Genre fiction ranges from low (pornography) to medium (mystery) to high (inspirational), and within categories the range is so great that generalizations are meaningless.

Patrick O’Brian’s novels fit into the seafaring adventure genre and their reputation is so positive that I was reluctant to read his 1970 Master and Commander, the first in the series of eighteen Jack Aubrey novels. Would I, I thought, become one of those guys who steers conversations toward the ways of ships and the men who sailed them in the early nineteenth century, during the Napoleonic wars, as I devoured each novel?

I needn’t have worried.

While I have no doubt that the novels are, as the New York Times quote on the back cover says, “The best historical novels ever written,” Master and Commander was, for me, a 412-page sleeping pill. I plead ignorance of the times and the world it describes, and I made the mistake of assuming that what wasn’t previously common knowledge could be learned by context. Why else would the copy I purchased have only a picture of the sails of a square-rigged ship, helpfully numbered and named, if everything else wouldn’t be understood in the reading? There is constant mention of parts of the ship besides the sails (you’d better know what a foc’s’le is, believe me) but there’s no definition. Oddly, the sails are seldom mentioned and several of them in the picture aren’t mentioned at all.

No maps? No glossary? I found at least one word per page that I’d never seen before. The words inhibited my ability to follow the action smoothly, even though those words rarely appeared again. Reading this on a Kindle with a touch screen would be wise. Otherwise, it’s like you’re trying to read fiction in which difficult crossword puzzle words have been chosen as the preferred vocabulary.

This is an idiot’s review, I know. I should have seen it coming with this book when there was no translation for the Latin on the dedication page: “Mariae lembi nostri duci et magistratae do dedico.” I’ve had two years of Latin, but that was forty years ago. A little help? Anyone?

A problem for me with books like this is that I feel dumb when the words just wash over me and I dislike that I’m not getting the meaning, but I’m too proud to simply stop reading, so I soldier on and read all of it, while books that are as good and more (to me) accessible sit on my shelves, waiting.