Mount TBR #11

I read this book for the Mount TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.

The Reverse of the Medal – Patrick O’Brian

This novel is the 11th of 21 about Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend Dr. Stephen Maturin of the Royal Navy in the late 18th century. The title is a 17^th century expression that means the opposite and usually less favorable aspect of an affair or question.

Once nicknamed Lucky Jack Aubrey for his outstanding success in service against HM’s adversaries, in this novel Jack suffers a downturn of fortune. Like many sailors an innocent babe on land, Jack is set up to be the patsy in a massive scam of the stock market. Sent to trial, he is unlucky enough to be the object of political passions in that both the ruling party and the judge (a member of the Cabinet, no less) are against him. Jack himself is a high Tory but he must pay for the sins of his chiseling father who is a loud disliked Radical in the Parliament.

Friend Stephen Maturin and his mentor in the secret service Sir Joseph Blaine suspect that the intricate financial swindle was cooked up and bankrolled by powerful interests. Stephen hires a PI and crack lawyer to defend Jack. But the lawyer fears that without witnesses for the defense Aubrey's being fined, imprisoned, and pilloried are about certain.

But this novel is not totally dark, however filled we loyal readers are with consternation that our favorite characters are facing disgrace and the ruin of their careers. In fact, it opens with a great sea chase that takes about a third of the novel. Plus, there are humorous situations and scenes. In Jamaica, Jack meets Sam Panda, his natural son by Sally, the woman for whom he got in trouble deep when he was a mid. Sam resembles his African mother, but otherwise calls to mind his father for anybody that knows Jack. For Jack, the fact that Sam is becoming a Catholic priest is not nearly so alarming as the inconvenient fact that he has met Jack’s wife Sophie, who takes a dim view of behavior that produces natural children.

In an immensely satisfying set piece, Stephen twists the nose of an officious bureaucrat. In another, familiar friends like Bonden and Killick help Jack spruce up Ashgrove Cottage before Sophie returns from a trip. In a bright change of foturne, Stephen, upon becoming rich, becomes a sharp man with the pounds and pence, unlike his former distracted poor scholar self. How O’Brian makes sailors doing a house-cleaning poignant and fun to read is a tribute to the writer’s power as a storyteller.

The climax, too, will make the sensitive reader bawl, being moved by the loyalty of Jack’s men.

Read the books all in order and keep the Kleenex handy.