps a priest. This portion is circled, with the note "for XIV [Note: this was in fact delayed until the next book, NOC, and the priest is Stephen's cousin] The next page of notes is said to be the rest of the second chapter, but depending upon length, might be a separate chapter. It includes a reference to T S Raffles A History of Java _ and LL. [Gary Brown suggest that this is a reference to the London Library] He also has a scribble: Uno nunca sabe que hacer [one never knows what to do] There are several false starts crossed out in his notes but still readable: some pages to show the ship at sea __ some music someone instructed by SM & Martin _ Rock of some encounters (? Sail together) 13 guns as MP Rock of Lisbon Dangerous bar SM consults almanac JA: Are you working out when we shall pick up the trades? SM Never in life. The trade winds I leave to you entirely: what I am looking for is my daughter's saint's day. It was the day (NOTE: He had Copts crossed out, Ethiopians (and in the book wound up with Ethiopian Copts) so strangely honour Pontius Pilate; was the day Padeen would have been hanged but for your kindness. I shall have a Mass said for his intention when at last we get ashore. CROSSED OUT A letter about SM's headstrong crocodile half. Diana Villiers feels ridiculous but ok. He also considers a piece about spying which he crossed out: spying implies betrayal _ a spy is a mercenary creature who obtains and sells confidential information acquired from his friends by false pretenses. The intelligence_agent, the disinterested intelligence agent on the other hand, is required to do none of these odious things. A note about Sir Joseph Blaine: "I must collate all the notes before I set out on him & his exposition" In lieu of all his crossed out sentences, he has a note to himself: This I may be able to use in NSW or possibly before. (In Lisbon it would have come too close to the earlier explanation of SM's attitude) These summaries are based upon original notes provided by the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN.
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| Chapter 3 Susan Wenger | The detailed notes for Chapter 3 of TGS are contained on two pages. The first page is headed somewhat paradoxically by a reminder relating to the end of the next book, NOC:
| Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 12:08:27 -0400 From: Larry Finch <finches@bellatlantic.net> Don Seltzer wrote: > The detailed notes for Chapter 3 of TGS are contained on two pages. The first page is headed somewhat paradoxically by a reminder relating to the end of the next book, NOC: > > -------First Page-------- > > "DO NOT FORGET THE PLATYPUS > (what was the then state of knowledge?)" > This is an extremely interesting note. POB got correctly the state of knowledge; at the time of TGS there was ONE specimen of a platypus in England, a female. Only males have the poison spurs on the hind legs. Thus, if Stephen had seen the London specimen (and it is almost certain he had, or he would not have had the intense interest in seeing them in the wild) he would not have known about the danger of the poison spurs. I can't claim credit for this, BTW; my wife Wanda researched the platypus for her "Natural History with Dr. Maturin" spotlight tour at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Larry Finch ----------- Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 12:13:51 -0400 (EDT) From: TWharton@aol.com dseltzer@draper.com writes: > who is this Wallace that he must check for birds and butterflies I may well have missed a thread on this. I assume he's referring to Alfred Russel Wallace, the great naturalist who helped spur the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species," and who did so much naturalizing in the part of the world where TGS takes place. Tony Wharton ----------- Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 18:24:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com> I've been re-reading Thirteen Gun Salute, and two questions came up in my mind: When Stephen and Fox are talking with each other while the rioting goes on below them, they are friendly for a long time, quite cordial, discussing items of mutual interest, and quite suddenly, when Fox asks Maturin for help in finding out what happens, Stephen answers coldly. What made him turn cold at this point? (page 241 paperback) And A bit later on, Stephen is explaining to Jack Aubrey what's happened, and mentioned that Ledward made two assassination attempts. (page 251) Were these described or hinted in the book? This is the first I see of Ledward's assassination attempts. - Susan ----------- Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 23:46:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Moseley <moseleyc@math.unc.edu> I believe that Stephen was disgusted by Fox's eagerness to know whether Ledward was killed. Moreover, Stephen was fairly sure that the cruel execution was performed on young Abdul, not Ledward - see his first question to Van Buren on p. 241 - and while he knows that this is a victory in his secret war, that knowledge sickens him. > A bit later on, Stephen is explaining to Jack Aubrey what's happened, and mentioned that Ledward made two assassination attempts. (page 251) Were these described or hinted in the book? This is the first I see of > Ledward's assassination attempts. There is a hint on p. 237, where Fox is disguised (to comic effect) as a Marine. Chris Moseley Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 09:43:42 -0400 (EDT) what was Stephen (POB?) to get by the end? A happy marriage, personal surgeon to the King. freedom of Catalan under a "good" king, Ireland showing progress toward their "good" king? Or perhaps, SM begins his Another possibility: he wasn't LIMITING himself to 300 pages, he was simply ESTIMATING his page-count. This was important in terms of promising his publisher a completed manuscript by a certain date - there's the combination of 1) them telling him that if it's completed by June 30 it can come out in time for Christmas shopping, it can come out ON Trafalgar Day, or whatever their reasoning was, AND 2) they would certainly be ASKING him, when can we expect the finished product; and if he knew he was running 5 pages a day and the total would be 300 pages, he could tell them with reasonable confidence that, allowing 2 weeks for a vacation, 4 weeks for research, and 2 weeks for his grape harvest, he will have it to them by May 25. Susan Wenger
