The Reverse of the Medal
Encyclopedia
The Reverse of the Medal is a historical novel
by Patrick O'Brian
set during the Napoleonic Wars
. It was first published by HarperCollins
in 1986 and is the eleventh book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, concerning the adventures of naval commander
Jack Aubrey
, and his friend, ship's surgeon, naturalist and spy, Stephen Maturin.
to the West Indies Squadron lying off Bridgetown
. Here Jack meets his bastard black son, Samuel Panda, a student Catholic priest. His mother was Sally Mpata for whom Jack, as a youngster on HMS Resolution
, was turned before the mast by his Captain for having stored her secretly in the cable-tiers.
Whilst returning to England, the Surprise gives chase to the Spartan, an American privateer
, which manages to escape in a squall for Brest
. Aubrey — whose financial circumstances remain unsatisfactorily complicated — hears a rumour from a stranger he meets in the "Ship Inn" that Britain will soon sign a peace with France. The stranger, ostensibly a diplomatic agent named Palmer, indicates to Aubrey how he can make money on the stock exchange by buying stocks sure to go up as soon as the news becomes public. Aubrey makes the transactions as advised, and also gives the advice to his father, the widely disliked Radical
MP General Aubrey, who makes much larger stock transactions based on this information and spreads the rumour much farther. The rumour of a peace-treaty gets out, and the stock transactions prove highly profitable — more so to the General and his stock-jobbing friends than to Aubrey. But the peace-rumour proves false, Palmer had no government links (it later emerges that two highly placed English agents in the service of the French controlled him). The authorities arrest Aubrey, imprison him in the Marshalsea
, and subject him to a Guildhall trial for fraud.
Maturin receives two pieces of unwelcome news on his return. A political coup has sidelined his chief of intelligence, Sir Joseph Blaine, thus leaving Maturin in an exposed and dangerous position; and he becomes certain that his and Blaine's suspicions about treachery in high places have concrete substance. He also discovers that his wife, Diana, has left him because of rumours of brazen infidelity with a red-head in the Mediterranean: rumours that Stephen started, and indeed encouraged, as a means of uncovering the intelligence network in Malta
. The rumours are entirely unfounded as Stephen was unwilling to take advantage of the redhead, who was being cruelly used by French intelligence agents. Diana has removed to Sweden under the protection of Jagiello, a mutual friend introduced in The Surgeon's Mate
, and with all the appearance of carrying on an affair with him. Stephen realizes how deeply he has offended her, resigns himself to her loss and returns to the use of the alcoholic tincture of laudanum. On the positive side, Stephen has inherited a vast sum from his Spanish godfather and become a very wealthy man.
Maturin tries everything he can to help Aubrey, using his colleagues in the government and hiring an investigator, but cannot secure enough proof to win an acquittal — Palmer, the key figure, having been murdered and mutilated. Despite Aubrey's touching belief in British justice, his is a political trial given that the Government want to attack General Aubrey and his Radical friends. The court - headed by a Judge and Cabinet Minister, Lord Quinborough, convicts him after a two-day trial, fining him £2,500 and sentencing him to one hour on the pillory
. However, this punishment is met with a noise similar to the start of a battle: instead of London crowds lampooning him, hordes of Royal Navy
personnel arrive to cheer Aubrey on. But the authorities also strike him off the Navy List
, something he regards as a far more devastating punishment than time spent on the pillory.
Maturin utilises a small part of his new-found wealth to buy the old HMS Surprise at auction, and obtains letters of marque and reprisal so she can operate as a private man-of-war. In part he does this because he remains deeply implicated in the intelligence game and would not sail with anyone other than Jack; he also understands that Aubrey's dismissal from the Navy has wounded his friend dreadfully, and that life ashore as a disgraced officer would probably destroy him. A disgruntled French agent, Duhamel, also makes contact once again with Maturin in London and asks him for assistance in escaping to Quebec
. In return, he gives Stephen details of the plot against Aubrey and exposes the British traitors - Wray and Ledward - motivated by profit and by spite against Aubrey.
. In the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814
, Lord Cochrane was tried before Lord Ellenborough
at the Guildhall and similarly convicted and sentenced to the pillory and fined £1,000.
