Aubrey–Maturin series

The Aubrey–Maturin series, also known as the Aubreyad, is a sequence of 20 historical novels by Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also a physician, naturalist, and secret agent. The 21st novel of the series, left unfinished by O'Brian's death in 2000, was published in late 2004.

The 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on books in this series, notably Master and Commander, HMS Surprise, The Letter of Marque and particularly The Far Side of the World. The role of Jack Aubrey was played by Russell Crowe, and Stephen Maturin was played by Paul Bettany.

The series in order

This is a list of the works in the series. This list is in both publication order and internal chronological order. Unlike some other fictional series, the books were published in the same order as the events they describe take place.

Master and Commander (1970)
Post Captain (1972)
HMS Surprise (1973)
The Mauritius Command (1977)
Desolation Island (1978)
The Fortune of War (1979)
The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
The Ionian Mission (1981)
Treason's Harbour (1983)
The Far Side of the World (1984)
The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
The Letter of Marque (1988)
The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
Clarissa Oakes (1993)
(The Truelove in the USA)
The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
The Commodore (1995)
The Yellow Admiral (1996)
The Hundred Days (1998)
Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004)
(21 in the USA)

Narrative Style

The narrative voice of these novels is of the present in their time; that is the author-narrator speaks with the same idioms and vocabulary as the characters, in the years in which the novels are set. This is uncommon in the modern historical novel, in which the reader might expect a more modern narrative style or at least a bit less jargon of the period. Many have likened it to reading Shakespeare - just as one tends to understand the archaic late-16th-century English as if by osmosis, so the language of the early 19th century gradually becomes easier to understand. While challenging at first, this authenticity is cited by O'Brian readers as one of the most beloved features of his work.

A second noteworthy stylistic feature is O'Brian's use of naval jargon, with little or no translation for the "lubberly" reader. The combination of the historical-voice narration and naval terms are daunting at first to some readers but most note that after a short while a "total immersion" effect is produced. However the naval lexicon can baffle any reader, and many devotees of the "POB" canon (as O'Brian's work is known) find support in numerous companion books. A notable example of this type is A Sea Of Words by Dean King (other publications are listed in Bibliography).

Characters

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The series portrays the rise of Jack Aubrey from Lieutenant to Admiral in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Many of his exploits and reverses are based on the chequered career of Thomas Cochrane. However, his character and his politics are quite different from those of his model.

Aubrey's friend Stephen Maturin is an Irish-Catalan physician, naturalist and spy. In his role as a naturalist he is based on Sir Joseph Banks. A recurring theme is his long pursuit of the beautiful but unreliable Diana Villiers.

Humour

A lot of the humour in the series come from the two principal characters' malapropisms. Aubrey is a genius at sea and with practical matters but has large gaps in his understanding of everything else, and should never be allowed within twelve fathoms of a metaphor. Maturin, by contrast, is extremely erudite but his occasional attempts to use naval slang, or explain the working of a ship to someone are always doomed. Thus we have Aubrey's attempting to use the occasional word of French and describing a patois as a putain and Maturin saying "if the Admiral proves inquisitive, I may toss him off with a round turn" (the correct phrase is to bring someone up with a round turn).

Another principal source of humour in the canon is O'Brian's bone-dry and cutting wit, present throughout all his novels. The delivery, whether in the form of narration or dialogue, is often so forthright that the reader (or listener) does not perceive it at first.

Details of the individual books

Master and Commander

Master and Commander begins on April 18, 1800, in Port Mahon, Minorca, at that time a base of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is a Lieutenant languishing in port without a ship, Stephen Maturin is a penniless half-Irish, half-Catalan physician and natural philosopher. The two main characters are first set at odds by and then united by a love of music (Aubrey plays the violin, Maturin the cello).

The novel introduces these two characters and gives Jack his first command (and promotion to the rank of Commander) on a tiny sloop-of-war, HMS Sophie. Stephen accepts a position as Sophie's surgeon, although as a physician he is overqualified for the job. We are introduced to Master's Mates Thomas Pullings and William Mowett and midshipman William Babbington, who become long-term fixtures in the series, and James Dillon, Sophie's first lieutenant, whose secret background of Irish Republicanism intersects Stephen's own.

The capture of the Spanish xebec-frigate Cacafuego by the greatly inferior Sophie brings Aubrey and his crew great glory and wealth. This episode is based on the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo by Thomas Cochrane commanding the sloop Speedy [1].

The exploit of setting up a decoy of a large ship at night by attaching lights to a small boat was executed by the French privateer Robert Surcouf to successfully escape the British frigate HMS Sybille. It was also used by Cochrane and described in his Autobiography of a Seaman (used by O'Brian as source material for this novel).

