1

I just finished reading The Letter of Marque and I honestly can’t help but think that O’Brian, in addition to the natural alcoholism inherent in the Irish (which we all know is true), must have been a heavy drug addict at some point in his life - if not all of it. It’s absolutely remarkable how he always finds a way to get Maturin hooked on something.

They’re on the coast of BRAZIL and he manages to get his hands on cocaine (well, coca leaves) there. Then, later, in Sweden. I realize that cocaine had been spreading far and wide since the early 17th century because of Spanish contact with the drug in the Andes, but Maturin always manages to find dealers.

2

Don’t take this the wrong way, but is this a book we should all be familiar with? I don’t even know what it is about.

3

Oh sorry, I should have made that clear. It’s part of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the ones on which Master & Commander was based.

4

About the Irish part. I’m not sure O’Brian was Irish. From what I remember reading he was born in London then left his family (wife?) and moved to Ireland and changed his name then claimed to be from Ireland.

I looked this up, his real name was Richard Patrick Russ. Following your thought that Maturin’s drug use is a reflection on himself I guess he (O’Brian) must have also been a great natural philosopher, excellant marksman and commandor/sailor. But then again you could be close to the truth also I never got the connection between the leaves and cocaine.

After doing a little more reading on him it sounds like he wrote himself into many of his characters, one of his characters made money by translating books which O’Brian did as well, and Maturin’s dislike of marriage and bringing children into this world seemed to emulate O’Brian as well even though both he and his character did marry. O’Brian divorced his first wife and cut off all ties to his children and siblings saying “Parents are supposed to love their children, yet surely there is the implied condition that the children should be reasonably lovable?” My impression is that O’Brian was an ass of a human but a great writer.

5

I actually don’t know if O’Brian ever experimented with drugs (or worse), I’m just amazed at how much time he spends on them in his novels.

Anyway, yeah, he actually seems to have been quite a shabby human being. He left not one but two children, one of whom was deathly ill, with his all-but-illiterate wife.

6

Too much grog? :)

7

O’Brian was an Englishman, he assumed the new name and faux Irishness when he abandoned his former life shortly after WW II, in which he is said to have served in the propaganda branch of the SOE* (Political Warfare Executive, was it called?) None of his bio information suggests he had any addictions, including the stories about the past he tried to cover up, but it’s certainly suggestive that his alter-ego Maturin is frequently using either laudanum or coca. O’Brian was born into a hard-drinking class in a hard-drinking time, at least, whatever his experience with other drugs.

He abandoned his family, undeniably a shabby thing to do, but it was done when he was a young man. Who knows the circumstances of his family life, whether it was entirely his fault or not. It probably was his fault, though, as it happened after he had fallen in love with another married woman. He eloped with her, the former Countess Tolstoy, I believe, and they lived the rest of their lives together, in seclusion even after his books started selling, so abandonment was not apparently a repetitive behavior with him.

Note, by the way, that Maturin does not seem to suffer any lasting ill effects from drug usage, nor is he a heavy user, except when some outside matter of grave concern weighs on him, for example when rejected by Diana. He seems to use laudanum as an escape from dire emotional trauma, not as a constant companion (though at one point he clearly underestimates the effects of coca leaves and becomes habituated, eventually he comes to realize he is overusing them and seems to be able to just give them up when he wants to.)

It’s conventional to read about drug users in literature who eventually destroy themselves, and it’s likely that a real-life Maturin, if such a thing is conceivable, would have faced more problems later in life, but on the other hand there are plenty of people who handle serious drug habits for many years without any terrible effects on their lives. It seems that most serious drug users do eventually lose control, but it may take decades before that happens, and Maturin is only middle-aged by the time the series has come to a premature end.

*No, he never worked on EQ or SWG.

8

spoiler

Actually Maturin seemed quite heavily addicted to laudanum before his shipborne marriage to Diana. Then his later dosage when she ran off to Sweden was what… 1000 drops? Compared to the 25 he prescribed for regular patients?

9

AHOY THERE! HERE BE MASSIVE SPOILERS!

True, Maturin used laudanum prior to his marriage…

But I still think his laudanum use was connected to Diana in almost every case, whether it was her dalliance with Aubrey, her flight to India, her subsequent flight to America after rejecting him in India, or later, her death. Coca use obviously came from Maturin’s sojourn in the Andes where it was apparently pervasive. During the 19th century, laudanum and opium were generally acknowledged to be susceptible to abuse and potentially harmful, but I believe coca (and later, when it was isolated, cocaine) were not thought to be very dangerous drugs.

Speaking of Diana’s death, I was amazed at the way it casually occurred between books when I first read of it, as it seemed a bizarre choice on O’Brian’s part to treat it only in retrospect. However, on mature consideration, I think it’s just as well there is no land-based scene of the breathless messenger arriving with the news, and no actual narration of the event itself. Poor Maturin…

10

Oh sweet Jesus. I hadn’t gotten as far in the books as your last paragraph got.

Wow. Anyway, I found her annoying so it’s no big loss, except in the “god damn I didn’t see that coming” way. :)

11

D’oh!

I’m sorry I mentioned it, then… should have known better even considering the spoiler warning.

If you identify even slightly with Maturin, reading the first chapter of that book (The Yellow Admiral? Blue at the Mizzen? I forget) is a shock, and knowing it in advance really changes the impact.

Oh well.

12

It seems that most serious drug users do eventually lose control, but it may take decades before that happens, and Maturin is only middle-aged by the time the series has come to a premature end.

When’s he supposed to lose control, then? A nursing home?

13

I’ll let you know when I get there in a couple books.