Master and Commander [Special Edition] [ペーパーバック]

Some critics have referred to the Aubrey/Maturin books as one long novel united not only by their historical setting but also by the central plot element of the Aubrey/Maturin friendship. Having read these fine books over a period of several years, I decided to evaluate their cumulative integrity by reading them consecutively in order of publication over a period of a few weeks. This turned out to be a rewarding enterprise. For readers unfamiliar with these books, they describe the experiences of a Royal Navy officer and his close friend and traveling companion, a naval surgeon. The experiences cover a broad swath of the Napoleonic Wars and virtually the whole globe.
Rereading all the books confirmed that O'Brian is a superb writer and that his ability to evoke the past is outstanding. O'Brian has numerous gifts as a writer. He is the master of the long, careful description, and the short, telling episode. His ability to construct ingenious but creditable plots is first-rate, probably because he based much of the action of his books on actual events. For example, some of the episodes of Jack Aubrey's career are based on the life of the famous frigate captain, Lord Cochrane. O'Brian excels also in his depiction of characters. His ability to develop psychologically creditable characters through a combination of dialogue, comments by other characters, and description is tremendous. O'Brien's interest in psychology went well beyond normal character development, some books contain excellent case studies of anxiety, depression, and mania.
Reading O'Brien gives vivid view of the early 19th century. The historian Bernard Bailyn, writing of colonial America, stated once that the 18th century world was not only pre-industrial but also pre-humanitarian (paraphrase). This is true as well for the early 19th century depicted by O'Brien. The casual and invariable presence of violence, brutality, and death is a theme running through all the books. The constant threats to life are the product not only of natural forces beyond human control, particularly the weather and disease, but also of relative human indifference to suffering. There is nothing particularly romantic about the world O'Brien describes but it also a certain grim grandeur. O'Brien also shows the somewhat transitional nature of the early 19th century. The British Navy and its vessals were the apogee of what could be achieved by pre-industrial technology. This is true both of the technology itself and the social organization needed to produce and use the massive sailing vessals. Aubrey's navy is an organization reflecting its society; an order based on deference, rigid hierarchy, primitive notions of honor, favoritism, and very, very corrupt. At the same time, it was one of the largest and most effective bureaucracies in human history to that time. The nature of service exacted great penalities for failure in a particularly environment, and great success was rewarded greatly. In some ways, it was a ruthless meritocracy whose structure and success anticipates the great expansion of government power and capacity seen in the rest of the 19th century.
O'Brian is also the great writer about male friendship. There are important female characters in these books but since most of the action takes place at sea, male characters predominate. The friendship between Aubrey and Maturin is the central armature of the books and is a brilliant creation. The position of women in these books is ambiguous. There are sympathetic characters, notably Aubrey's long suffering wife. Other women figures, notably Maturin's wife, leave a less positive impression. On board ship, women tend to have a disruptive, even malign influence.
How did O'Brian manage to sustain his achievement over 20 books? Beyond his technical abilities as a writer and the instrinsic interest of the subject, O'Brien made a series of very intelligent choices. He has not one but two major protagonists. The contrasting but equally interesting figures of Aubrey and Maturin allowed O'Brien to a particularly rich opportunity to expose different facets of character development and to vary plots carefully. This is quite difficult and I'm not aware of any other writer who has been able to accomplish such sustained development of two major protagonists for such a prolonged period. O'Brian's use of his historical setting is very creative. The scenes and events in the books literally span the whole globe as Aubrey and Maturin encounter numerous cultures and societies. The naval setting allowed him also to introduce numerous new and interesting characters. O'Brian was able to make his stories attractive to many audiences. Several of these stories can be enjoyed as psychological novels, as adventure stories, as suspense novels, and even one as a legal thriller. O'Brian was also a very funny writer, successful at both broad, low humor, and sophisticated wit. Finally, O'Brian made efforts to link some of the books together. While a number are complete in themselves, others form components of extended, multi-book narratives. Desolation Island, Fortune of War, and The Surgeon's Mate are one such grouping. Treason's Harbor, The Far Side of the World, and The Reverse of the Medal are another. The Letter of Marque and the ensuing 4 books, centered around a circumnavigation, are another.
Though the average quality of the books is remarkably high, some are better than others. I suspect that different readers will have different favorites. I personally prefer some of the books with greater psychological elements. The first book, Master and Commander, is one of my favorites. The last 2 or 3, while good, are not as strong as earlier books. I suspect O'Brian's stream of invention was beginning to diminish. All can be read profitably as stand alone works though there is definitely something to be gained by reading in consecutive order.