Editions

W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint Paperback edition (1990) (ISBN 0393307050)
W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint Paperback edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037010)
Thorndike Press; Large-print Hardcover edition (1999) (ISBN 0786219327)
Books on Tape; Unabridged audio edition (2000) (ISBN 0736657134)
Harper Collins; Reprint Paperback edition (2002) (ISBN 0006499155)
W. W. Norton & Company; Movie Tie-In Paperback Edition (2003) (ISBN 0393325172)
Firebird Distributing; (ISBN 0001053299)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402582722)

Post Captain

The book begins in 1802 with the conclusion of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Peace of Amiens. Commander Jack Aubrey returns to England to take up the life of a country squire, where he meets the Williams family, and their cousin Diana Villiers. Aubrey courts Sophia Williams (the eldest daughter) but is also attracted to Diana, with whom he commences an affair.

Aubrey plans to marry Sophia Williams, but his fortune is embezzled by his prize-agent and he flees the country to avoid his creditors, living with Maturin in France and Spain. He is restored to active service by the outbreak of war in 1803, and following his endeavours as commander of the unusual HMS Polychrest he is promoted to Post Captain, and given temporary command of HMS Lively while Captain Hammond is on leave.

The book ends with a fictionalized account of the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet by four British frigates in 1804; see HMS Indefatigable for an account of the incident. Other fictionalized accounts of this same incident occur in other historical novels of the period, including Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester, and the novels of Alexander Kent. In actual history, Captain Hammond was the captain of the Lively at the time of this incident.

Editions

W. W. Norton & Company; Trade Paperback Reprint edition (1990) (ISBN 0393307069)
W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover Uniform edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037029)
Thorndike Press; Large-print Hardcover edition (2000) (ISBN 0754014231)
Chivers; Large-print Paperback edition (2000) (ISBN 0754023206)
Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged CD edition (2004) (ISBN 0786186283)
Firebird Distributing; (ISBN 0001053302)
Fontana; Paperback edition (1974) (ISBN 0006136664)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402582722)

HMS Surprise

Aubrey is given command of the frigate HMS Surprise, and charged with carrying a British ambassador to the East Indies. Much of the novel deals with the ups and downs of Maturin's relationship with Diana Villiers. Jack's romance with Sophie Williams also progresses.

This book is also Aubrey's first stint in command of, and the readers' first encounter with, the Surprise herself, a ship on which he had served as a youth. His initials were still found carved in its mast.

The Surprise becomes his favorite ship, and appears in many other novels in the series.

On the return voyage the Surprise encounters a fleet of the East India Company, returning from China laden with goods. The fleet comes under attack from a French squadron but Aubrey organizes a spirited defence from the merchant ships and bluffs the French into retreating. This episode is based on the Battle of Pulo Aura on 15 February 1804, in which 16 merchant ships of the East India Company under the command of Commodore Nathaniel Dance, drove off a French squadron consisting of the Marengo (74 guns), Belle-Poule (40), Sémillante (36), Berceau (22) and Aventurier (16), commanded by Rear-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois. Another fictional account of this incident appears in Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service by Captain Frederick Marryat.

Editions

W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American edition; Paperback (1991) (ISBN 0393307611)
W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover Reprint edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037037)
Thorndike Press; Largeprint hardcover edition (2000) (ISBN 0786219343)
Harper Collins; reprint paperback edition (2002) (ISBN 0006499171)
Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged Audio CD edition (2004) (ISBN 078618597X)
Fontana; Paperback edition (1976) (ISBN 0006141811)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull

The Mauritius Command

File:The Mauritius Command Cover.jpg

Cover by Geoff Hunt for The Mauritius Command

The novel sees Aubrey made Commodore in charge of a squadron of ships sent to take the islands of Mauritius and Réunion from the French, and so protect British shipping interests in the Indian Ocean.

The novel gives further scope to Maturin's role as both a secret agent (in which he uses propaganda effectively to support the campaign) and as a naturalist (in which he is seen collecting relics of the extinct birds the Dodo and the Solitaire).

The plot of the novel is very closely based upon a real campaign carried out by the Royal Navy in 1810 under Commodore Josias Rowley. O'Brian notes this in the preface. The island was formally captured on 3 December 1810 (See also History of Mauritius.)

