by Liz Bezera
"All the Biographical Information You Can Glean About Stephen Maturin From the Books" Well, books 1-17.
| Book | Notes |
|---|---|
| 1 | United Irishman-failed rebellion lost love, Mona |
| 2 | a man of some estate in Lérida Irish father connected with some of the first families speaks Catalan, Spanish has a Spanish passport in the name of Joan Margall from Lérida has a castle just over the Spanish border plays the flute has an estate in the mountains with sheep; his main place is near Lérida speaks French understands Irish of the seamen without trying to |
| 3 | full name is Esteban Maturin y Domanova lived in France, studied in Paris "enthusiastic" supporter of the revolution until 1793 United Irishman until the rising a Fitzgerald on the wrong side of the blanket; adviser to Lord Edward, his cousin "so chaste that at one time we were uneasy...one liaison-woman of very good family-ended unhappily" had seen much of Lt. Nicolls in Gibralter years before & had dined together at Chatham speaks Portuguese speaks a "trifle of Arabic", enough Hindustani is taken for a holy man in India has 15 upper teeth and 14 lower teeth tells Diana he has £10,000 plus his estate learning to speak Malay |
| 4 | delivered scores of babies as a student at the Rotunda abhors slavery |
| 5 | illegitimate son of Irish officer and Catalan lady recalls Bligh's botanist, David Nelson, but not Capt. Bligh has been a prisoner of war, and a prisoner for debt My favorite quotation: Sophie to Jack: "But if you had heard him speak of wombats-oh, just in passing, and not with any sense of ill-usage-it would have brought tears to your eyes. Oh, Jack, he is so very low." comments on prisons he's known-filthy in Spain; Lisbon's underground vaults are wetter than the forepeak prison says he has "no great experience of midwifery"-performs C-section |
| 6 | had a cousin Kevin in the Austrian service who died was a republican in the frothy pride of his youth..."had I been out of coats at the time, I should have joined...@ Bunker Hill. As it was, I cheered the taking of the Bastille." speaks Greek, Latin |
| 7 | goes to Ireland to ride the bounds of cousin Kevin's land which had been confiscated and is now to be restored since he died fighting Bonaparte when a student in Paris, lodged in a garret in Rue Gît-le-Coeur. Dupuytren lived downstairs-they shared corpses Kevin's father, Col. Fitzgerald, lived at the Hôtel d-Arpajon-DV also lived there as child says he's "sadly ignorant of midwifery" address to the Institut is attended by Cuvier, Latreille, Larrey, Gay-Lussac, etc. his godfather is Ramon d'Ullastret i Casademon. spent time with him as a child; got his first wolf, bear, eagle's next, desman, genet had been in several prisons before the Temple, "but they were all underground" was a student with Larrey |
| 8 | I didn't note anything on SM's previous life |
| 9 | doesn't eat meat on Fridays can pass for Irish, Spanish, or French Laura Fielding reminds him of his first love-slim, with dark red hair not rich not very good at drawing teeth chews khat finds out he's richer than he thought spent a long time in a Spanish prison sharing cell with a card-sharp doesn't speak German as a youth, promised his godfather never to touch dice again after being rescued from "a sad scrape." sticks to cards. |
| 10 | says he's never learned the knack of pulling teeth "moderately fluent in Portuguese" poor, slow at arithmetic speaks Irish with Padeen likes his coffee made the Arabian way once met a pugilist named Henry Pearce, the Game Chicken, but missed seeing him fight Thomas Cribb has not read Dr. Darwin's Zoonomia |
| 11 | plays a "gentle lament" he learned from Hempson, the great harper of the world, aged 104, in the city of Cork met Croker, new Admiralty secretary, years ago in Ireland at Trinity College his cousin Thaddeus Fitzgerald, and three others, all soldiers (England, Austria, Spain). News of Pamela, Lord Edward's widow says his godfather was Don Ramón; he's now rich the Catalan of his youth more familiar than the Irish of his childhood |
| 12 | his godfather was his father's particular friend, his mother's third cousin one removed, "the last of his wealthy race" his godfather's great-great-grandmother lived at Avila, and knew St. Theresa brought up on the shores of the Mediterranean duelling at Trinity College- went out a score of times his first year highest point he ever reached on land was Maladetta, on a mule from Benasque |
| 13 | recognizes Robert Gough, a United Irishman, on snow they're chasing. they were both for Irish government & Catholic emancipation was opposed to violence & helping French tyranny shocked by the 1798 defeat of the rising and the loss of his sweetheart-felt terribly low at the point when he met Jack says a Rosary his first contacts with naval intelligence were with John Somerville, after his early days in the Sophie has used only sporting guns and muskets, not rifles at audience with Sultan, wears scarlet robes and hood of an MD |
| 14 | after his parents' deaths, spent much of his childhood and youth in Spain, living with various family members, settling with his godfather and cousin Don Ramón Cosí Francesc & Cosí Eulália he knew as child, adolescent & man has had smallpox Irish the first language he spoke-was fostered in County Clare runs into his cousin James Fitzgerald, a wordly priest, in Sydney they spent time running about the Galtee mountains from great-uncle's home; last met at the Patriach of Lisbon's |
| 15 | smell of pigs part of his childhood-fostered with peasants in the ancient Irish way in one of his Catalan homes he & his godfather reared a wild boar his first sight of St. Dabeoc's heath at age 7 the Pyrenean desman a few weeks later |
| 16 | met Dutourd 3 or 4 times in Mme. Roland's salon before the war in 1789 was studying medicine in the wards of the Hôtel-Dieu, running around Paris studied medicine with Francis Geary, shared corpses from the Liffey & the Seine has some influence in Rome has exceptional powers of recollection-can repeat the entire Aeneid, knows the private code by heart |
| 17 | is a Fellow of the Royal Society doctorates from Dublin and Paris an aunt of his father's is abbess of the Benedictine house in Avila Aunt Petronilla offers Padeen a small farm in Munster his cousin in Corunna, Col don Patricio Fitzgerald y Saavedra has poor handwriting over the years, has tried nitrous oxide, hemp, tobacco, bhang, betel, qat, hallucinating cacti, opium, coca knew Michel Adanson in Paris |
| Book | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2 |
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| 5 |
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| 9 |
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| 12 |
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| 16 |
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