H.M.S. Surprise (Aubrey Maturin Series)

379 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 1994 by W. W. Norton & Company.

ISBN:
978-0-393-03703-6
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OCLC Number:
31728393

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4 stars (16 reviews)

3 editions

Review of 'H.M.S. Surprise (Aubrey Maturin Series)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The first book in the Aubrey Maturin series, Master and Commander, was intriguing but I often got tangled in nautical terminology. At the time I didn't know the difference between a mizzen mast and foremast. It took some time between but I admired the book enough to get the second entry, Post Captain. By then my shipman's vocabulary had improved and the series protagonists were familiar acquaintences. H.M.S. Surprise, this third in Patrick O'Brian's famed series, however, is the one I fell in love with. The characters are dear to me, the prose is now full and often gorgeous because of its specificity, and the stories are so engaging I just don't want them to end. Fortunately, I have 17 more volumes.

Review of 'H.M.S. Surprise (Aubrey Maturin Series)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Repeated from review of Book 1

That Patrick O'Brian chose to place his characters on the sea in the not so distant past just raised the hurdle I had to leap to get to know this wonderful author.

I had never been enamored with sea stories, didn't much care for European history, and yet was wonderfully taken with this series. The sea is a major character, but history is not greatly illuminated, almost a backdrop to the specific circumstance the characters find themselves in. Which perhaps reflects the author's view, while the wide sweep of Europe's history progresses, men are left to deal with far smaller local problems.

And it is in men that O'Brian shines. O'Brian creates characters flawed enough to be human, without becoming base. Not the best of men, but rising to better as circumstance demands.

And while the author leaves the great sweep of history largely …