From the Shelves of the Paco Library

Today, I’ve got a historical fiction roundup.

For those who have read through all of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, and don’t know where to turn, you should try Douglas Reeman (who writes under the pen name of Alexander Kent). Reeman has written an outstanding series of novels set during the age of fighting sail featuring Captain Richard Bolitho of the Royal Navy. The stories extend from the 1780s into the Napoleonic era, and take us as far as India and Australia. I’ve just finished Passage to Mutiny, a tale set in the South Pacific in the months after the Bounty incident, and it’s an exciting yarn featuring pirates, Australian convicts, a French ship that throws off the yoke of its tyrannical captain upon getting word of the arrest of King Louis XVI, and the resumption of a love affair between Bolitho and the wife of an intensely ambitious colonial officer (who is also an unmitigated cad). Reeman has surrounded his captain with a fine cast of characters, many of whom are regulars in the series, and, as in the case of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, one opens each new book with the comforting sensation of rejoining old friends.

Reeman is a prolific writer who has also authored a series of novels set in WWII, and another featuring successive generations of a family whose menfolk serve in the Royal Marines. I haven’t had a chance to read these two series yet, but I’m eagerly looking forward to having the opportunity.

* * * *

David Donachie has created a unique sub-genre of nautical fiction which combines the fighting-sail theme with mysteries. His principal characters, brothers Harry and James Kudlow, are British privateersmen during the Napoleonic era, who, in addition to fighting the French, become entangled in various murders and intrigues. Donachie has written half-a-dozen books in this series, of which The Dying Trade is an excellent example. The year is 1794, and a British sea captain has been found hanged in Genoa – possibly a suicide, possibly not. At the request of Admiral Hood, the Kudlows become involved in the investigation, and are drawn into the complex and dangerous political situation in the Republic of Genoa, where the French are laying the groundwork for conquest. There is much riveting battle-action at sea, as well as the subtler, yet more dangerous, maneuvering on shore. Donachie, in the tradition of the great authors of nautical fiction, has created a host of well-drawn and interesting secondary characters, and his extensive knowledge of history combines with an inventive imagination to make for a highly entertaining series.

* * * *

Somerset Maugham is best remembered today for a handful of contemporary novels, his autobiographical books (including certain thinly-veiled fictional stories that are based on his experiences with British Intelligence in WWI), and his many excellent short stories; but he also wrote historical fiction, and one of his best efforts in this genre is Then and Now. In this novel, Maugham pits Machiavelli against Caesare Borgia, the Duke of Valentinois and one of the pre-eminent warlords of renaissance Italy. The book is rooted in historical fact (Machiavelli led a diplomatic mission as Secretary of the Florentine Chancellery to the Duke’s court in late 1502/early 1503), and provides excellent characterizations of the two principals, as they fence with each other over the fate of Florence, as well as a marvelously incisive picture of the turbulent world of the Italian city-states. A wonderfully written and engrossing work.