The Hundred Days (novel)

The Hundred Days

First edition cover
Author Patrick O'Brian
Cover artist Geoff Hunt
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Aubrey-Maturin series
Genre Historical novel
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
 28 September 1998
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Compact audio cassette, Compact Disc)
Pages 352 first edition, hardback
ISBN 0-00-225789-0 first edition, hardback
OCLC 40491462
Preceded by The Yellow Admiral
Followed by Blue at the Mizzen

The Hundred Days is the nineteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1998. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars, specifically in their last portion in 1815, the Hundred Days.

Napoleon escaped his exile at Elba and gained a huge army as he marched up from the south coast of France to Paris, unseating Louis XVIII. The allies of 1813 and 1814 are coming together again to join their armies on land to stop Napoleon keeping the France he has retaken. Forces on the north coast of Africa are raising money to block the allied armies from joining, favoring Napoleon. Aubrey and his convoy are given the mission to destroy shipyards supporting Napoleon along the Adriatic Coast and to stop that money, if it indeed has been raised, from reaching its destination. Maturin and Dr Amos Jacob negotiate in Algiers, where, among other accomplishments, Maturin shoots a lioness leaping at him and the Dey of Algiers.

Plot summary

Commodore Aubrey's squadron arrives at Gibraltar, where Lord Keith updates him on Napoleon's escape and rearmament. He orders Aubrey first to defend a convoy of merchant ships from Moorish xebecs and galleys, and then to proceed to the Adriatic Sea to destroy any new ships being built to support Napoleon. Maturin, in a separate meeting, is informed of a plot to send sufficient gold through Algiers to fund Muslim mercenaries who would block the Russian forces from joining those of the other allies, so Napoleon's army can attack one army at a time. Aubrey's squadron is successful in defending the convoy. The captain of the Pomone is haunted by the faces of the slaves used to row the galleys split in half by his ship; Aubrey reports he died cleaning his guns, and a new captain is assigned to Pomone. The convoy proceeds toward the Adriatic, stopping in Mahón. Asea, they encounter Captain Christy-Palliere, of the Royalist Caroline and an old acquaintance, who informs Aubrey about the French situation in the Adriatic before parting. Amos Jacob is sent out on Ringle to Kutali and Spalato to gain more information. Surprise sails to Ragusa Vecchia where she sinks a French frigate under the command of an Imperialist. Jacob rejoins near Porte di Spalato where they meet another French frigate, whose captain, like so many, does not want to declare for Napoleon but fears he will win. Maturin and Jacob negotiate an agreement to fight a mock battle against both Surprise and Pomone; the Frenchman then accompanies Pomone to Malta. Following up the pressure already put on banks not to loan to the small shipyards, they lay out gold to push disgruntled, unpaid dockworkers to burn new French ships along the coast, which is effective.

Reaching Algiers, they meet the Consul, Sir Peter Clifford, and his wife. Maturin and Jacob attend an interview with the Dey's Vizier at Kasbah, the Dey's palace. They travel onwards to meet the Dey, Omar Pasha, at his hunting-lodge at Shatt el Khadna. The Dey invites Maturin to hunt lions with him. The Dey kills a large lion while Maturin kills its lioness as it leaps to them, saving the Dey's life. For this deed, Omar Pasha swears that no gold will sail from Algiers, and gives Maturin one of his rifles as a parting gift. Jacob befriends Ahmed Ben Habdal, who reveals that Pasha sent a contrary message to the Sheikh of Azgar, to have the gold carried by a fast-sailing xebec from Arzila, near Tangiers, captained by an Algerian corsair via the Strait of Gibraltar straight to Durazzo. Maturin and Jacob go into Algiers, as Maturin needs to share this news with Aubrey. Maturin buys two Irish children in the slave market. Once he sees the Ringle windbound off shore, they engage a local vessel to put them aboard Ringle. Before leaving, they learn Pasha is killed, and replaced by Ali Bey, who says he prefers the British.