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| Chapter 4 Don Seltzer | There are two pages of notes pertaining to chapter IV. The first is dated 5 September 88. Because chapter II has been divided into two, the coming piece will be IV. Much of this first page is concerned with word and page count. About 26 000 words have been written to this point, so the new chapter will begin on page 60 (typed) of the manuscript. Points to be covered in the chapter include returning to England, and the resulting astonishment at Ashgrove. The pregnant Diana Villiers has reached "a fine size", and Stephen goes to London, with diaries and reflexions. The next notes are circled with the notation "this must necessarily, I think, be part of the next chapter" Jack Aubrey is advised by Captain Dance* of the HEI on routes to Pulo Prabang and the Sunda Strait that bypass the Cape and India. Raffles provides information on the Sultan and a Buddhist sanctuary, possibly a lake with an island. At some point, possibly dinner with Blaine, Fox, and Aubrey, Stephen will recall the retired van Buren, an expert on the spleen. Next come specific writing goals: "The chapter must be short, 10 000 at the most i.e. about 33 manuscript pages" 2 or 3 pages for the trip through Portugal and Spain 5 for Ashgrove and Jack's gazette 2 or 3 for Jack to Houses of Parliament and frenzied activity to prepare 5 or 6 for Jack and Stephen's dinner with envoy at club 5 or 6 for Jack to be read in and organize officers and crew, "loose not a minute" {uncharacteristic misspelling} 5 or 6 for Stephen to brood & reflect {crossed out}, and to find a journal about van Buren, and read diaries. Next chapter to begin with Tristan, no land having been seen. This plan leaves a little leeway for his goal of 33 ms pp. A circled note at the bottom states 33 1/2 MS pp, perhaps added later to note the actual length. ---End of first page---- *Nathaniel Dance was the commodore of the HEI China fleet that fought off Admiral Linois's squadron, inspiring the similar events in HMS Surprise. In the actual text of TGS, POB chose to substitute Muffitt for Dance as he did in HMSS (Muffitt was actually the commander of the Ganges Indiaman in the Linois encounter). - This information obtained from "Persons, Animals, Ships, and Cannon of the Aubrey-Maturin Sea Novels of Patrick O'Brian" by Gary Brown. These summaries are based upon original notes provided through the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN. Don Seltzer |
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| Susan Wenger | This continues the O'Brian notes for Chapter 4 of Thirteen Gun Salute: NOW AS FOR THE SEASON: On the next page of O'Brian's notes for Thirteen Gun Salute, he wrestles with the timing. He wants certain seasonal flowers (orchids?) to be available when Maturin gets to Pulo Prabang, but the timing is off: Aubrey would want to catch the south-west monsoon, which blows from April to October from (I think) 3 degrees S on the African coast to Sumatra. (The "I think" is O'Brian - he'll check his facts before finalizing). O'Brian's reference book (Burney ?} says that between Madagascar, say 20 degrees S and Africa and then down to 0 degrees there is a constant SSW from April to October. So the story should take them to the Cape (or to pass south of it) in [CROSSED OUT MARCH OR APRIL] February or March. O'Brian calculates his months: How long would it take to reach the Cape? 6000 miles: say 60 days. So they should sail in December. O'BRIAN HAS TO CHANGE HIS ORIGINAL PLAN: "No. I should like it to be summer now (I have had a fairly summery Portugal) so let it be June. He sails at mid-June. Cape and August with a monsoon belt end August and so to Java & beyond by mid-September." There have been several instances in his notes where he couldn't find his original sources. In a note to himself, he writes, "Where did I get this notion that Java was one month from the Cape?" NOTE TO HIMSELF: In 1866 tea-clippers sailed from Forchow to London between the end of May and September 6 (99 days) against the SW monsoon. About 14000 miles, i.e. 140 a day. Mauritius to the Cape about 2600 & Pulo Prabang is South 900 miles from Anjer 3000
| Continued discussions of Chapter IV and earlier notes: --------- Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 18:55:35 -0500 From: "David R. Patterson" <drpatterson@alum.mit.edu> Subject: [SeaRoom] Re: Art and Discipline Here I am late reading and reacting again, but David Spencer wrote: > > > > Discipline is the soul of art. The sonnet is the consummate poetic form in English because it is consummately disciplined and wholly foreign. (I'm fond of ottava rima for the same reason, but Byron exhausted it for English. Carrying off that tour de force was an act of unique genius.) > > And Larry Finch added: > Salvadore Dali said: "structure is liberating" Bless you both. Robert Frost said "Freedom is moving easy in traces." Dave Patterson drpatterson@alum.mit.edu --------- Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 18:34:37 -0700 From: Louis Cohen <louiscohen@home.com> Subject: Re: [SeaRoom] Re: Art and Discipline The zen roshi under whom my old aikido sensei used to study wrote that complete obedience to the roshi was true freedom. I lost a lot of respect for him when I read that - it's perfect nonsense and uncomfortably like Fascism. Regards from sunny San Leandro Louis Cohen --------- Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 23:51:27 -0500 From: "David R. Patterson" <drpatterson@alum.mit.edu> Zen roshis and aikido I know from nothing, but I spoke of art and stick fully by what I said, what Frost said (about art) and what David Spencer and (his quote) Dali said. To suggest this has something to do with fascism is absurd and irrelevant. Shakespeare was not a fascist because he wrote poems of 14 lines of iambic pentameter divided 4-4-4-2, with a fixed rhyme scheme. Art without accepted or self-imposed rules is not art -- just toddlers' mud pies. And if anyone is applying these thoughts to issues of society, politics or economics, he's grinding his own axe, not mine. The original question was whether O'Brian's planning somehow "detracted" from his art. To suggest that this careful planning of volumes and chapters is somehow less than artistic is, well, a quaint form of romanticism. Real artists are first superb craftsmen, and then more added to that. O'Brian is clearly such a craftsman. While he may be no Joyce or Faulkner, he is a considerable artist as well, but he would not be the latter without first being the former. Dave Patterson --------- Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 05:45:57 -0700 From: Louis Cohen <louiscohen@home.com> Subject: Re: [SeaRoom] Re: scuttlebutt V2 #1544 With respect to writing and painting, and craftsmanship, I agree completely. Some of the comments about discipline had started to range a bit past the realm of literary/artistic creation; I wanted to bring those up short with a round turn. It may have been too far off-topic; for that I apologize. I don't see how anyone could write a novel without planning. Regards from sunny San Leandro Louis Cohen