According to O'Brian's Author's Note, Lord Cochrane and his defendants always passionately maintained that he was not guilty and that Lord Ellenborough's conduct of the trial was grossly unfair. Lord Ellenborough and his descendants, however, took the opposite view. The whole affair was described in a long, fully documented and closely reasoned book written by Mr Attlay of Lincoln's Inn, and which Patrick O'Brian referred to for documenting the proceedings of Jack Aubrey's trial.
The public reaction to Aubrey's conviction and sentencing in the book is quite similar to those recorded in history.
In July 2009, Russell Crowe
told the Associated Press
that this book would make up the bulk of a second Master and Commander
film, but there was no word on a director, cast, or if the film would even happen.
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
by Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
set during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. It was first published by HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
in 1986 and is the eleventh book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, concerning the adventures of naval commander
Captain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Jack Aubrey
Jack Aubrey
John "Jack" Aubrey, KB , is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his rise from Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty -book series encompasses Aubrey's adventures and various commands along...
, and his friend, ship's surgeon, naturalist and spy, Stephen Maturin.
Plot
Jack Aubrey and his crew have made their way in a much knocked-about from the South SeasPacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
to the West Indies Squadron lying off Bridgetown
Bridgetown
The city of Bridgetown , metropolitan pop 96,578 , is the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. Formerly, the Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael...
. Here Jack meets his bastard black son, Samuel Panda, a student Catholic priest. His mother was Sally Mpata for whom Jack, as a youngster on HMS Resolution
HMS Resolution (1770)
HMS Resolution was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1770 at Deptford Dockyard.She participated in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780, the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, and the Battle of the Saintes in 1782.Resolution was broken up in 1813....
, was turned before the mast by his Captain for having stored her secretly in the cable-tiers.
Whilst returning to England, the Surprise gives chase to the Spartan, an American privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
, which manages to escape in a squall for Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
. Aubrey — whose financial circumstances remain unsatisfactorily complicated — hears a rumour from a stranger he meets in the "Ship Inn" that Britain will soon sign a peace with France. The stranger, ostensibly a diplomatic agent named Palmer, indicates to Aubrey how he can make money on the stock exchange by buying stocks sure to go up as soon as the news becomes public. Aubrey makes the transactions as advised, and also gives the advice to his father, the widely disliked Radical
Radicals (UK)
The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...
MP General Aubrey, who makes much larger stock transactions based on this information and spreads the rumour much farther. The rumour of a peace-treaty gets out, and the stock transactions prove highly profitable — more so to the General and his stock-jobbing friends than to Aubrey. But the peace-rumour proves false, Palmer had no government links (it later emerges that two highly placed English agents in the service of the French controlled him). The authorities arrest Aubrey, imprison him in the Marshalsea
Marshalsea
The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...
, and subject him to a Guildhall trial for fraud.
Maturin receives two pieces of unwelcome news on his return. A political coup has sidelined his chief of intelligence, Sir Joseph Blaine, thus leaving Maturin in an exposed and dangerous position; and he becomes certain that his and Blaine's suspicions about treachery in high places have concrete substance. He also discovers that his wife, Diana, has left him because of rumours of brazen infidelity with a red-head in the Mediterranean: rumours that Stephen started, and indeed encouraged, as a means of uncovering the intelligence network in Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. The rumours are entirely unfounded as Stephen was unwilling to take advantage of the redhead, who was being cruelly used by French intelligence agents. Diana has removed to Sweden under the protection of Jagiello, a mutual friend introduced in The Surgeon's Mate
The Surgeon's Mate
The Surgeon's Mate is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian and set during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the seventh book in the Aubrey–Maturin series.-Plot summary:...
, and with all the appearance of carrying on an affair with him. Stephen realizes how deeply he has offended her, resigns himself to her loss and returns to the use of the alcoholic tincture of laudanum. On the positive side, Stephen has inherited a vast sum from his Spanish godfather and become a very wealthy man.
Maturin tries everything he can to help Aubrey, using his colleagues in the government and hiring an investigator, but cannot secure enough proof to win an acquittal — Palmer, the key figure, having been murdered and mutilated. Despite Aubrey's touching belief in British justice, his is a political trial given that the Government want to attack General Aubrey and his Radical friends. The court - headed by a Judge and Cabinet Minister, Lord Quinborough, convicts him after a two-day trial, fining him £2,500 and sentencing him to one hour on the pillory
Pillory
The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal...