Reade updates them on the damage sustained by Surprise during the fierce storm. They join Aubrey in Port Mahon, and speak with Admiral Fanshawe. Aubrey agrees that he must pursue the xebec. They encounter Hamadryad under old friend Heneage Dundas, who tells them that Lord Barmouth is in place of Lord Keith. Aubrey fears Barmouth might stop him from completing Lord Keith's orders. In Gibraltar, Maturin tells Aubrey not to worry, because Peter Arden, colleague to Maturin, is Barmouth's political man. Barmouth does tell Aubrey to take his broad pennant down, as his squadron is dispersed. Later, Barmouth is joined by his new wife, who he learns is a cousin to Aubrey. On his return, Aubrey finds Barmouth friendly to him, as Barmouth wanted his wife with him. Before leaving for this battle, Maturin leaves the twin children with Lady Keith.

Dr Jacob learns the corsair has two galleys to act as decoys whilst he lies under Tarifa before running through the Strait. The Surprise, Ringle and the blue cutter lie in wait in the Strait. The galley sees three armed ships, and Murad Reis, her captain, fires on the frigate, destroying the second gun of her starboard broadside, and killing Bonden, the coxswain, as well as Hallam, a midshipman. After a long pursuit, the galley holes up at Cranc (Crab) island, where Surprise and Ringle, unable to follow the galley into the shallow lagoon, block the exit. A gun from the Surprise is hoisted up a cliff, where it can fire unopposed on the galley. The galley's men, seeing the situation is hopeless, behead Murad and surrender. Returning victorious to Gibraltar, the Surprise sees the town exploding fireworks, and learns that Napoleon has lost in Belgium, fully beaten. Ali Bey sends word he wants the gold; he is killed and the new Dey, Hassan, admits the xebec fired first, and asks for a loan to consolidate his position in Algiers. The xebec is cleaned up and sent to Algiers, while the gold is shared out in Gibraltar. Barmouth worries that his new wife is too friendly with Aubrey, so he sends him off to the venture in Chile.

Characters

See also Recurring characters in the Aubrey–Maturin series

Intelligence for Royal Navy actions

Crews and officers aboard ships

New allies

Met at Mahon

Met at Algiers

Met in the Mediterranean Sea or at Gibraltar

Ships

Title

The title refers to the Hundred Days, a period when Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba and temporarily returned to power in France.

Reviews

Kirkus Reviews finds brilliantly rendered clashes at sea, yet the strong point of the novel is the utterly convincing depiction of the early 19th century:

The 19th volume (The Yellow Admiral, 1996, etc.) in the most successful modern series of historical fiction indicates no diminishment of power or inventiveness on the part of its author. Loyal fans of the series, which chronicles the martial adventures and complex friendship of Captain Aubrey and the physician/spy Stephen Maturin during the Napoleonic Wars, need to know only that the book is available. Others who have yet to sample the series should know that it stands out because of O’Brian’s extraordinary ability to match an uncanny, utterly convincing evocation of early 19th-century Europe with subtle depictions of character, all rendered within the confines of plots featuring considerable adventures. This time out, the (realistically aging) Aubrey and Maturin are called on to help frustrate Napoleon’s last, desperate bid for power. The dictator has escaped from confinement on Elba, has rallied his armies, and is marching on British forces. There’s a chance that Muslim mercenaries may cast their lot with Napoleon and tip the balance of power—if French gold reaches them in time. First in North Africa, and then across the Atlantic, the duo pursue the gold. There are clashes on land, some brilliantly rendered action at sea, and while the two eventually triumph, their victory is not without cost. More swift, vivid, engrossing work from the dean of historical novelists.[1]

Publishers Weekly notes that the prose moves between the maritime sublime and the Austenish bon mot:

