THE NUTMEG OF CONSOLATION

'The Nutmeg of Consoloation' is the fourteenth book in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. Its opening chapter continues directly from the ending of the previous novel in the series, The Thirteen-Gun Salute.

Contents

Plot summary

Characters in "The Nutmeg of Consolation"

Ships in "The Nutmeg of Consolation"

The British

The French

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

Literary significance & criticism

Reviews

Editions

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Footnotes

Plot summary

'The Nutmeg of Consolation' opens with Aubrey and his crew shipwrecked on a remote island in the South China Sea after surviving the destruction of HMS Diane in a typhoon. While stranded on the island they fight a ferocious battle against Dayak pirates and are eventually rescued by Chinese traders.
Upon arriving in Batavia, Aubrey is provided by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles with a 20-gun ship which Aubrey renames Nutmeg of Consolation in reference to one of the titles of the Sultan of Kampong. Back at sea, Aubrey and the out-gunned Nutmeg engage in battle with a French frigate; at the height of the battle Nutmeg is joined by Surprise (no longer in commission at this point, but sold out of the service as a letter of marque and sailing as a Hired Vessel of the Royal Navy) under the temporary command of Aubrey's old friend and former lieutenant, Commander Thomas Pullings.
Resuming command of Surprise, Aubrey and Maturin continue their interrupted journey to New South Wales. On their way to Australia, Maturin rescues two young girls who are the sole survivors of an outbreak of smallpox that has killed the entire population of their small Pacific island.
Once in New South Wales the book contains graphic descriptions of the hell-on-earth that was the life in the penal colony under Governor Lachlan Macquarie shortly after the "Rum Rebellion" of the New South Wales Corps and its coup against Governor William Bligh. There are also detailed descriptions of the landscapes and fauna in and around Sydney harbour; Stephen Maturin has an interesting encounter with a male platypus in the final pages of the book.

Characters in "The Nutmeg of Consolation"

★ Jack Aubrey - Captain of HMS ''Diane''.

★ Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, friend to Jack and intelligence officer.

★ Sophie Williams - Jack's wife

Ships in "The Nutmeg of Consolation"

The British

The French

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

Literary significance & criticism

Reviews

"Brings [O'Brian's] achievement to a new height....Such is O'Brian's power to possess the imagination that I found I was living in his world as much as my own, wanting to know what happens next. That is the real test. Any contemporary novelist should recognize in Patrick O'Brian a Master of the Art."—Alan Judd, Sunday Telegraph [London]

Editions

★ Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Footnotes