I'm a Patrick O'Brian fan, and am almost ready to begin again his Master and Commander series, all twenty books of it. Wonderful!

But for "what I've been reading recently", I just finished O'Brian's great non-sea novel, Testimonies.   

O'Brian had written and published one earlier novel, when he was fourteen or fifteen, which showed some of his abilities which were to blossom so greatly later, but Testimonies was his first novel as an adult (that is to say "grown up", as opposed to erotic) writer. It's marvelous.

Testimonies is told in segments of narrations out of the mouths of various characters in the overarching story, each telling, in the words and personality of that character, and from that character's knowledge of the story facts, so that you get a sort of simultaneous overview of what's happening. O'Brian does this very well.

Mr. Pugh, the protagonist, is a middle-aged scholar and writer, retired from the Oxford University faculty after receiving an inheritance, who takes a house in Wales, where he expects to work on his book on medieval literature. You see his gradual acclimatization to Welsh culture over a period of time, including falling in love (mutually) with the wife of a neighbor (but with no adultery).

Without trying to set out the plot development in details, I'll just say that the whole thing eventuates in a tragic ending, with the lady either poisoning herself or being poisoned by her family.

For lovers of fine novelistic writing generally, as well as O'Brian fans in particular, I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

Dave Oesterreich