Master and Commander
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian is a delightful book and a wonderful starting point for anyone interested in nautical fiction.
It’s the first in O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series and I’m glad I started here, as it sets the scene for future novels.
Jack Aubrey is a frustrated lieutenant waiting in a Mediterranean port for his first command of the Napoleonic War when he meets out-of-work doctor Stephen Maturin.
They don’t immediately hit it off, as Maturin arrogantly disturbs Aubrey’s toe tapping at a classical concert, however they meet later on better terms and begin a close friendship.
Aubrey gains a captain’s lapel and is appointed to command the sloop Sophie. He recruits Maturin as surgeon and they set off on escort duty before Aubrey turns attention to the more lucrative task of capturing enemy merchant vessels.
This commercial liking for prizes causes some tension with Aubrey’s Irish lieutenant James Dillon, who unknown to the captain, was a colleague of Maturin’s in Wolfe Tone’s ill-fated rebellion of the United Irishmen and a Catholic.
Dillon becomes openly hostile towards Aubrey after the Sophie flees a larger Spanish warship.
The vessels cross paths again later and this time Aubrey takes up the challenge and wins famously against the much larger ship, but Dillon was killed in action.
Aubrey never receives official praise for the victory, mainly because his immediate commander holds a grudge over an affair that Aubrey is having with the commander’s wife.
This book is beautifully written. The detail for this landlubber is superb, without detracting from the pace of the action.
There is great humour, especially in the descriptions of characters and circumstances. People of rank are shown to have the same flaws and foibles as ordinary seamen.
The book ends with Aubrey being cleared at court-martial of any offence in losing the Sophie to a French flotilla. That sets the scene for the next instalment, Post Captain, which I can’t wait to arrive from my supplier.
I’ve written mainly here about Aubrey, because the chronology follows his fortunes, but Maturin is a fascinating character.
Down on his luck, but maintaining high dignity, he speaks many languages, mixes well with all classes, is highly intelligent, aloof but companionable.
He’s described in the book cover as a "secret agent", but apart from some mixing with Spanish civilians he doesn’t show much of the spy in this book. I assume that’s to come in later novels.
O’Brian wrote 20 books in this series before his death in 2000. He also wrote other fiction and two biographies, including that of botanist Joseph Banks, who sailed with Cook to Australia and the South Pacific.
O’Brian rightly deserves praise for realistically capturing the idiom of 18th century English, his thorough research and historical accuracy.
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Very interesting article.