Patrick O'Brian: Master and Commander (2003, HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited)
448 pages
Published Jan. 8, 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited.
Master and Commander is a nautical historical novel by the English author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1969 in the US and 1970 in UK. The book proved to be the start of the 20-novel Aubrey–Maturin series, set largely in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, on which O'Brian continued working up until his death in 2000. The novel is set at the turn of the 19th century. It follows the young Jack Aubrey who has just been promoted to the rank of Master and Commander, and Stephen Maturin, a destitute physician and naturalist whom Aubrey appoints as his naval surgeon. They sail in HM Sloop of War Sophie with first lieutenant James Dillon, a wealthy and aristocratic Irishman. The naval action in the Mediterranean is closely based on the real-life exploits of Lord Cochrane, including a battle modelled after Cochrane's spectacular victory in the brig HMS Speedy over the …
Master and Commander is a nautical historical novel by the English author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1969 in the US and 1970 in UK. The book proved to be the start of the 20-novel Aubrey–Maturin series, set largely in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, on which O'Brian continued working up until his death in 2000. The novel is set at the turn of the 19th century. It follows the young Jack Aubrey who has just been promoted to the rank of Master and Commander, and Stephen Maturin, a destitute physician and naturalist whom Aubrey appoints as his naval surgeon. They sail in HM Sloop of War Sophie with first lieutenant James Dillon, a wealthy and aristocratic Irishman. The naval action in the Mediterranean is closely based on the real-life exploits of Lord Cochrane, including a battle modelled after Cochrane's spectacular victory in the brig HMS Speedy over the vastly superior Spanish frigate El Gamo. The novel puts the reader into the times in every aspect, from the ways of the Royal Navy on sailing ships to the state of science and medicine and social status. Master and Commander met with mixed early reviews on its first publication. Although UK sales were respectable enough for O'Brian to continue with his series, it was not initially a success in the US. In Britain and Ireland, however, voices of praise gradually became dominant. In 1990, the US publisher W W Norton re-issued the book and its sequels; this was an almost immediate success and drew O'Brian a new, large readership. O'Brian's biographer has placed the novel at the start of what he called the author's magnum opus, a series that has become perhaps the best-loved roman fleuve of the twentieth century.
It's a good book with a very, very havy vocabulary. I look forward to reading the other books of the series
...and now I'm in the society of Patrick O'Brian readers.
The story had me hooked from the opening scene. Not only was I fascinated by these two characters (Aubrey and Maturin) but O'Brian's deft sentence construction impressed me deeply. There are so many wonderful moments amid a jungle of exotic nautical terminology that though I lost track of the geography on the HMS Sophie more than once, I was still enraptured by the novel.
I will definitely be continuing the series and I recommend this book to anyone looking for solid prose and an interesting world to inhabit for awhile.
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 …
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.
Scott Morse loves the series
Scott Morse loves the series
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 aside, the detailed history of these …
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 aside, the detailed history of these men's lives, the sacrifices, the conditions of life at sea are truly fascinating.