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| Chapter 5 Don Seltzer | Next up for discussion are the detailed notes for chapter V of TGS, consisting of just a single page. There are several references to dates and words written, even an excuse (coping with the wine harvest) for not writing more. There is the plan to jump ahead and do a retrospective of the events in between. A great deal of character development and social interaction is revealed. There is a subdivision and then reordering of some pieces. One of Jack's malapropisms and the seriousness of the Bells in the Tower piece. And even a thought to terminate poor Reade. Dated 3 October [1988], there is the notation that chapter IV was started a month earlier on 5 September, "but I took a week coping with vendage & Pic foreword" 40 000 words written so far, and another 10,000, corresponding to 25 -30 manuscript pages should be sufficient for reaching Batavia. The chapter can pick up off Tristan de Cunha in July or August. Earlier events, such as being windbound in Torbay, and Jack Aubrey's decision to take a southerly route for the westerlies can be treated in retrospect. Jack is to be portrayed as a conscientious captain, seeing that the older midshipment tend to their official diaries. Stephen Maturin, officially a guest, becomes acting surgeon because the regular surgeon Graham was late, and was left behind at Torbay. Water supplies are adequate because of heavy rains while in the doldrums. Relations with the official envoy are polite, but strained. They play some whist and backgammon, but the envoy has made some subtle remarks complaining about Jack and Stephen's music sessions. He has alienated his secretary, and in his loneliness he pretends to have medical ailments to converse with Stephen. He asks Stephen the author of "When the bells jangle in the tower The hollow night amid Then on my tongue the taste is sour Of all I ever did" Stephen, reluctant to act the role of confessor, puts him off with "Some self-centered hypochondriac that should have been dowsed with calomel or hiera picra" Jack, in comparing the Diane with the Surprise, wishes for the crew of the latter and the lack of formality. If still with the Surprise, he would not be burdened with the responsibility of looking after the midshipmen, trying to get them to complete their diaries. Fox and Stephen pass the time in target practice with rifles, Fox shooting albatross, and Stephen at bottles. Stephen is the better shooter. ------------ Eight days later, on 11 October, POB notes that 8 pages have been written, covering the retrospect and the incident off Inaccessible Island. The next section is in two columns. In the left column: Next is to be the bit about Fox and Stephen's target practice, Fox's loneliness, the loan of texts in the Malay language for Stephen to study, and Jack's thoughts about the Diane vs Surprise. Whist, backgammon, and dining with the envoy. A note to include "Spotted Dick" Richardson, and the servant Ahmed who will read Arabic to Stephen, to learn the sounds of the vowels. The personal stores of the officers dwindle. Jack voices some regrets to Stephen, "But no doubt I am not the only man who longs to count his cakes and eat them." To which Stephen replies "I believe men are naturally polygamous" Arrival at Batavia will bring news, carried overland, of great financial unrest in London, with problems at many banks, including Smith's. In the right column, next to the preceding: "Suppose it is in 3 sections" First, calm weather and character development of the envoy, officers, midshipmen, and crew. When the latitude of the 40's is reached, stormy weather. [reordering as the second and third section are swapped] black storm, lightning, difficult sailing, and midshipman Reade is lost. Then very slow, a world without end, rationing of food and water, until they pick up the SE trade winds. The piece about Fox and his loneliness. Amsterdam Island, and probably end with the sighting of Java Head. The new third piece has them heading NE past St Paul's Island with the tail end of the monsoon(?), reaching Java Head, the Sunda Strait, and Batavia. Lt. Gov. Raffles's high opinion of Fox causes Jack and Stephen to alter their own. --------- It has been observed by HR Greenberg, in discussions in the Norton Gunroom forum, that the author of Fox's poem, whom he and Stephen can not quite recall, is in fact the future AE Housman. On a separate page, POB has written this short note. Is he expressing his own views/analysis of a character type, or is he just working on Stephen's dialogue for the end of the chapter? "Bells in the tower hypocondriac self-centered self-healer; & I have often observed, that your self-hater generally manages to retain his self-esteem in relation to others by means of a general denigrationg: it is as though he saw clearly & no doubt rightly that he was a worthless scrub but that nevertheless all the rest (or those in his immediate view) were even more worthless, even more scrublike. They are I am told the bane of confessors in the old establishment - interminably wordy - the last & lowest of sinners, apart from any[?] [?] of humanity" The AE Housman poem upon which this is based was not published until after his death. Lois has observed that Housman was a classical scholar. Was this his translation of a classical piece? Don Seltzer These summaries are based upon original notes provided through the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN. | Discussions of TGS V Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 22:28:53 -0400 From: u1c04803 <u1c04803@mail.wvnet.edu> > It has been observed by HR Greenberg, in discussions in the Norton Gunroom forum, that the author of Fox's poem, whom he and Stephen can not quite recall, is in fact the future AE Houseman. Housman was a