He is a completely flawed man. The books are borderline flawless (will admit when I reread them now I skip the last 2 or 3 because he clearly felt the creep of time and started killing off characters I loved deeply).

>O’Brian as “an artificer” whose work lacked the “frisson” one finds “in the presence of creative greatness”

Absolutely zero idea what that even means. The books are wonderful as escapist superhero stuff, as an entry into British history and as a study of human relationships. "Jane Austen on the high seas" isn't far from the truth. The books track an incredible friendship, a couple of hard-won marriages and the meaning of work. A lot of what I learned/ think about the management of multi-person projects is influenced by Jack Aubrey: you don't necessarily have to be right, but you have to decide if you're going to lead. And trying to manage a team larger than can fit in a longboat is a hard road to choose.

The article skips my favorite funny line, "Your friend has a singular genius for striking the wrong note."

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ekelsen 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think the quoted sentence is basically saying his work is workman like and doesn't cause the chills that reading something truly great does.

(I don't agree)

	▲	wahern 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think she's betraying that her knowledge of his personal character colors her interpretation and experience of his work: > Why, then, does his work not give me the ultimate frisson I get when I feel I am in the presence of creative greatness, and which constantly moves me as I read the pages of Leo Tolstoy? I think it is because in Tolstoy I know I am confronting fundamental truths, expressed in fiction that has grown organically out of human life, out of history, and out of the author's heart. In O'Brian, on the contrary, I am reading the work of an artificer, a contriver of genius and, well, a liar. From https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/03/biography (link posted elsewhere, though not before I had to resort to using ChatGPT to dredge it up).

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altmanaltman 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the article is not doing a good job quoting the person who said that. You can more here and most of what she says is actually in appreciation of the work itself.

> It might well be argued that if the 20 volumes of the Aubrey-Maturin cycle were to be telescoped into one book, it really would rival War and Peace as a supremely grand historical novel. O'Brian's attention to detail is astonishing, his invention never flags, his characters are rounded, his plots are compelling and he is often wonderfully merry. His saga ranges the world through many years of history, and his prose can be beautiful.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/03/biography

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idontwantthis 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I also recognized Jack’s incredible management skills! He knows exactly how to get the best work out of people and especially how to correct them without making them feel inferior or resentful.