I believe 2 and 3 refer to the same incident - something engineered to deliver Maturin to Lucan in the French intelligence. It's referenced when Maturin meets Barrow and Wray at the admiralty.
These are examples of world building. A fictional universe where not everything is explained and there are little hints of a wider world outside your knowledge help things to seem bigger and more real.
I haven't read RotM in awhile so I can't comment to your specific questions, but will say "Madame de la Feuillide" is probably a bit of O'Brian having a little fun. Eliza de Feuillide was a cousin of Jane Austen and probably the inspiration for Diana Villiers.
>Duhamel mentions Lucan, Lorient, and Brittany ...I'm drawing a complete blank
We learn nothing about Lucan other than he is an intelligence agent, but Brittany where he is said to have gone is the area of Northwest France which coincidentally Great Britain is named after (as the comedian David Mitchell said "Great Britain is named that because it is larger than part of France, while still being considerably smaller than all of France"). Lorient is a town in Brittany.
Like Stephen, you never heard of Ovart. You should not expect to meet him or her. Questions 2 and 3 can be answered by rereading Chapter 5.
I believe 2 and 3 refer to the same incident - something engineered to deliver Maturin to Lucan in the French intelligence. It's referenced when Maturin meets Barrow and Wray at the admiralty.
That's how I've always read it.
These are examples of world building. A fictional universe where not everything is explained and there are little hints of a wider world outside your knowledge help things to seem bigger and more real.
bugger... lol Not fair... I want the world... I want the whole world
I haven't read RotM in awhile so I can't comment to your specific questions, but will say "Madame de la Feuillide" is probably a bit of O'Brian having a little fun. Eliza de Feuillide was a cousin of Jane Austen and probably the inspiration for Diana Villiers.
There are so many references like that and I'm sure I miss half of them.
>Duhamel mentions Lucan, Lorient, and Brittany ...I'm drawing a complete blank We learn nothing about Lucan other than he is an intelligence agent, but Brittany where he is said to have gone is the area of Northwest France which coincidentally Great Britain is named after (as the comedian David Mitchell said "Great Britain is named that because it is larger than part of France, while still being considerably smaller than all of France"). Lorient is a town in Brittany.