classical scholar. He could have been inspired by something in the classics. That POB was aware of. Maybe. Lois, not a classical scholar ---------- Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 04:55:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com> > Dated 3 October [1988], there is the notation that chapter IV was started a month earlier on 5 September, "but I took a week coping with vendage & Pic foreword" > That would be the foreword to his biography of Picasso. > Stephen, reluctant to act the role of confessor, puts him off with "Some self-centered hypochondriac that should have been dowsed with calomel or hiera picta" In the book itself, guess who was dosed with calomel and hiera picta: (Fox, the envoy). -------------- Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 14:53:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Martin Watts <martin_s_watts@hotmail.com> >On a separate page, POB has written this short note. Is he expressing his own views/analysis of a character type, or is he just working on Stephen's dialogue for the end of the chapter? This is a good point. If he is expressing his own views/analysis it could be a reference to the British phrase "bats in the belfry". Martin Watts ------------- Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 11:03:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Susan Wenger <susanwenger@yahoo.com> He wrote this book just after finishing the Picasso biography. Do you think this section, or any other section or character in TGS was influenced by his immersion in Picasso? - Susan -------------- Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 01:36:53 +0100 From: "Anthony D. Clover" <a.clover@virgin.net> u1c04803 wrote: > POB puts these lines of AE Housman in Stephen's mouth long before they flowed from Housman's pen (or typewriter), and the question has arisen--Housman was a classical scholar--was he inspired by a classical text > which POB also might have been familiar with? And which it would have been expected that Stephen would have known. > > > > > "When the bells jangle in the tower > > The hollow night amid > > Then on my tongue the taste is sour > > Of all I ever did" A.E. Housman was certainly an excellent classical scholar and the precision of his verse is due no doubt to having been expected to compose verses in the classical languages, but, in my view, the feel of this is early 19th century and Romantic. I can't think of anything in (say) Horace or Catullus with which it might be associated, but I am not sufficiently familiar with these poets for this be a safe pronouncement. What I think definitely rules this out, though, is quite different: it is the fact that although the technology for casting bells is as old as these poets, in fact bell-making (and hence the concept of chimes) was a monastic trade which did not practised until at least the 8th, if not 9th century AD. If POB, or his putative alter ego Stephen, were to be inspired by anyone, I would suggest rather that this snatch of poetry somehow rhymes with Thomas Gray (1716-1771) of Eton College and the word pictures and sentiments he evokes in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. In fact these lines are all that there is of Poem IX of A.E.H's Additional Poems. Moreover, there is a misquotation: for "jangle", read "justle" - at least in my copy. Anthony ------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 07:37:55 -0400 From: u1c04803 <u1c04803@mail.wvnet.edu> You're right about "justle", of course. Had copied the above from someone's email, but just went to the Thirteen Gun Salute, softcover Norton, ch 5, p. 167, and there the bells justle. So the poem isn't introduced in Houseman by a line or two of Greek, the way so many British poets often did, hmmmmm. Actually, I always found the tone and rhythm of those lines reminiscent of the Oriental poets Herepath translates. But not anything I could ever identify. POB puts those words in the mouth of the diplomat Fox, who says to Stephen "I wonder if you know the author of the lines I have ventured to translate." And from that, Stephen anticipates a confidence of a "somewhat scabrous nature" he does not wish to hear. From that exchange, and the fact that we know many examples of POB's similar hints referring to something actual, in existence, it would seem that there's an original text somewhere pre-dating the time of POB's book, somehow, being referred to. Maybe some day one of us will come across it. Anyway, Stephen wants to "check" the confidences he anticipates from Fox, in connection with the poem, says he doesn't know the author, and Fox says he can't remember who it was. Stephen who has understood the poem to refer to sexuality comments: "It cannot be an ancient: the pagans, as far as my reading goes, were never much given to self-hatred or guilt about their sexual activities. That was reserved for Christians, with their particular sense of sin; and as all I ever did clearly refers to ill-doing, I must suppose it to be of a sexual nature, since a thief is not always stealing nor a murderer always murdering, whereas a man's sexual instincts are with him all the time, day and night. Etc." Who knows. "Christian" does not entirely rule out "classical"--or early lives of"fathers" of the church--I'd think, but POB could have had Housman in mind, the all above being his little joke on us. Lois ------------- Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 17:45:59 +0100 From: "Anthony D. Clover" <a.clover@virgin.net> Alors, celle-ci, c'est une autre paire de manches! - and not quite what you first asked me! Not having the time on account of my project, I did not verify where the poem appeared in POB, and I of course I am fully signed off from Searoom, hence my not replying now to Don's later message with the "Reply All" function ... Let me say this: although AEH was a homosexual (and if I remember aright, all the stuff about Fox centres on a similar probable sexuality), I don't think that AEH's poem, as such, need necessarily be read so restrictively as to place the "sourness" uniquely in the context of his sexual frustration or sense of guilt, or whatever. I would agree, too, that the Greeks and Romans had a different array of "guilts" as compared with our sensibilities today, conditioned as they are by Saint Paul's teaching in his Epistles and doubtless sensitised in the 20th century by Sigmund Freud. So we can read both AEH and the poem, as situated in his novel by POB, in a