The first clue you have that Master and Commander is not a typical sea adventure is when a sailor is hanged in the opening pages for sexually molesting the ship's goat. This kicks off a gritty, realistic, and scrupulously-researched historical adventure that smashes C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels like a broadside from a seventy-gun frigate.

I first heard of Patrick O'Brian when he died three years ago and was movingly eulogized in George Will's column. Now I don't normally read historical fiction, especially military historical fiction, but Will made such a strong case that I felt obliged to at least check O'Brian out. I'm glad I did; Master and Commander is a well-written, powerful book that succeeds as a character study, an obsessively-researched recreation of early 19th-century life, and as an adventure.

The novel, the first in a twenty-book series, opens with Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, being granted his long-awaited promotion to the rank of captain (or officially, "master and commander") and the command of the Sophie, a modest little vessel in the Mediterranean. At a concert, Jack nearly comes to blows with the haughty intellectual Dr. Stephen Maturin, but the two quickly reconcile over breakfast and Jack, whose ship is desperately undermanned, offers the penniless Maturin a post as ship's surgeon.

The two men eventually become best friends, despite their being a sort of seaborne Odd Couple. Aubrey, unlike most fictional heroes, is not a silent, craggy-jawed Adonis; he's fat, red-faced, good-humored, and a bit of a buffoon, the kind of person who laughs maniacally at his own jokes. As his second-in-command says, "He can be a very agreeable companion, of course, but there are times when he shows that particular beefy English insensibility." Aubrey's counterpart Stephen Maturin is a doctor, a natural philosopher whose idea of a good time is to obsessively catalog his lepidoptera...the very caricature of the effete intellectual. As Master and Commander unfolds, though, O'Brian shows us that both men have hidden depths. Aubrey, so clownish and naive on land, is a brilliant seaman and warrior, with an instinctual understanding of leadership and strategy. And Maturin, treated by everyone as a harmless eccentric, is eventually shown to be a master spy, fluent in a dozen languages and a cold-blooded killer with sword and pistol. Aubrey and Maturin are great characters, and they elevate this book to greatness with them. Their conversations are witty and interesting, and we resent it when they're interrupted by another battle or momentary crisis.

That's why, though marketed as a historical adventure, Master and Commander is much more the story of these two: how they interact with one another and with the war-torn but genteel world around them. The fighting is often incidental to the plot, dispensed with in a few sentences...though when he wants to, O'Brian can deliver a white-knuckled chase or a roaring battle as well as anyone. His writing comes across as a sort of widescreen, modernized version of Jane Austen's formalism, combining gritty, bloody reality with arch diction and mordant wit. O'Brian's writing in this book is certainly not without its faults - he glosses over or summarizes conversations and situations that would have been compelling had they been played out, and the book is far too episodic, moving from one incident to the next without enough direction. Most of MASTER AND COMMANDER's flaws are unique to the book, however, and have vanished by the second and subsequent volumes. The fact that O'Brian could polish his literary art to such a high sheen in such a short time is one more testament to the man's vast talent.

This book is a great introduction to a great series by a writer whose stature is only going to grow as time passes. Do yourself a favor and pick it up now.

Sit back in your favorite recliner and prepare yourself for an exciting adventure! Here, in the pages of "MASTER AND COMMANDER", the reader is introduced to Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, physician, linguist, scholar, spy, and then some.

The novel begins in Port Mahon in 1800. Aubrey, for the moment, is a naval officer without a command, restless and impatient for action. (Britain and Revolutionary France are at war.) Quite by accident, he literally bumps up against Stephen Maturin and a budding friendship develops between them.

O'Brian faithfully evokes the atmosphere of those distant times. The language may seem a bit stilted and obscure. But part of O'Brian's genius as a writer is that as you read deeply into this novel, you'll soon find yourself swept along on the ebb and flow of events. All your senses will be titillated.

Besides Aubrey and Maturin, O'Brian creates here a variety of richly textured characters who bring vividly forth the ambience of wartime shipboard life in the Age of Sail.

So, if you're looking for a thoroughly engaging and captivating story, "MASTER AND COMMANDER" is it! Highly recommended.

(I first read "MASTER AND COMMANDER" in July 1994. Ever since, I've been hooked on the Aubrey-Maturin series.)