Beasts Royal: Twelve Tales of Adventure

by Patrick O'Brian

Beasts Royal is the second book written by Patrick O’Brian – made available, at last, for the first time since the 1930s and elegantly repackaged.


On the indigo waters of the South Sea, the crew of a schooner are attacked by a man-eating tiger-shark. In the humid depths of the African jungle, a thirty-foot python plots to rid himself of his rival, a wily old crocodile. Amid the heat and dust of the Punjab, the snake-charmer Hussein escapes into the forest on the elephant that he trained when a mahout in his youth.


With the dry wit and unsentimental precision O’Brian would come to be loved for, we see the drama and tragedies of the natural world unfold for these, as well as other birds and beasts, in these twelve tales of animal adventure that would appear together in 1934 as the author’s second book.


O’Brian’s debut, Caesar, had been published in 1930 and became an instant success, seeing him hailed as the ‘boy-Thoreau’. His second novel, Hussein, would expand upon one of the stories included in this collection and has been praised by Martin Booth of The Daily Telegraph as being ‘…as fresh today as when it was written.…so rich in detail, it is breathtaking.’ As with Caesar and Hussein, Beasts Royal sheds fascinating light on the formation of the literary genius behind the Aubrey-Maturin series of historical adventure tales, for which he is deservedly famous.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Adventure, Collections

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2015

About the author

Patrick O'Brian was an English novelist and translator whose reputation rests above all on the Aubrey-Maturin novels, a twenty-volume sequence set during the Napoleonic Wars. The books follow Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, his friend and ship's surgeon, whose Irish-Catalan background and scientific interests complement Aubrey's practical naval outlook. Beginning with Master and Commander, the series combines historical events with fictional adventures, preserving the outcome of real history while placing its protagonists within the action. O'Brian's command of period language, naval terminology, medical detail, and maritime practice gives the novels a convincing sense of nineteenth-century life, while their humor and the evolving relationship between Aubrey and Maturin provide their emotional center. The series became a long-form narrative in which professional duties and private lives develop continuously across successive voyages. O'Brian's literary career began remarkably early. Writing as Richard Patrick Russ, he published his first novel, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda-Leopard, as a teenager, followed by animal stories collected in Beasts Royal. His novel Hussein: An Entertainment appeared in 1938 and received critical attention. After the Second World War, he adopted the name Patrick O'Brian and continued publishing fiction, including The Last Pool, Testimonies, and The Catalans. His early naval novels for younger readers, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, already contained elements that anticipated Aubrey and Maturin. He also became a translator from French, producing more than thirty English translations, including works by Simone de Beauvoir, Henri Charriere, and Jean Lacouture. His nonfiction included biographies of the naturalist Joseph Banks and the painter Pablo Picasso, whom he knew in Collioure, France. O'Brian lived in Wales after the war before moving with his wife Mary to Collioure in 1949. Their collaboration was important to his working life, with Mary assisting him in research and preparing his handwritten manuscripts for publication. O'Brian wrote by hand throughout his career and resisted modern writing technology. His literary breakthrough came unusually late. Although the Aubrey-Maturin books had a modest British following after their first appearance, their American revival in the early 1990s, led by W. W. Norton, brought sales and recognition. The novels eventually sold millions of copies and attracted devoted readers well beyond the age group normally associated with historical adventure fiction. O'Brian received the inaugural Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 1995, an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, and a CBE in 1997. His reputation was complicated when British media revealed details of his early identity and first marriage, matters he had kept private. Despite the controversy, his fiction remained central to his legacy. His unfinished twenty-first Aubrey-Maturin novel was published posthumously, preserving both handwritten pages and typescript. His manuscripts, notes, and research materials have since become part of major literary collections. His influence is also reflected in the continued readership of the novels and the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which drew primarily from The Far Side of the World while incorporating material from elsewhere in the series.

Reviews

[Emma]

I received this as part of a good reads giveaway. It was well written just didn't grasp my interest unfortunately

[Gibin Mathew]

Nice collection of short stories !

This book is a collection of simple stories woven around some of the wonderful and frightening wild beasts in this earth surface. All of these stories have some human characters in it,sometimes as a animal loving man (as a elephant mahout,the villagers who worshiped white cobra) and other time as a hated,greedy character(hunter in Africa,the wicked snake charmer).This story unveils the drama of animal world ,its happiness ,its adventures and tragedies.

Half of these stories are in Indian background during British Raj. Author was successful in portraying the life of Indian villages and the society (both Indian and British) in those days. It also displays the various role of animals in village life in rural India (as a god (cobra),as a slave(elephant) ).

For the simplicity and wonderful language I will rate it 4/5

[Francis Pellow]

these little animal stories are all very nice but don't really amount to much and you feel you want something a more weighty. I don't really see a lot of the qualities that O'Brian brought to my beloved Aubrey and Maturin novels.