The Aubrey-Maturin series (The Commodore, etc.) nears the two dozen mark the way it began, with colorful historical background, smooth plotting, marvelous characters and great style. The title refers to Napoleon's escape from Elba and brief return to power. Capt. Jack Aubrey must stop a Moorish galley, loaded with gold for Napoleon's mercenaries, from making its delivery. The action takes us into two seas and one ocean and continues nearly nonstop until the climax in the Atlantic. We're quickly reacquainted with the two heroes: handsome sea dog Jack Aubrey, by now a national hero, and Dr. Stephen Maturin, Basque-Irish ship's doctor, naturalist, English spy and hopelessly incompetent seaman. Nothing stays the same, alas: Jack has gained weight almost to obesity, and Stephen is desolated by the death of his dashing, beautiful wife--but they're still the best of friends, each often knowing what the other is thinking. The prose moves between the maritime sublime and the Austenish bon mot ("a man generally disliked is hardly apt to lavish good food and wine on those who despise him, and Ward's dinners were execrable"). There are some favorite old characters, notably Aubrey's steward, Preserved Killick: "ill-faced, ill-tempered, meagre, atrabilious, shrewish" and thoroughly amusing. Chief among entertaining newcomers is Dr. Amos Jacob, a Cainite Jew ("they derive their descent from the Kenites, who themselves have Abel's brother Cain as their common ancestor"), who comes from a family of jewel merchants and has an encyclopedic grasp of Hebrew, Arabic and Turkish languages (and politics). Jacob is as expert as Stephen at spying and even more of a landlubber. O'Brian continues to unroll a splendid Turkish rug of a saga, and if it seems unlikely that the sedentary Stephen would hunt lions in the Atlas mountains (with the Dey of Algiers!), O'Brian brings off even this narrative feat with aplomb.[2]

Paul Kennedy writing in the New York Times says O'Brian's tales differ from others: "But these naval tales are blended into a larger panorama of Georgian society and politics, science, medicine, botany and the whole conspectus of contemporary Enlightenment knowledge about the natural world." A key to the success of the novel is "his invention of dual heroes, the bluff and ultracompetent Aubrey being always accompanied by his eccentric ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin". As this story brings the series to the final end of the Napoleonic wars, Kennedy asks, will this be the last novel? He thinks the closing, when the Admiral bids Aubrey to go to Chile, suggests there is more to come, as the real life of Thomas Cochrane, a sometime model for Aubrey, finds Cochrane in Chile in 1814.[3]

Patrick Reardon writing in the Chicago Tribune says this novel is a bit different from the earlier ones in the series: "a bit unusual for books in the series inasmuch as it has more of a plot". Like the rest of the series, what gives the novel distinction is the "rendering of the internal lives of the characters--his loving and apt portrayal of their rich mix of feelings and experiences".[4]

Anthony Day writing in the Los Angeles Times notes that "This is strictly an adventure tale." To the history of Napoleon's victorious return to France, building a huge army in weeks, and a strategy to defeat the allies once joined against him, "O'Brian has added a clever fictional twist. Muslim mercenaries have gathered in the Balkans willing to join Napoleon's forces--for a price. A sheik from a trading post in the Algerian desert holds that price, a nice store of gold." Of all the intriguing features of this novel, the best part is the "elegant and witty English prose consistent with late 18th-century diction, vocabulary and rhythm."[5]

Writing the The Independent, Christina Hardyment feels that a reader will understand less the impact of some aspects of the plot, not having read the earlier books in the series, on account of the importance of the characters: each new book is "letter about a much-loved and ever-growing family of characters in an unerringly authentic and gloriously patriotic setting." She says of this book "that its recurring leitmotif is one of the subtlest sketchings of deep, deep grief in literature."[6]

Series continuity

The story concludes with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and thus the final end of the Napoleonic wars. Aubrey and Maturin set sail for Chile in the Surprise to undermine Spanish colonial rule there, promoting the independence movement, to gain an ally for Britain. This is a continuation of the theme of The Wine-Dark Sea. Aubrey meets Captain Christy-Pallière as an ally, after first meeting him as the lieutenant who took him and his ship prisoner in the first novel, Master and Commander. Diana's diamond of great value, called the Blue Peter, was first mentioned in The Fortune of War, used to recover Maturin from a French prison in The Surgeon's Mate, pawned in The Yellow Admiral to support their family until Stephen's fortune is again available to him to buy it back, and in this novel, the diamond is buried with her, as her husband felt she loved it so much.

