The Golden Ocean

I've read all 20 and a half volumes of the Aubrey/Maturin series and will read them 5 times over as soon as I have finished all else that is available by POB. The Golden Ocean is just pure delight. I can not really add anything substantial to the praise from the other 12 or so reviewers, but I wanted to add my contribution. POB was truly a master at storytelling. Who else could have come up with Sean's version of the gambling/pickpocketing disaster story in the first chapter (Sean starting like a proto-type for Padeen, but then developing into somebody else)? Or the fluency of the dialogues between the partners in poverty in chapter 2, even if the actual story does not have any real surprises? Who else can jump time gaps with this efficiency at summarizing longish periods in half sentences (like the probably epic, but untold journey through Ireland with one lame horse for three men, which is of course the proto-type for all Maturin's races, failed or not, towards reaching his ship in time)? Who else can squeeze whole commentaries into one verb or adjective? There is also a proto-type for Jack Aubrey's joking style in the person of an "elderly" midshipman. Great stuff.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novel cycle is an epic work of literatue, one with a legion of fans and likely to explode after the Russell Crowe movie is released.Before there was that famous meeting in an octagonal music room, there was O'Brian's first prototype of the naval fiction adventure story, set on Anson's circumnavigation, where the main characters are a scurvy crew of midshipmen having too much fun entirely.It's a pleasure to read this book and to see the first occurrences of some of O'Brian's later and long-running jokes, characters and situations. It's fun and it's educational, as well as being a great read.Highly recommended in its own right, but mandatory for anyone who is a fan of the later books. In fact, I'd finished the opus and was feeling rather flat when I discovered this book and its companion - The Unkown Shore, and the magic returned.

The Golden Ocean was written in 1956 and is Patrick O'Brian's first novel about the sea. As such, it is the perfect precursor to the highly acclimed Aubrey/Maturin series. The protagonist of this book is Peter Palafox, son of an impoverished Irish parson. In 1740, Peter, who has never before seen a ship, signs on, as a midshipman with Commodore Anson. Together with his lifelong friend, Sean, Peter hopes to find his fortune. He finds danger and disappointment instead, as Anson and his men circle the globe through poorly charted waters. And, although they seize a vast fortune in Spanish gold and silver, only one of Anson's five ships survives the voyage. The Golden Ocean is as perfectly and beautifully crafted as are the Aubrey/Maturin novels. The writing is brilliantly detailed and the action perfectly paced. With The Golden Ocean, O'Brian has created a perfect world of must-read-on storytelling. A book deserving of ten stars and anyone's time.

Patrick O'Brian's fans who mope about hoping for still another Aubrey/Maturin masterpiece should read this, his first historical tale of the sea. An incredible adventure surrounding the true account of Commodore Anson's small fleet intent on circumnavigating the globe. Some of the most gut-wrenching tragedies imaginable are tempered with subtle humor and sidesplitting hilarity. The fleet is eventually reduced by the ravages of the sea to one ship, Anson's Centurion, but it returns to England laden to the gunnels with an incredible fortune wrested from a Spanish galleon.You few million Aubrey/Maturin addicts out there will love this book as well as any of the seventeen in the Aubrey/Maturin series. You'll notice that his superb writing skill was wholly present then as now, treating us to every human emotion in his uniquely masterful style. I've heard him compared to Conrad in his ability to describe the terror of an ocean run amuck, ravaging those small ships,the desp! ! erate efforts of the mariners to save their ships -- and themselves, sometimes successful, sometimes not. But after going back to Conrad for a fresh look at his work, my opinion is that O'Brian excels him.Following this brilliant work is The Unknown Shore, O'Brian's account of what might have happened to the survivors of one -- or was it two? -- ships in Anson's fleet that were wrecked during the voyage.In The Golden Ocean, as in all of O'Brian's stories, the characters live and breathe, love and hate, are often courageous but sometimes are not, often behave as we would wish but occasionally veer off the straight and narrow. Above all, though, they are always true to their individual characters.Readers who lament that they have read all his novels -- thereby feeling themselves left dashed on a lee shore -- might do as I do, keep reading them over and over. I promise there is more there in each book than can be gleaned in a single reading. I'm on my sixth pass through ! ! the Aubrey/Maturin series and loving every story anew.Th! e Golden Ocean, like everything else from O'Brian's pen (yes, he writes with a pen) is an exquisite example of the true craft of writing.I put no writer above him in craftsmanship. Writers wishing to sharpen their own skills would do well to carefully study O'Brian's work. I shamelessly admit to adopting as much as I can from his compact yet radiantly illustrative style.

In a genre that so often disappoints, The Golden Ocean both thrills and informs. Characters emerge early and are beaten by the sea, ship and shipmates as the arduous circumnavigation continues. Anyone who appreciates crisp prose, sly dialogue and a limitless knowledge of subject will be enthralled. Written over forty years ago, it is the freshest of reads.