[John Hitchcock]

I very much like Patrick O'Brian's maritime novels. These stories not so much. I found them dated and repetitive with many fights. It's not often I don't finish a book. This one I abandoned two thirds through.

[Natasha Gruenke]

I really enjoyed how the stories were so well constructed whilst being very concise. It was very enjoyable!

[Morgan McGuire]

These are (literally) the thoroughly generic short stories of a 19 year old who idolizes Melville and Kipling.

[Kevin]

The blurb for this book seemed interesting and it's only short so why not give it a try huh? I settled down thinking the cover looked interesting and flicked through to the first story, even barely pausing at the contents page. Shark 206. With a gorgeous line drawing of aforementioned shark. A smile crept across my face and I felt excited. But the end of the first page I was, if you'll forgive the phrase, hooked.

This is a glorious collection of adventure stories from another age, yet doesn't feel dated. They have a slightly stilted and distant tone which actually piles character into them. As I laid in bed reading I could picture myself with a leather library-bound copy in a creeky wingback chair next to a roaring behemoth of a fire. These stories manage that rare art of being more than something to read, they become an experience. And what an experience it is, I found myself absorbed and entranced - reading this book was a luxurious delight.

But I should mention the stories too. 12 shorts, basically 10 pages per tale, each with an accompanying piece of artwork. Each tale views the world from the perspective of a different protagonist. It's written in third person limited perspective which gives it that core narrative while being somewhat singular in outlook.

What makes the collection so rich is the variety, just as I felt i was maybe seeing a pattern developing in the thread between the tales it was snapped and a new tale appeared. It makes it very hard to describe them en mass but suffice to say that each story does indeed include an animal and some notable event.

The tales tend to have a slight dark reality to them, often exploring the harshness of the animal kingdom and in particular human involvement in the world. If anything it's a little Victorian in that regard actually, reading both coldly like a textbook but also with a touch of dramatic flair as the wild world out there is unveiled to a sheltered audience.

Whilst I know this book will be something of an acquired taste it is safe to say it fits me perfectly, I am delighted at having read it.

I received a complimentary copy of the book through First Reads

[Robert Hepple]

Beasts Royal, first published in 1934, was O'Brian's second book, and comprises a short collection of 12 short stories each centred around a different beast and told from the animals perspective. It is on a different level of realism compared to, say, Kipling's animal stories whilst the average 10 page length of each tale makes them fast paced and snappy in the best ultra-short story style. An enjoyable insight into the versatility of O'Brian beyond the well-trodden paths of the Aubrey-Maturin series.

[Claire]

I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads, in exchange for an honest review.

What a delightful little book this is. It's easy to read, the stories are short but engaging, and the content is at once full of peril and child friendly. This is a great book to instill an awe of animals into absolutely anyone. The creatures involved range from elephants - boldly staring out from the gorgeous cover art - to the humble, but equally fascinating, heron.

I loved every second of reading this, and will be making sure all my family give it a go too!
Enjoy!

[Naomi]

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY WIN.

A serviceable enough collection of exotic animal related stories, if a bit matter-of-factly bloodthirsty by modern standards, and not really my genre of choice. There is a timeless quality to the writing which hints at a talented storyteller (I wouldn't have guessed this collection was first published in the 1930s) and I wasn't surprised to discover that the author is best known for his historical adventure novels.

[Shannon]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and was thrilled!! I have never read a Patrick O'Brian book but loved this. Each tale was fun, vibrant and entertaining. I would recommend this to anyone. Children would love the stories of animals and their cunning. Adults will love the planning and execution. A must read.

[Christina Kelly]

I RECIEVED THIS BOOK FREE AS A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY. I THOUGHT IT WAS A BRILLIANT LITTLE BOOK CONSISTING OF TWELVE SHORT STORIES OF ADVENTURE. THE STORIES WERE EASY TO READ AND WERE VERY DESCRIPTIVE. OVERALL VERY ENJOYABLE.

[David]

Tiempo de lectura: 2 horas.

Colección de 12 breves relatos de aventuras de diferentes animales salvajes. Son historias que tratan de violencia, supervivencia y venganza. Me han gustado unos mas que otros, pero en general están bien y entretienen. Recomendable.

[Just_me]

A book of thoroughly enjoyable short stories. A reprint from 1934 but still fun.

I won this book through goodreads firstreads for an honest review.

[Wilde Sky]

This book contains a collection of short animal related stories.

Some of the stories were fairly interesting but none of them really gripped me.

[Ashleigh]

2.5✪'s

[Camille]

A totally surprising and delightful read! I like how petty all the animals are.