Patrick O'Brien has a certain idiosyncratic manner in writing his biography of Joseph Banks and the book is all the more enjoyable and reading for this. The early years of Bank's life (travels with Cook etc) are discussed using large chunks of Bank's own letters and journals, these take a little time to get used too as Bank's personal style is also very idiosyncratic. O'Brien obviously really likes his subject matter and by the time you finish the book you almost certainly feel the same way. By his early thirties Bank's has finished his travels and O'Brien compares him to a barnacle, whose juvenile life is spent as an active and free swimming creature only to 'find a convenient place, settle there, change shape, and never move again. Much the same appeared to be happening to Banks'(p.191).

It is a fascinating account of an incredible man, some parts of it are very moving. For example the last letter from Charles Clarke as he lay dying to his friend Joseph Banks and wishing him 'many happy years in this world'(p.203) was particularly poignant and O'Brien must have felt the same way since he included it in full in the book. Also the death of his friend Solander, which Bank's described as 'not possible for my heart to replace the impression which twenty years ago it took as easily as wax and which now will not be effaced until the heart itself dies' (p.206)

O'Brien's affection for his subject is finally evident in the end section of the book, where he cannot bear to leave Banks on his deathbed and the reading of his will but must end the story with examples of key letters that display the vigour of the living man.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and it has left me with the desire to know even more about the live and work of Joseph Banks. This must surely be a good endorsement of an excellent biography. ( )

Patrick O'Brian is best known for his series of "sea novels" featuring Captain Jack Aubrey (Master and Commander, &c.). But he's also a biographer, and his Joseph Banks: A Life is as fine a treatment of Banks as any I've read. O'Brian makes frequent and lengthy use of Banks' own letters, journals and diaries, sometimes stringing along huge quotations with only the slightest bits of connective prose. This and a couple other stylistic oddities were a little off-putting at first, but I got over them and quickly immersed myself in the book.

Bank's life (as globe-trotting botanist with Captain Cook; friend of Linneaus, George III, Samuel Johnson and Joseph Priestley; and longtime president of the Royal Society, among other positions) is one of those (like Johnson's or Priestley's, in fact) which I find it difficult not to be completely captivated by - how could one person have done so much?

The running heads for this book were useful and well-done; each page's header contains the years covered and Banks' age at the time, which made it easy to keep the chronology straight as I read. O'Brian's footnotes, however, leave something to be desired, and while he warns that certain editorial changes have been made to Banks' writings, he fails to note where those occur. Another minor quibble is with the lack of good maps; these are a must for books featuring travel or exploration, and those included here just didn't do the job (not only were they not detailed enough, but they were blurry as well).

A few minor faults, but otherwise quite a good biography, and one I would recommend.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/07/book-review-joseph-banks-life.html ( )