Posted by Martin Read on June 26, 1998 at 07:23:41:
In Reply to: Re: Patrick O'Brian compared to Vance posted by Richard Anderson on June 24, 1998 at 11:35:38:
: :
: : : With regard to C.S. Lewis's Horblower,
: : Normally, I forbear to cast the first stone over innocent slips and typos, but this one opens up all kinds of images. C.S. Lewis might not have minded being mistaken for C.S. Forester -- he liked a good tale -- but I think he would have drawn the line at the implication offered by the slight mangling of Horatio's surname.
: Ah, the slips one makes after three glasses of wine never fail to fascinate. But on to more important stuff:
: Vance fans intrigued by this thread might want to get into O'Brian with two of his less-dense early works,
: The Unknown Shore, and The Golden Ocean. Good yarns each, and each with a coming-of-age often
: echoed by Vance.
I too have read both C.S. Forester and O'Brian, and don't really see much connection stylistically between either of these and Vance. The only similarity I can see is that the language used by all three tends towards the archaic, the first two out of historical necessity, Vance out of choice. All three unlike many other authors show that they know what the inside of a dictionary looks like.
Comparing Forester and O'Brian - I find Forester's heroes much more attractive than O'Brian's. Also, although I enjoy them, I find the narrative of O'Brian's books unattractively dense and slow at times - this from a James Joyce fan!
Incidentally for anyone interested in the background of the navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars there is an excellent book in print at present called Nelson's Navy by Conway Maritime Press (can't remember the author's name). It covers everything from how many buttons were on a post-captain's sleeve to the difference between "Box-hauling" and "Club-hauling". For instance it points out that there were two varieties of cat-o-nine-tails, one for ordinary punishments the other (with more and larger knots) for thieves.