Posted on August 9th, 2021 by Jane McMorland Hunter

The Joy of Discovering a Great Adventure Series

My initial contact with Master and Commander, the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian, was not encouraging. A close friend was reading them and went on and on about how good they were. He would take every possible opportunity to try and persuade me – even to the extent of ringing me at work and reading passages down the telephone. Eventually I gave in and agreed to read the first book, merely to give weight to my argument that I wasn’t interested. Instead I was completely seduced, read the following sixteen immediately and impatiently waited for each new volume after that. They are described as naval historical fiction but this only covers part of their appeal; they are adventure stories in the very best tradition, wonderful glimpses of nineteenth-century music, food, drink and natural history and, perhaps surprisingly, they are romantic - the romance of sailing itself, the bonds within the ship and the sheer beauty of the world, even amongst the hardship, squalor and danger of life at sea at the time.

The series is set during the Napoleonic Wars and is based around the unlikely friendship between Jack Aubrey, a naval captain, and Stephen Maturin, a physician and spy. Jack is an open, bluff character who knows little of the intricacies of spying and Stephen knows nothing whatsoever about the workings of a ship. This is a clever device which means it does not matter if the reader has no idea what a yard arm or bosun’s chair is; you can guarantee that Stephen will not know either and Jack, or a member of the crew, will provide an explanation without a break in the story.

Each of the twenty completed books in the series can stand on its own but they are much better read in chronological order. The novels are, for the most part, extremely accurate in historical terms and faithful to the language of the period; bumpers and heel-taps appear on the table while French Short Bastards and Drowned Baby are consumed. Patrick O’Brian’s prose has been likened to Jane Austen (which flattered him as he regarded her as the finest of all English novelists), but his books are so much more exciting and so much more fun; I cannot imaging reading seventeen Jane Austen novels in a row.

Patrick O’Brian died whilst writing the twenty-first book; all that existed were seventy-five pages of rough draft. He would probably not have wished the incomplete work to be published but, published it was and forms a fascinating insight into how he wrote, the trouble he took over individual words and the attention to detail which makes the books so perfect. Also it meant one left Jack and Stephen mid-adventure. I really didn’t want to have to leave either of them and it was better this way, as they embarked on a new escapade. Read Master and Commander and enter the start of several months joyous literary adventure.