Sailing to the Adriatic Sea, Aubrey sends Jacob to Kutali to speak with his allies there, to gain the latest information on the rumor from Christy-Palliere about gold being sent to pay for soldiers who in turn would block the Russian army from joining the armies of the other allies. Aubrey and Maturin made friends in Kutali in The Ionian Mission. Links like this emphasize how Aubrey gained both allies and skills that serve him well in this situation.

Deaths of characters in the series of novels

News of several deaths is received by Maturin and Aubrey in this story. Stephen's wife Diana dies, as does Aubrey's mother-in-law, Mrs Williams and her equally unpleasant companion, in a crash when Diana's daring driving overturns their coach. Diana's death leaves Stephen completely shattered, unwilling to eat or speak for long periods of time, but he pulls himself together to foil Napoleon's latest plot. Christine Hatherleigh Wood's husband, Captain Wood, the colonial governor of Sierra Leone also dies; Dr Glover tells Stephen their marriage was almost a sham given that the husband was impotent. Admiral Lord Stranraer's death is reported, as he took too much of the medication on his own choice, after the doctors properly tapered his dosage down. He was introduced in The Yellow Admiral as an influential admiral who spread ill will about Aubrey. Gossip has it the reverse (that the doctors increased the dosage, rather than the patient), likely because he was not a well-liked man.

As part of the last military action in this story, the coxswain for Aubrey, and frequent helper to Maturin, Barret Bondon, is killed instantaneously by the one cannon shot from the xebec. Other crew members are killed too, but none who began with Aubrey in Master and Commander, and sailed with him at every chance.

Historical and scientific references

There is a theme of the seaman's notion of luck and the curiosity of the scientists. Dr Amos Jacob brings aboard a preserved hand exhibiting what is described as palmar aponeurosis - and now known as Dupuytren's contracture, named for distinguished surgeon and Maturin's friend Baron Guillaume Dupuytren, a hand with the fingers bent inwards and the fingernails growing through the flesh of the palm. It is stored in the alcoholic spirits of wine to preserve it. Stephen Maturin also brings aboard a narwhal tusk given him by Aubrey from a previous Baltic voyage.

The superstitious seamen accept one as a Hand of Glory and the other as a unicorn's horn, and regard them as good luck charms. Seamen drink the spirits, leaving the hand much deteriorated, and put out to dry, to see what could be saved. The Marine Captain's dog, Naseby, eats the hand, and an emetic only recovers the bones. The narwhal tusk is broken when a drunken Killick and an even more drunken ship's boy drop and break it - something that makes the domineering Killick suddenly very unpopular with his shipmates. A measure of goodwill and luck are restored on the ship when Maturin wires the bones together to make a skeletal hand - even more sinister looking, which pleases the crew. Good luck is restored when a marine engineer, Mr. Wright, glues the horn back together after he analyzes its structure.

The idea and the methods to haul a gun up Cranc island came from a seaman who had been at Diamond Rock near Martinique in 1803, when several guns were brought up to make a secure position.

Allusion to real places

Aubrey sails his convoy to Gibraltar, then to Mahón. In seeking out ports with ships to burn or sink, they reach Ragusa Vecchia and next Porte di Spalato on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. In Algiers, Maturin visits the Kasbah, the palace of the Dey. The two-faced Dey promises no gold will sail from Algiers when Maturin saves his life from the attacking lioness, but at the same time directs that the gold sail from Arzila, just southwest of Tangiers, through the Strait of Gibraltar to Durazzo, an Adriatic port. The ship is hidden near Tarifa, the southernmost point of Spain, to the west and south of Gibraltar along the Strait of Gibraltar.

Publication history

References

  1. ↑ "The Hundred Days" (1 September 1998 ed.). Kirkus Reviews. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "The Hundred Days". Publishers Weekly. October 1998. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Paul Kennedy (18 October 1998). "Naval Gazing: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are back in another tale of derring-do.". New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Patrick Reardon (2 November 1998). "19th In Series Of Historical Sea Tales Sails Right Along". Book Review. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Anthony Day (9 October 1998). "Aubrey Sets Sail in Pursuit of Napoleon". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Christina Hardyment (26 August 1998). "Wednesday Book: Home on the rolling deep". The Independent. Retrieved 15 March 2015.