Silk Stockings, Snakes and a commander on a chair

[esteven]

'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

Comments

[esteven]

Ah.

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

[sharpiefan]

The only one of Marryat's books that I have ever been able to get my hands on is Children of the New Forest, his historical novel set during the English Civil war.

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.

[esteven]

:D

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.

[sharpiefan]

And it hasn't died yet! :D

(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

[esteven]

Or you take up ferox's offer of two of his books, going to the charity shop else. I'm sure postage cannot be much. :D

[feroxargentea]

I have at least one, possibly two of his AoS novels in my bound-for-the-charity-shop-when-I-get-round-to-it heap, if you're serious about wanting them?

[sharpiefan]

Yes I am, please! *puppy-dog eyes*

[feroxargentea]

No probs, just PM me an address you want them sending. I'm always happy to find good homes for surplus books.

[heather_mist]

I've read Mr Midshipman Easy. You can see a lot of its influence in POB's work I think (even though his family - and possibly the man himself denied it was much of an influence.

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.

[esteven]

*g*
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

[feroxargentea]

I didn't find it difficult because of the language - I guess you get used to it, and yeah, have waded through Tom Jones with no problem - but the politics of it pissed me off so much I couldn't really appreciate the whole Age of Sailness of it. Jack Aubrey is conservative with a small and a big C, but Marryat is somewhere way over to the right of him *shrugs* We just don't get along.