Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > O'Brian, Patrick - James Teacher (review date 4 January 1997)

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James Teacher (review date 4 January 1997)

SOURCE: “Something Happened on the Way to Chile,” in Spectator, Vol. 278, No. 8788, January 4, 1997, pp. 30–31.

[In the following review, Teacher offers a positive assessment of The Yellow Admiral, complimenting O'Brian's great knowledge of English country life.]

Fourteen years have passed since the acrimonious exchange between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin during the interval of the first and second movements of Locatelli's C-major quartet in the music-room of Government House, Port Mahon on 1 April 1800. The period covered by The Yellow Admiral (the 18th novel in the series chronicling the careers of these remarkable fictional characters) is that of the Brest blockade prior to Napoleon's abdication after the Battle of Toulouse, 10 April 1814, until his subsequent escape from Elba.

Jack Aubrey's most fervent wish, as he creeps to the top of the Captains' List, is for...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. John Bayley (essay date 7 November 1991)
   2. Frank Stewart (review date 4 April 1993)
   3. Byron Rogers (review date 10 July 1993)
   4. Michael Dirda (review date August 1993)
   5. Patrick T. Reardon (review date 19 December 1993)
   6. Frederick Pratter (review date 31 December 1993)
   7. John Balzar (review date 2 January 1994)
   8. Thomas McGonigle (review date 2 January 1994)
   9. Elliott Abrams (review date 24 January 1994)
   10. James Hamilton-Paterson (review date 26 December 1994)
   11. Frederick Pratter (review date 2 May 1995)
   12. Katherine A. Powers (review date July 1995)
   13. Sam Pickering (review date Spring 1996)
   14. Thomas R. Edwards (essay date Summer 1996)
   15. John Balzar (review date 20 October 1996)
   16. Edward T. Wheeler (review date 8 November 1996)
   17. Christopher Clausen (review date 16 December 1996)
   18. James Teacher (review date 4 January 1997)
   19. John Mullan (review date 10 January 1997)
   20. Books Magazine (review date October 1997)
   21. Molly Finn (essay date 19 June 1998)
   22. Alan Judd (review date 22 August 1998)
   23. Barbara Everett (review date 4 September 1998)
   24. Martin Jacques (review date 6 September 1998)
   25. Christopher Hitchens (essay date 9 March 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright