# Aubrey/Maturin, Patrick O'Brian, Master, Commander
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 15, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496 "2010-05-15T01:13:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/1 "2010-05-15T01:13:49Z")
I’ve just finished my first (and won’t be last) go through Patrick O’Brian’s series of 20 novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Someone years ago described the books as “Jane Austen, but with more explosions” and I think that is correct. God, they are a wonder, the humour is subtle but hilarious, the sense of place and time is astonishing.
I am so enormously pleased I eventually read the books, and read _all_ the books and
I’'m so glad that Jack can trail his Blue at the mast, finally, and Stephen has a hope of love
The bottle stands by you, sir!
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### Author:  [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/2 "2010-05-15T03:05:26Z")
Give you joy on your completion!
If you haven’t done so already, check out the audio books read by Patrick Tull. He’s amazing.
I had to skip around the first time through so I had to re-read a few to pick up on some continuities. I turned a good friend of mine on to them last year; he read them straight through and in a fairly short period of time. I was envious. But once he got started he couldn’t stop.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/3 "2010-05-15T03:50:02Z")
I finished 1-11 in a few months and am taking a breather. I’m sad that there are just 9 left, and sad that there won’t be any more M/C movies. I read a lot of historical novels, and these have become my favorites.
_American Experience_ did an episode on whaling this week, built around what happened to _The Essex_, and touching on Melville and _Moby Dick_. Did you see it?
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/4 "2010-05-15T04:00:31Z")
> [@NicePete](#):
>
> I was envious. But once he got started he couldn’t stop.
I couldn’t stop, once I’d started. There’s a whole bunch of upper mainsail and royals and whatnot . _makes ship go_ Stephen falls in the water yet again, brandishing a Narwhal’s tooth and a letter from Sir Joseph.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/5 "2010-05-15T04:19:23Z")
I was a real Aubrey/Maturin fan for about 15 books’ worth, and then just petered out, which seemed to me to be how the author was feeling as well. There was always some interesting plot development and exotic setting in all the books, but the main characters started to seem very mechanical later on.
I got particularly tired of the way the Stephen/Diana relationship was jerked around into every possible configuration, for no convincing reason other than to provide plot variety. The author clearly got so desperate by the end to get off that particular merry-go-round that
he had to kill the poor bitch just to make it stop.
I love Age of Sail sea stories in general, but I’ve never made it back to O’Brian. One thing I always did wish, though, was for one or more of Jane Austen’s sea captains to show up in the books. The timing would have had to be handled carefully, but wouldn’t you have loved to see a younger Admiral Crawford (offstage character from _Mansfield Park_ quarreling with his wife, or an encounter with Admiral and Mrs. Croft or one of the other captains from _Persuasion_? Frederick Wentworth as a happy-go-lucky midshipman!
O’Brian, for all that I got kind of tired of him towards the end of the series, was undoubtedly one of the few authors who could have successfully pulled off the stunt of bringing an Austen character into his narrative in a cameo appearance. I don’t suppose he ever actually **did** do that in one of the later books where I wasn’t reading so carefully? That might actually motivate me to pick them up again…
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/6 "2010-05-15T06:28:28Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> I was a real Aubrey/Maturin fan for about 15 books’ worth, and then just petered out, which seemed to me to be how the author was feeling as well.
Agree with this really, suppose that O’Brian was an ancient old cove when writing the last few books. The best stories involve _Surprise_, decent ship that she is.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/7 "2010-05-15T14:06:51Z")
> [@NicePete](#):
>
> I had to skip around the first time through so I had to re-read a few to pick up on some continuities. I turned a good friend of mine on to them last year; he read them straight through and in a fairly short period of time. I was envious. But once he got started he couldn’t stop.
I read them more-or-less in order, the letter of marque business being out of sequence. My local library service seems to have a few copies of the whole lot - quite a few of the ones I borrowed have a dedication pasted in on the inside front cover -which is an enormously cool tribute/memorial.
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2010, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/8 "2010-05-17T12:03:21Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> I love Age of Sail sea stories in general, but I’ve never made it back to O’Brian. One thing I always did wish, though, was for one or more of Jane Austen’s sea captains to show up in the books. The timing would have had to be handled carefully, but wouldn’t you have loved to see a younger Admiral Crawford (offstage character from _Mansfield Park_ quarreling with his wife, or an encounter with Admiral and Mrs. Croft or one of the other captains from _Persuasion_? Frederick Wentworth as a happy-go-lucky midshipman!
