I love that whole trilogy. He gives old Britain the magic without having actual magic, just the power of belief.
This one's quite relevant today.
'I had hoped,’ he said softly, ‘that we had weaned Dumnonia away from madness.’‘You gave them peace, Lord,’ I said, ‘and peace gave them the chance to breed their madness. If we’d been fighting the Saxons all those years their energies would have gone into battle and survival, but instead we gave them the chance to foment their idiocies.’"
Seeing a few Cornwell/Sharpe posts reminded me of my favourite historical novel series, that I found when I wanted more of the same.
I can't recommend Patrick O'Brian enough. On so many levels, he just stands high above the others.
Just a couple of quotes. Stephen rarely loses it, he's usually working undercover against France in his main profession as a naturalist, and keeps his cool and reserved appearance, so I loved this bit in 'The Nutmeg of Consolation.'
'There’s my answer,’ said the big man, with a blow that knocked Stephen’s wig from his head. Stephen leapt back, whipped out his sword and cried, ‘Draw, man, draw, or I shall stick you like a hog.’
Lowe unsheathed his sabre: little good did it do him. In two hissing passes his right thigh was ploughed up. At the third Stephen’s sword was through his shoulder. And at the issue of a confused struggle at close quarters he was flat on his back, Stephen’s foot on his chest, Stephen’s sword-point at his throat and the cold voice saying above him, ‘Ask my pardon or you are a dead man. Ask my pardon, I say, or you are a dead man, a dead man.’
‘I ask your pardon,’said Lowe, and his eyes filled with blood.
A gem from Clarissa Oakes - ‘No. I was talking about children that have not been properly house-trained. Left to their own impulses and indulged by doting or careless parents almost all children are yahoos. Loud, selfish, cruel, unaffectionate, jealous, perpetually striving for attention, empty-headed, for ever prating or if words fail them simply bawling, their voices grown huge from daily practice: the very worst company in the world."
And one more from 'The Commodore.'
"Stephen looked up, and after a moment said, ‘To a tormented mind there is nothing, I believe, more irritating than comfort. Apart from anything else it often implies superior wisdom in the comforter. But I am very sorry for your trouble, my dear.’
‘Thank you, Stephen. Had you told me that there was always a tomorrow, I think I should have thrust your calendar down your throat.’"
This post has been edited by Traveller: 06 September 2019 - 11:46 AM
So that's the story. And what was the real lesson? Don't leave things in the fridge.
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