manner slanted by the accumulation of all this baggage. Maybe, too, this is part of the fun that POB is prone to have with his readers. Maybe, though, he was absolutely serious in using the poem because he saw it as thoroughly apt. Now, to turn to the question of authenticity. It would certainly be nice if AEH's poem had been preceded by a Greek tag. This would certainly help us, but I suspect that it is an incomplete original. Here are my reasons for thinking this. So far as I can see, this poem was one of 18 poems that were published when Laurence Housman wrote his "A.E.H., A Memoir" - so it must, I would guess, be posthumous. The Collected Works has a total of XXIII (i.e. 23!), so I would imagine that these were work in progress or efforts rejected by AEH himself. They are also distinct from the three Translations in the collection, which were apparently included in Odes from the Greek Dramatists edited by A.E. Pollard in 1890. The poem certainly has, in my opinion, the gnomic quality of the best Alexandrine epigrammatists, and so it would be tempting to carry out a trawl of these to look for something similar which might have inspired AEH. Certainly, also, those of Plato, Alcaeus, Anacreon and Sappho had a homosexual origin, which AEH may have been drawn to. And - to digress - if we wanted to go in for a bit of "dunking" (cf. the bad joke I made to the Lissun Bag recently), we might also speculate that AEH did not publish it because he was "hiding" something. For a case could be made out like this, so long as one is prepared to strain at a gnat. I would make it like this. Take AEH's Poem X from his More Poems. The weeping Pleiads wester, And the moon is under seas; From bourn to bourn of midnight Far sighs the rainy breeze: It sighs from a lost country To a land I have not known; The weeping Pleiads wester, And I lie down alone. First, we could point out that More Poems was not approved by AEH: notes to my text of his Collected Poems, "The poems in this volume [More Poems] were printed partly from drafts in the author's notebooks, partly from fair copies. In some places among the former (which are in the majority) further scrutiny of the manuscripts has made it possible to present a more correct text. Most of the few changes are matters of punctuation or of a single mistranscribed word ..." Next, The I would drop my journalistic bombshell by drawing attention to something suspiciously like this poem by Sapporo of Mytilene, which I quote from memory - I think it is her 52nd fragment: deduke men a salanna kai Plęiades. mesai de nuktes kai [treit' ?] ôra. ego de mona katheudô. [My translation: The moon has sunk, and the Pleiades. It is the middle hours of the night and my hour/moment/youth flees. But I sleep alone. There is one word of the original that escapes me - what I have supplied is almost certainly wrong though it has the right sense - and I can't check it because the Internet does not appear to show the actual texts in Sappho's Aeolian Greek while I seem to have mislaid my anthologies ] It is clear in this case that AEH's poem is less an original than a free translation of the Sappho. Also, it is much less succinct. Look at the rather precious padding provided by the words "bourn to bourn" for example. That wordiness, for me, would a good and sufficient reason for AEH's not wanting to publish it. However, if we are in full "dunking" mode, we could rush on excitedly and point to the second line of the second verse to argue that its real meaning is that (at that point in his life) AEH was declaring that he had not yet had a physical homosexual experience. Alternatively, given the techniques of this sort of game, we could suggest that is was a work of wish-fulfilment. Once again I say that we would thus overlook the possibility that AEH thought it simply wasn't a good enough poem. In fact it is almost as if he was parodying himself or rehashing his poem about "the land of lost content" (cf. A Shropshire Lad, xxxix) ... To get back to the subject, the same sort of consideration applies here. My own feeling is simply this: by contrast with the pseudo-Sapphic one, Poem IX from the Additional Poems, which POB used, looks unfinished - both because it feels as if it could continue with another verse or two, and because there is something "wrong" with the placing of the word "amid", (which is necessary to lead on to the very Housmanesque simplicity of the rhyme "did", which itself doesn't quite work). It is just possible that he intended to go back to it but for one reason or another never could rework it. This he never did. After all, when AEH's Last Poems appeared, he said in his Preface: "it is best that what I have written should beprinted while I am here to see it through the press and control its spelling and punctuation". And then we find that he annotated his own copy of the first edition of these with the words "Vain hope!" on account of a mistake he had found on page 52. That indicates quite how meticulous and exacting he was - enough, I would argue, to reject Poem IX. So, in short, it was not a poem he was proud of and he didn't mind if it did not survive. I think it is better than that myself, but I am not Housman. Why POB used it - anachronistically - I don't know: he may have thought he could get away with it, because it was less well known than others by AEH - or he was having fun anticipating AEH in perhaps the same way as he does with the ideas of Charles Darwin. But in the latter case, he is much more careful to be elliptical and only to show the direction in which some ideas might have gone. A last comment in support of what I have described of AEH's methods. Interestingly, I came across the following while trying to put my thoughts together: in AEH's The Name and Nature of Poetry he wrote: "Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act." From this we can imagine the physical act of writing poetry for him was similar. Who knows? - the necessary "frisson" to lead him to add to Poem IX might have petered out because of the arrival of some Gentleman from Porlock, as happened to Coleridge with Kubla Khan... So far as it goes, as I said earlier, the poem is conventional and does little more than echo the sentiments of Thomas Gray. The latter was remarkably humble about his achievement, for he wrote seventeen years after the publication of An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: "I shall be but a shrimp of an author". But I think he will last longer than AEH.