>
> O’Brian, for all that I got kind of tired of him towards the end of the series, was undoubtedly one of the few authors who could have successfully pulled off the stunt of bringing an Austen character into his narrative in a cameo appearance. I don’t suppose he ever actually **did** do that in one of the later books where I wasn’t reading so carefully? That might actually motivate me to pick them up again…
I haven’t gone hunting for them, so I can’t give you cites, but I’ve been told by someone who wrote a paper on it that O’Brian does mention Austen’s actual sea-faring brothers or their ships here and there.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/9 "2010-05-17T13:50:26Z")
As a fan of Hornblower, I tried again and again to get into O’Brians sea stories, but found them over wordy.
And then…
One day, there wasn’t a book in the house except for an O’Brian and out of desperation read it(can’t even remember which one it was; god forgive me).
I was hooked.
I have read the entire series many times over and am currently rereading the “Nutmeg of Consolation”.
Please note that the books published in the U.S. were sometimes given different titles.
I was totally gutted for purely personal reasons when P.O’B died, no more books, no more story.
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/10 "2010-05-17T17:12:24Z")
In the five or six years since I first started reading the series, I’ve never quite managed to finish.
My first attempt took me through…oh, book six or so, and then other time commitments managed to shut down my nightly reading for some months.
Attempt number two took me all the way through _The Commodore_, a voyage that terminated abruptly when I ran out of books. Well, not exactly. I had, by this time, purchased the entire series except for the last two. Naturally, this was the point when new editions of the books were released. Being a tad bit on the anally-retentive side, I resisted purchasing the new editions and scoured every Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Half-Price Books I could find in an effort to locate copies of volumes 19 and 20 that would match their brothers on my shelf. I lucked upon the correct edition of _Blue at the Mizzen_ (number 20), but _The Hundred Days_ (number 19) continued to elude me. In despondency, I set _The Yellow Admiral_ (number 18) on my shelf after only a dozen pages or so, but seeing as how I had missed my tide, it has remained there windbound ever since.
I finally broke down this year and relented. I bought _The Hundred Days_ in its new edition, then re-embarked upon the entire canon. I finished _The Thirteen Gun Salute_ just last evening. Onward!
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### Author:  [@seanchai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seanchai)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/11 "2010-05-17T23:57:18Z")
I have (paperback) copies of the whole series. At one time, I was in love … hoo, nearly time to re-read the series!
One of my passions is British History, and I am now reading Stephen Taylor’s book, “Storm & Conquest” which is about the British Navy and the battle for the Indian Ocean, 1809.
Taylor explains the history behind some of the O’Brien books’ interpretations of actual
events. And Taylor is readable; he’s not one of those “inch of text to a yard of footnotes” historians.
This book is c. 2007 and lists 4 other books by this Taylor. I can see another trip to the local library looming in my near future.
BTW if your Google-Fu is strong, there is, online, a nifty dictionary of Aubrey-Maturin
language explanations etc. I won’t deny you the happiness of finding it for yourselves!
Jean in Winnipeg
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### Author:  [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/12 "2010-05-18T00:08:26Z")
I read these in sequence the year after the movie came out.
Was wondering if anyone else who is interested in this period might be reading “Six Frigates” by Ian W Toll, a history of the founding of the US Navy.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/13 "2010-05-18T00:50:01Z")
I tried to read _Post Captain_ last year. Or maybe I read it. I literally cannot remember. It bored me beyond tears and from what little I remember, it didn’t seem to make a terrible lot of sense. And I remember it being mostly on land. I can absolutely understand being hooked and chewing through a series like this, but it failed to hook me. I’ll probably try again at some point, just because I keep hearing how great they are and I want to feel that. Bravo for reading them all and wanting to do it again-- that’s a powerful endorsement.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/14 "2010-05-18T13:13:02Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> I tried to read _Post Captain_ last year. Or maybe I read it. I literally cannot remember. It bored me beyond tears and from what little I remember, it didn’t seem to make a terrible lot of sense. And I remember it being mostly on land. I can absolutely understand being hooked and chewing through a series like this, but it failed to hook me. I’ll probably try again at some point, just because I keep hearing how great they are and I want to feel that. Bravo for reading them all and wanting to do it again-- that’s a powerful endorsement.
“Post Captain” is not a good book to start the series on - as you said, the first half of it is on land, and IMHO bogs down a bit with the whole Sophie & Diana plot (though I find Mrs. Williams hilariously loathsome). “Master & Commander” is better to start with (as well as being the first book), and gets up to speed with battles at sea pretty quickly. Otherwise, if you want to dive straight into one of the best sea adventures of the series, start with “Desolation Island”.
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### Author:  [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/15 "2010-05-19T18:30:08Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> he had to kill the poor bitch just to make it stop.
FWIW, this was apparently an echo of what was going on in O’Brian’s life at the time:His second wife died
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-maturin-patrick-obrian-master-commander/539496/16 "2010-05-20T12:43:12Z")
> [@CaveMike](#):
>
> FWIW, this was apparently an echo of what was going on in O’Brian’s life at the time
I had no idea.