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where_away'Must I put on silk stockings?'
'Certainly you must put on silk stockings. And do show a leg, my dear chap: we shall be late, without you spread a little more canvas.'
'You are always in such a hurry,' said Stephen peevishly, groping among his possessions. A Montpellier snake glided out with a dry rustling sound and traversed the room in a series of extraordinarily elegant curves, its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground.
'Oh, oh, oh,' cried Jack, leaping on to a chair. 'A snake!'
'Will these do?' asked Stephen. 'They have a hole in them.'
'Is it poisonous?'
'Extremely so. I dare say it will attack you, directly. I have very little doubt of it. Was I to put the silk stockings over my worsted stockings, sure the hole would not show:
but then, I should stifle with heat. Do not you find it uncommonly hot?'
'Oh, it must be two fathoms long. Tell me, is it really poisonous? On your oath now?'
'If you thrust your hand down its throat as far as its back teeth you may meet a little venom; but not otherwise. Malpolon monspessulanus is a very innocent serpent. I think of carrying a dozen aboard, for the rats - ah, if only I had more time, and if it were not for this foolish, illiberal persecution of reptiles. . . What a pitiful figure you do cut upon that chair, to be sure. Barney, Barney, buck or doe, Has kept me out of Channel Row,' he sang to the serpent; and, deaf as an adder though it was, it looked happily into his face while he carried it away.
(chapter six)
note:
With its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground it must have been close to those7 ft mentioned in wike. Venom or not, I, too, might have jumped on a chair
'Certainly you must put on silk stockings. And do show a leg, my dear chap: we shall be late, without you spread a little more canvas.'
'You are always in such a hurry,' said Stephen peevishly, groping among his possessions. A Montpellier snake glided out with a dry rustling sound and traversed the room in a series of extraordinarily elegant curves, its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground.
'Oh, oh, oh,' cried Jack, leaping on to a chair. 'A snake!'
'Will these do?' asked Stephen. 'They have a hole in them.'
'Is it poisonous?'
'Extremely so. I dare say it will attack you, directly. I have very little doubt of it. Was I to put the silk stockings over my worsted stockings, sure the hole would not show:
but then, I should stifle with heat. Do not you find it uncommonly hot?'
'Oh, it must be two fathoms long. Tell me, is it really poisonous? On your oath now?'
'If you thrust your hand down its throat as far as its back teeth you may meet a little venom; but not otherwise. Malpolon monspessulanus is a very innocent serpent. I think of carrying a dozen aboard, for the rats - ah, if only I had more time, and if it were not for this foolish, illiberal persecution of reptiles. . . What a pitiful figure you do cut upon that chair, to be sure. Barney, Barney, buck or doe, Has kept me out of Channel Row,' he sang to the serpent; and, deaf as an adder though it was, it looked happily into his face while he carried it away.
(chapter six)
note:
With its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground it must have been close to those7 ft mentioned in wike. Venom or not, I, too, might have jumped on a chair
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 03:59 pm (UTC)Exactly! How can one not love our captain. :D
It is likely that the Historic Dockyards at Pompey will be used as backdrop on Les Mis. RC just cannot escape ships ;D
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Date: 2012-02-10 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:39 pm (UTC)When I recently wrote a review of the Aubreyad for a friend's book review page I came across the publishing dates. It's been 40 years this year that PC was first published. Unbelievable.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:43 pm (UTC)(Although, admittedly, I am less than 40 years old.)
I wonder if Patrick O'Brian had any idea how popular those books would still be, 40 years after PC was published? and i feel sure he would have enjoyed the film immensely.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 04:54 pm (UTC)I mean, look how awful Captain Horatio Hornblower was as a film - and CS Forester himself was involved in adapting that for the screen. (Although, admittedly, Forester himself wasn't so accurate in his writing as POB was.)
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Date: 2012-02-10 05:14 pm (UTC)I like CHH. It was fine for its time and probably the best that could be done then.
Forester himself wasn't so accurate in his writing as POB was.
POB had his weaknesses too, so much as I love his books, I would rather not compare them :D
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 05:21 pm (UTC)I think you are right not to compare the two; they are very different, but equally wonderful in their own way (though I prefer the TV adaptations of Hornblower to the novels, partly because the novels are not so cheery, overall, as the Aubreyad). One of the things I love about the AoS is that each of the fandoms and canons that make up the greater AoS has its own following - my one and only meta so far was on this very subject, here.
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Date: 2012-02-10 05:29 pm (UTC)Well put, and thanks for the link:D
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:15 pm (UTC)Btw, had you thought about adding an author who did not only write about AoS, but was part of it?
Frederick Marryat's books are still immensely readable and full of suspense ...and based on a historic person ;D
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:36 pm (UTC)I would dearly like to get my hands on some of his naval stuff, because I know he lived it, and all I can say is that they would be fascinating to read because of that - he wouldn't have needed to research things in the same way as a modern author writing historical naval fiction.
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:51 pm (UTC)Now that you have a new RED shiny, you can download his books at Gutenberg. As I said, they are so very readable...and he is such a Cochrane fanboy.
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:55 pm (UTC)(I'm one of those people who prefers to read in print - I find long texts on-screen rather hard to read, which is one reason I don't think I'm ever likely to buy an e-reader.) But I will certainly look him up. :D
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 07:07 pm (UTC)It's not as who should say an easy read (unintended pun there, sorry...) but if you've ever managed to wade your way through Tom Jones or Clarissa or any of the other great works of late 17th early 18th Century it's okay. I'm glad I've read it, I can't say I will be rushing to pull it off my shelf for another read through any time soon though. But yes, his actually living it makes a huge difference.
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Date: 2012-02-10 07:12 pm (UTC)Midshipman Easy or Peter Simple</> were good reads.
I also enjoyed his memoirs written by his sister, I believe. I even had visions that Weir must have used an incident described in the memoirs as inspiration for the movie
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Date: 2012-02-11 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:14 pm (UTC)I think it was this passage that made me first fall in love with POBs work. I'd liked M&C up to here when I read it, and been interested in Jack and Stephen and impressed with how well they had been written, but it was this - the snarkiness, the wit, the whole concept of a snake in the great cabin at all and Stephen being so utterly unconcerned about it... And Jack the Great Naval Hero with his amazing luck and his glorious hair - on a chair quaking like a little boy, this is what made me realise it was genius and that this truly was more than a mere boys-own adventure.
Adorable. Just adorable...
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 06:20 pm (UTC)OMG!
Come to that - how did short, meagre, underfed Stephen manage to carry off a 12ft snake?!
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:32 pm (UTC)I would have jumped too.
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Date: 2012-02-10 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 07:23 pm (UTC)I adore his unselfconscious singing to it
:D I like her adoring gaze...much like the wombat.
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Date: 2012-02-10 07:26 pm (UTC)I love the snake looking 'happily' in to his face too.
Still and all, even skinny, that's a whole lot of snake to lug around...
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Date: 2012-02-10 06:25 pm (UTC)That short wonderful sequence has it all, and so early in the series. Much as I feel for Jack I adore the picture of the snake gazing adoringly into Stephen's face.
...and I adore the ducks and boobies illo of that scene ;D
no subject
Date: 2013-12-28 01:48 pm (UTC)Stephen's musings if he should wear another sock beneath the one with the hole cracked me up.
And the endearments they use are just adorable!!
no subject
Date: 2013-12-31 03:17 pm (UTC)