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| Chapter 6 Susan Wenger | Continues summary of O'Brian's handwritten notes for Thirteen Gun Salute: O'Brian's page of notes for Chapter VI is fairly full: He has some notes to himself: Trochar for dropsy {Note from Susan Wenger: Dropsy is a form of morbid edema _ retention of excess fluid in a mariner-body cavity: the trochar (or trocar) is a surgical instrument used for withdrawing such fluid from a cavity} JA born 1770 _ {at last! A definitive date! Lissuns had previously guessed 1771}. Monsoon season April_October SW, October to April NE. Raffles was born at sea. This is followed by some notes which he omitted from Chapter V: Batavia Rumours brought by indiamen, rumours from overland couriers, of bank failures and financial crises in England. Financial crises in UK, banks suspending payment right and left, including many country banks, including Smith's). There will be some change in behaviour when Fox learns about the UK banks. O'Brian jots notes about Stephen's banker in Pulo Prabang: Chinese? Macao? Penang? He must cover the banker's correspondent in Pulo Prabang; his official suite, servants. When they get to Pulo Prabang, the French are already there, but their frigate is gone: the hands had already made trouble ashore. The Dianes will be confined because of the poor behaviour of the French; but ladies may come aboard? Or 12 at a time will be given leave. Van Buren receives Maturin very kindly; he is [CROSSED OFF: ANTI_ENGLISH?] anti_French. Mrs. van Buren a Dyak? {NOTE: In the book itself, she is Malay} Someone, perhaps Raffles, perhaps a friend, spoke of the Buddhist sanctuary at Kumai. The Sultan's reception. The French are there. Ledward is impassive, but Wray is much shocked to see Stephen and Jack, and is taken poorly. The French envoy is bowed to, but the renegadoes {Ledward and Wray} are ignored. Fox is cruelly moved at seeing Ledward and Wray, but he makes a good speech. At the feast, Abdul Ganymede leers at Ledward or Wray. {O'Brian hasn't decided yet who the beneficiary of Abdul's favors will be}. Stephen and Jack talk on the subject of Ganymede. {NOTE: This was a humorous piece in TGS _ Jack talking of Ganymede the moon, and Stephen misinterpreting his words as applying to Ganymede the servant}. On van Buren's recommendation, Stephen goes to the Chinese banker. Perhaps he is the only banker in Pulo Prabang and the French also deal with him _ (?) or is he a cousin to the banker they deal with? Anyhow, this starts a connexion by which Stephen gets copies of French envoy's (Duplessis') official diary. Jack and maybe Stephen provide Fox with arguments against French treaty: quite useless European wood, even 32_gun sloop takes a year to build, to allow for seasoning of lumber, and then the maneuvering has to be learned: Royal Navy and even East India Company are very strong. The vizier and some counsellors waver. Although England's offers are better than the French, there is no firm commitment This is because of Ganymede. "A dangerous game!" {Note from Susan Wenger: I find it interesting to note where O'Brian inserts a specific wording like this _ elsewhere he has a straight outline, a fact he wants to work in, a source; but here he wrote the actual words he wished to use: "A dangerous game!" Why? Why was this seemingly innocuous wording so important to him that he jotted it into his notes?} The Sultan goes hunting. (?) Tigers, rhinoceros, elephants. Stephen goes to Kumai. Jack stays to survey the coast. In O'Brian's second page of notes for Chapter Six of Thirteen Gun Salute, he wonders if the French shipwrights should be Spanish? It took him 13 ‡ pages to get to Pulo Prabang. He wants to allow another 13 in this chapter. (Note: in his whole_book outline, he'd alloted 10 pages to get to Pulo Prabang _ he's gone over his allotment, but that's all right). He must work in the Chinese banker in this chapter _ wonders if he should name this banker Li or Liao? The banker's cousin, Han Wu, deals with the French, and has a Pondicherry clerk. {NOTE FROM SUSAN WENGER: Before O'Brian began the Aubrey_Maturin series, he wrote several stories (as Richard Patrick Russ) for boys magazines. Many of them involved the same stereotypical characters: Derrick the boy, Sullivan his Irish uncle, Olaf Svenssen, a Swedish mate, and a Chinese cook named Li Han. It seems O'Brian retains the notion of what a Chinese name should be}. Orchid and fruit trees. Stephen asks van Buren about the vizier's councillors, and who he can buy, who is anti_French. "I should like SM to have the rough copies of the French mission's official diary. Pretty nearly day by day _ waste_paper basket." This will be through the Pondicherry clerk _ he will pay in cash and a promise of protection to India. One possibility POB considers and then crosses out: Van Buren could introduce Stephen to Malay notables who understand the forest _ Stephen could go hunting with them, and make his proposals in that fashion. POB considers this to the extent of planning to show possibly the rarer orchids? Peacocks more likely. This is followed by some encircled notes to himself: "See 'spleen' in Encyclopedia Britannica." "See Club_foot. ?Operable then?" Van Buren, club_footed, was already an ally. Possibly O'Brian considered having Stephen operate on his club_foot? The word "spleen" is repeated _ this was going to be a highlight of the episode! Considering other possibilities: perhaps the Pondicerries play Stephen for a sucker, but are detected by wpb (Who is that?) and brought to reason? The chapter would close with Stephen looking into a brothel, and seeing the Spanish shipwrights. _ Susan WengerGo to Table of Contents.
