Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Series
I'm amazed that this hasn't been discussed, unless my choice of search terms has led me astray.
I'm currently in the middle of
Master and Commander, but I'm so impressed with just this first novel that I fully intend to read the entire series eventually. A local used book store usually has copies of O'Brian's books, albeit not in strict order. Those I can't find there are definitely available at the San Diego Maritime Museum's store. They might carry them anyway because of their canonical status as one of the best sea yarns since Forester's Hornblower series, but there's another reason why they do: the HMS
Surprise is docked permanently in San Diego Harbor. She was formerly the HMS
Rose, a replica ship of the historical frigate HMS
Rose, but was snapped up for the film
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and repurposed as an enormous floating prop. After she was decommissioned from Universal, the San Diego Maritime Museum bought and refurbished her so that she could sail once again.
Anyway, a visit out to that ship rekindled my interest in both the movie and the books. On a second viewing, I didn't like the movie as much as I once did because it felt like too much of an abridgment of the novels. Events taken from scattered moments throughout O'Brian's books are strung together like beads on a string, without enough to connect them.
The books, however, are a marvelous achievement. I think that before I'm through with the series, I might esteem them more than the Hornblower novels.
The understated humor of the books is one of the things I like most. For example, when Capt. Jack Aubrey ("Captain" here is a courtesy title given to a Master and Commander) is trying to convince Stephen Maturin to voyage with him as ship's surgeon. Maturin is a physician, which is a higher class of occupation than a mere surgeon (who often worked menial jobs in addition to their status as surgeons). Physicians, unlike surgeons, could look after royalty and be received at Court. But I digress. Maturin, left in straitened circumstances because of the unexpected death of a patient, is seriously weighing the possibility of beginning a life at sea, but he's no naval man, so he has no idea what's required. One of the things he thinks might be required is an oath. (It later transpires that he was a member of the United Irishmen, and he may have Catholic sympathies, but certainly has republican sympathies.) Aubrey tells him that only the commissioned officers have to take an oath; Maturin would be appointed by warrant. He then describes the scene: 'you go to the Admiralty and they read you a piece about allegiance and supremacy and utterly renouncing the Pope; you feel very solemn and say "to this I swear" and the chap at the high desk says "and that will be half a guinea", which does rather take away from the effect, you know.'
Later in the book, Aubrey is taking care of the previous commander's unfinished business, which includes signing a request for court martial naming one of his sailors and alleging sodomy with a goat. Aubrey feels put out over the needless waste of time and manpower to prosecute the court martial, and the damage it will do the reputation of the
Sophie:
'Oh, what an infernal bore — witnesses going over to the flagship by the dozen, days lost ... The
Sophie a laughing-stock. Why will they report these things? The goat must be slaughered — that's but fair — and it shall be served on the mess that informed on him.'
Maturin comes up with another option to save time, the
Sophie's reputation, and the sailor's life, as bestiality was punished by hanging from the yard-arm:
'Could you not set them both ashore — on separate shores, if you have strong feelings on the moral issue — and sail quietly away?'
That made me laugh aloud. Maturin's clause made me envision the two lovers walking into the sunset together after having been turned ashore.
This is certainly one of the finest naval adventure stories I've ever read, and I like the fact that O'Brian doesn't sugar-coat the facts of naval life. Aubrey is depicted struggling with paperwork, the loneliness that comes from not being "one of the guys" anymore, the whims and sadistic humor of his superiors, his debt to his prize-agent, and so on. And not every battle goes his way. There are setbacks as well as triumphs, just as there are in any naval career of this period.
Has anyone else read this? What did you think?
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