. However, this punishment is met with a noise similar to the start of a battle: instead of London crowds lampooning him, hordes of Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
personnel arrive to cheer Aubrey on. But the authorities also strike him off the Navy List
Navy List
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....
, something he regards as a far more devastating punishment than time spent on the pillory.
Maturin utilises a small part of his new-found wealth to buy the old HMS Surprise at auction, and obtains letters of marque and reprisal so she can operate as a private man-of-war. In part he does this because he remains deeply implicated in the intelligence game and would not sail with anyone other than Jack; he also understands that Aubrey's dismissal from the Navy has wounded his friend dreadfully, and that life ashore as a disgraced officer would probably destroy him. A disgruntled French agent, Duhamel, also makes contact once again with Maturin in London and asks him for assistance in escaping to Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. In return, he gives Stephen details of the plot against Aubrey and exposes the British traitors - Wray and Ledward - motivated by profit and by spite against Aubrey.
Characters
- Jack AubreyJack AubreyJohn "Jack" Aubrey, KB , is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his rise from Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty -book series encompasses Aubrey's adventures and various commands along...
- Captain of HMS Surprise. - Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, friend to Jack and intelligence officer.
- Sir Joseph Blaine - Maturin's associate in the intelligence service, and confidant.
- Sophie Aubrey - Jack Aubrey's wife
- Mrs. Williams - Sophie's mother
- Sir William Pellow - Admiral of the West Indies Squadron
- Samuel Panda - Jack Aubrey's illegitimate black son
- Mr Martin - a Royal Navy parson
- William Mowett
- Padeen Colman
- Joe Plaice - an old able seamanAble seamanAn able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...
on the Surprise - Mr Palmer - gives Aubrey false information about purchasing shares
- General Aubrey - a Radical MP and Jack Aubrey's father
- Andrew and Fanny Wray
- William Babbington - Captain of the Tartarus
- Mr Pratt - a private investigator
- Mr Lawrence - Jack's defence lawyer, and a fellow Trinity CollegeTrinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
man (like Maturin) - Parker - a Bow Street Runner hired by Blaine and Maturin to investigate Jacks case and find Palmer
- Davies - an Able Seaman on the Surprise
- Duhamel - a disillusioned French secret agent
- Heneage Dundas - Captain of the Eurydice and a close friend of Aubrey; also younger brother of Lord Melville, Head of the Admiralty
Ships
- British
- HMS Surprise (a frigate)
- HMS Irresistible (Admiral's Flag; possibly the third rate ship of the lineShip of the lineA ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
of 74 guns, launched in 1782 and broken up in 1806) - HMS Eurydice
- French
- Diane
- American
- Spartan (a privateer, approximating a frigate in size)
Historical references
O'Brian bases the story and many of the details of Captain Aubrey's trial on the experiences of Thomas Cochrane, Lord CochraneThomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald
Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 1st Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM , styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a senior British naval flag officer and radical politician....
. In the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814
Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814
The Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814 was a hoax or fraud centered on false information about the then-ongoing Napoleonic Wars, affecting the London Stock Exchange in 1814.-The du Bourg hoax:...
, Lord Cochrane was tried before Lord Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough PC KC was an English judge. After serving as a Member of Parliament and Attorney General, he became Lord Chief Justice.-Early life:...
at the Guildhall and similarly convicted and sentenced to the pillory and fined £1,000.
According to O'Brian's Author's Note, Lord Cochrane and his defendants always passionately maintained that he was not guilty and that Lord Ellenborough's conduct of the trial was grossly unfair. Lord Ellenborough and his descendants, however, took the opposite view. The whole affair was described in a long, fully documented and closely reasoned book written by Mr Attlay of Lincoln's Inn, and which Patrick O'Brian referred to for documenting the proceedings of Jack Aubrey's trial.
The public reaction to Aubrey's conviction and sentencing in the book is quite similar to those recorded in history.
Editions
- Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick TullPatrick TullPatrick Tull was a British stage, film and television actor.-Early life and education:Tull was born in Sussex, England.-Film and television work:...
(ISBN 140257827X) - Blackstone Audiobooks, unabridged, narrated by Simon Vance.
- 2011, USA, W. W. Norton & Company (ISBN 978-0-393-06383-7), Pub date 5 December 2011, e-book
In July 2009, Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that this book would make up the bulk of a second Master and Commander
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin and released by 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Studios...
film, but there was no word on a director, cast, or if the film would even happen.