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| Susan Wenger | O'Brian's rough sketch of Chapter 7 for Thirteen Gun Salute was tentative - he would wait to see how Chapter 6 went. He did want to cover Stephen Maturin at Kumai, and to include Boulton's orang-utan, at least. When Stephen returns from Kumai, Ledward would have escaped getting caught with Abdul. The Sultana would be pregnant. [NOTE: IN THE ACTUAL BOOK, THE SULTANA WAS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE PREGNANT BY THE TIME STEPHEN RETURNED FROM KUMAI: STEPHEN GOT TO GO TO KUMAI BECAUSE THE SULTAN HAD GONE OFF ON A PILGRIMAGE TO ENSURE A BOY] In the notes, the Sultan would then decide on the pilgrimage for a boy, but Fox would be impatient, pointing out the England controls nearly the entire route of the pilgrimage by land and by sea. At this point, Ledward would be caught with Abdul, and at the Sultana's request, Abdul would be peppered. Ledward and Wray would be in a bad situation: forbidden at court, and Duplessis helpless to assist them. They would then be dissected, and the treaty signed. Fox would speak of his desire for a knighthood to please his mother; and Diane could set off for the rendezvous with the Surprise. O'Brian notes that the rendezvous should be more or less on the way to Batavia, so that Fox could then take an Indiaman home. There followed a page that had nothing to do with the story: O'Brian's calculations for adding some solution to his wine from his vineyard, and he was calculating how much of the additive he would need. His next page of notes for Chapter Seven was completely crossed out - this must have been a sticky point for him. Ideas he considered and discarded included: Stephen Maturin talking to van Buren who had been away, perhaps as a patient. Earlier in the notes O'Brian toyed with the possibility of a treatment for van Buren's club foot. Stephen asks van Buren, "Am I right in supposing the sultan is a paederast?" Van Buren replies "Of course: Abdul the present love." [NOTE: That WAS in the book, even though he'd crossed it out in his notes]. O'Brian then toys with notes for the mixing of the fireworks powders, the fireworks display for the sultan, Ganymede's awkwardness on board the ship. Ganymede wants Fox's rifle? It recoils? I had/have papers but . . . And then it is all crossed out. In a new start, O'Brian again tries to advance the plot: Van Buren returns from somewhere - Stephen explains to him that he has the diary, and the French are broke; the negotiations began well but there are new difficulties. Van Buren explains that the negotiations will drag on for a long time, and then switches subjects, tells Stephen about putting the tapir's feet out for the very small, very delicate ants to eat clean - "they will not leave a speck. The purest whitest bone before you carry them away for Cuvier." The Sultan continues to protect Ganymede. Stephen says, "I have never seen a man so besotted." Van Buren replies that Ganymede is playing with fire; as the Sultana hates him. Then the Sultana is pregnant, and the Sultan goes on his pilgrimage. O'Brian considers whether the Sultan leaves Abdul behind, or whether it is Abdul's doing, he pretends to be sick so that he might stay behind. Stephen is to go to Kumai, and Jack will come with him as far as the foot of the steps. O'Brian has a questionmark to himself: "?sees old woman far up?" Stephen will be met in a week - Jack will send Seymour or Bennett or both, perhaps in six days. O'Brian was considering the time frame - perhaps the midshipmen would be sent in six days, but Stephen wouldn't return until a day later and they'd have to wait for him. When Stephen returns, there would be a hullabaloo about buggery and the tower would be defiled with excrement. All through the night he'd hear the drums and trumpets and muffled screams in the palace, and then Abdul would be peppered by Hafsa's family. Either the Chinese banker or van Buren would tell Stephen that Fox gave the Sultana the information about where the vizier must go to find Abdul with Ledward; and the second or third time, they did catch him. When the Sultan returned, the entire council took the Sultana's side, and Abdul was peppered. Van Buren sets to boiling Cuvier's bones after all, and warns Stephen that Ledward would be safe, but Fox was in danger from poison and assassins. The notes for Chapter Seven end, "Wray and Ledward dissected." [NOTE: IN FACT, THIS DID NOT OCCUR UNTIL CHAPTER 8 - WE HAVE DISCUSSED THE PRECISION OF O'BRIAN'S NOTES - HERE WE SEE THAT THEY WERE, AFTER ALL, SIMPLY PLANNING NOTES, NOT A RIGID PRESCRIPTION THAT HE ADHERED TO STRICTLY.] These summaries are based upon original notes provided by the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN.Go to Table of Contents. | Followup discussion to chapter VII Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 11:13:34 -0400 From: "Kettering, Kenneth C." Subject: [SeaRoom] [LiL] Chapter Seven The most interesting thing about POB's notes so far is what they don't say. There has been much discussion about the source of Fox's unusual animosity toward Ledward & Wray. The book contains several hints that Fox too is homosexual. From that and Fox's previous acquaintance with Ledward one might assume that Fox's animosity is rooted in some previous sexual encounter -- though this last is sheer inference. Unless I have missed something, POB's notes on TGS shed no light on the Fox question. This is unexpected because this is exactly the kind of point one would expect POB to have included in his notes to himself: the hints of Fox's sexuality are quite subtle and are scattered throughout the book. Ken Kettering
