Austen Citing Index
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Jane Austen Society of
Australia
Austen citing:
Patrick O’Brian, famed author of British naval tales of the
Napoleonic wars
The Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O’Brian
(1914-2000), 20 stirring tales of the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, have been
likened to the sequential novels of Trollope and Anthony Powell, but the comparison that
pleased O’Brian most was to Jane Austen. He revered her as the finest of all English
novelists and kept early editions of her works near him while he wrote.
Dean King writes in Patrick O’Brian, A Life (2000) that
O’Brian insisted his rare books be in durable condition because he wanted to read
them. The physical object of a book produced when it was written, from the binding and
cover to the typeface, acted as a time capsule to transport him back to the period of the
story. He
had no use for the less expensive mid-19th century editions, where spellings had been
modernised and type regularised; these books felt Victorian, anachronistic.
O’Brian owned a third edition of the two-volume Pride and
Prejudice (1817), a first edition of the four-volume Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion (1818), a second edition of the three-volume Sense and Sensibility
(1813) and a second edition of Mansfield Park, re-bound in the mid-19th century.
Stuart Bennett, antiquarian bookseller and friend of O’Brian,
found that of all the Jane Austen books, Emma was the most difficult to acquire to
O’Brian’s requirements and budget because, unlike the other novels, it had not
been reprinted in Austen’s lifetime. But Bennett had previously managed to buy a copy
at Sotheby’s for £1000, which he offered to swap for one of O’Brian’s
manuscripts. O’Brian was so keen to have the Austen work that he promptly handed over
two worn spiral notebooks, his original manuscript of Master and Commander, the
opening salvo in the Aubrey-Maturin epic. ‘But you haven’t seen Emma
yet,’ said Bennet. ‘I’m sure Emma will be fine,’ O’Brian
replied. Later when the covers of Emma fell off in his hands, O’Brian posted
the fragile book from his home in France to Bennett in England, who, amid profuse
apologies, had it rebound and returned to him.
The second book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, Post Captain, set
mostly in country houses and as much a novel of manners as a sea story, is said to be
O’Brian’s homage to Austen.
Deb Williams |