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| Chapter 7 Susan Wenger | Thirteen Gun Salute: Even this late in the outline (after Chapter 7 has been outlined) O'Brian is still considering alternate endings. (NOTE FROM SUSAN - IT'S NOT CLEAR TO ME WHERE HIS CHAPTER 8 NOTES START/END AND WHERE HE'S THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER 9 - HERE'S MY BEST GUESS FOR CHAPTER 8) One possibility, which O'Brian considers to be less hopeless but still sad: the Malays attack in force by night. The are routed, and some of their boats are taken, enough to get the crew to Batavia, but the main voyage would have been a failure. However, the next time O'Brian makes notes, he is more certain of his path; and writes, "This is to go thus: they sail for rendezvous - get there, cruise for a week." They run aground by night. There is no great harm but there is damage to the ship that will take some time to repair. Here O'Brian has a note to himself to check Abbott - a reference for the sort of storm that can arise in that region. Fox insists that he be allowed to return to Batavia. Jack Aubrey yields, and Fox and his suite (less Edwards perhaps, in disgrace, or with another copy of treaty) sail off. That night a prodigious storm (perhaps a typhoon) arises, and there is no hope that Fox might survive. The storm drives the Diane on the rocks and she breaks up. They can get some guns and stores ashore, and set up a camp, Robinson Crusoe fashion. Jack decides to build a schooner from the wreckage of the Diane. Malays attack, and there is a battle, and they pillage the wreck. The Malays are defeated but burn the schooner as they retreat. The Diane's sink their proa, so there will be no further trouble from them. O'Brian has a note to himself: "Or shall I follow Abbott exactly? Probably not - no fighting - (or no battle)/ though it has a fine brooding menace." Thinking at this point about the entire book, he notes: "Length is not very important but I think it should be less than 15000: say 12,500 or 285 pp. Suppose: 5 pp for passage and cruising 7 pp for striking and first getting ashore 7 pp for well, encampment, Fox's departure, storm 10 (or q.s.) For Malays, fortification, skirmishes, battle." NOTE FROM SUSAN WENGER: I DON'T KNOW WHAT Q.S. IS (or even if that's what it says). These summaries are based upon original notes provided through the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN.
| Followup discussions to chapter VIII ---------------- Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 10:58:29 -0700 From: Gary Brown <agb1@ix.netcom.com> > Thirteen Gun Salute: > They run aground by night. There is no great harm but > there is damage to the ship that will take some time to > repair. Here O'Brian has a note to himself to check > Abbott - a reference for the sort of storm that can arise > in that region. > > O'Brian has a note to himself: "Or shall I follow Abbott > exactly? Probably not - no fighting - (or no battle)/ > though it has a fine brooding menace." To which Abbott is POB making reference here - any thoughts? -- Gary Brown ------------- Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 15:11:55 -0400 From: Don Seltzer <dseltzer@draper.com> The episode of the shipwreck of the Diane is based upon the events befalling HMS Alceste in 1817. In his notes, POB makes several mentions of his references, both Abbott and M'Leod. John M'Leod was the ship's surgeon, who published "Voyage of his Majesty's Ship Alceste, to China, Corea, and the Island of Lewchew, with an Account of her Shipwreck" in 1818. There was an Abbott aboard the Alceste, mentioned quite briefly in M'Leod's account. Mr. Abbott joined the ship in the far East, along with other members of the ambassador's party. He appears to have been a civilian, and might have been the equivalent of one of Mr. Fox's "Old Buggers" who joined Diane in Batavia. I think it likely that this Mr. Abbott published his own account of the shipwreck. On February 18, 1817, HMS Alceste ran aground on an uncharted reef in the Bangka Strait. The Alceste, Captain Murray Maxwell, was returning from a diplomatic mission to the Emperor of China and was carrying Ambassador Lord Amherst and his party. Captain Maxwell evacuated the entire crew to a nearby island and salvaged what he could fr | ||