File:Desolation Island Cover.jpg

Cover by Geoff Hunt for Desolation Island

Desolation Island

Captain Aubrey, at home in England, is haplessly squandering his newly acquired wealth when he is given the 50 gun fourth-rate HMS Leopard, a notoriously unlucky ship. Aubrey is ordered to Australia to deal with the Rum Rebellion against the administration of William Bligh. On board are a number of prisoners bound for the colonies, and Dr. Maturin is assigned to extract information from one, a beautiful American spy named Louisa Wogan. Maturin works to deceive Ms. Wogan with a scheme to compromise the American and French spy networks. En route to Australia, the Leopard is becalmed and devastated by a plague, engaged in a chilling life-or-death chase by the Dutch 74 gun Waakzaamheid, gravely wounded by an Antarctic iceberg, and stranded on Desolation Island, a frigid, uninhabited archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean. Although O'Brian's description physically and geographically resembles the Kerguelen Islands, Aubrey explicitly states that it is not Kerguelen in The Thirteen-Gun Salute.

The real-life Leopard's earlier involvement in the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair is mentioned, and the book deals with the tension between the English and Americans on the eve of the War of 1812. The near sinking of the Leopard after striking an iceberg is based on an actual event involving HMS Guardian in 1789. The novel contains an unflattering portrait of Lieutenant James Grant.

Editions

Stein & Day; Hardcover edition (1979) (ISBN 081282590X)
Day Books; 1st Mass-market Paperback edition (1981) (ISBN 0812870662)
W. W. Norton & Company; Paperback Reprint edition (1991) (ISBN 039330812X)
W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover Reprint edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037053)
Thorndike Press; Hardcover Large-print edition (2001) (ISBN 0786219262)
Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged Audio CD edition (2004) (ISBN 0786183993)
Fontana; Paperback edition (1979) (ISBN 0006166032)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591756)

The Fortune of War

Set during the War of 1812, this novel contains lightly fictionalized accounts of the battles between HMS Java and USS Constitution, and between HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake.

Aubrey is captured by the Americans, who are particularly suspicious of him as a former commander of HMS Leopard, due to the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.

This book extensively explores Maturin's character while he and Aubrey are held captive in Boston, as he is able to manifest his various roles; doctor, spy, and tormented lover. It continues the account of Maturin's pursuit of Diana Villiers, with whom he is still deeply in love.

Critical readers have said that the degree of freedom the French agents have would have been most improbable in Federalist Boston, where the French were not well-liked by the local authorities; nor was Aubrey likely to be as loosely guarded as he is in the novel.

Editions

W. W. Norton & Company; Paperback reprint edition (1991) (ISBN 0393308138)
William A. Thomas Braille Bookstore; Hardcover edition (1992)
Books on Tape; Audio edition (1992) (ISBN 5555358717) (ISBN 1569564183)
W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037061)
Thorndike Press; Hardcover Large-print edition (2001) (ISBN 0754015882)
Thorndike Press; Paperback Large-print edition (2001) (ISBN 0754024490)
Fontana; Paperback edition (1980) (ISBN 0006159931)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591772)

The Surgeon's Mate

The story starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Aubrey and Maturin, having escaped from the Americans in Boston on HMS Shannon, start their return journey to England aboard a packet ship. The packet ship is doggedly pursued by two American privateer schooners across the Grand Banks.

Maturin is sent on a mission to the Baltic to persuade the Catalan garrison of the fortress at Grimsholm to defect. It seems likely that this episode is based on similar events in 1808. In 1807, the Spanish government, at that time allied with France, had sent 15,000 troops to Denmark to act as a garrison against a possible British landing there. These troops, among the best in Spain, were posted in small detachments on offshore islands and kept in the dark about political developments in Spain following Napoleon's invasion and occupation of Spain in 1807 (see Peninsular War). The Duke of Wellington dispatched the Scottish Benedictine monk James Robertson (on the advice of his brother Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley). Robertson had been brought up at the Benedictine abbey at Regensburg in Germany, and so was able to pass through occupied Germany under the guise of "Adam Rohrauer", a dealer in cigars and chocolate. Robertson made contact with the Spanish general, the Marquis de la Romana, on the island of Funen, where the two agreed that the Spanish troops would defect and be returned to Spain on British ships. Robertson escaped to Heligoland (then a British possession) to inform Admiral Richard Goodwin Keats of the agreement, and a fleet of transports escorted by HMS Superb embarked 9,000 Spanish soldiers.

The imprisonment of Aubrey and Maturin in the Temple prison in Paris may have been inspired by the case of Captain Sidney Smith, captured on 1796-04-19 while attempting to cut out a French ship in Le Havre. Instead of exchanging him as was the custom, Smith was taken to the Temple prison to be charged with arson for his burning of the fleet at Toulon in 1793. Smith was held in Paris for two years, despite a number of efforts to exchange him and frequent contacts with both French Royalists and British agents. In 1798, he was helped to escape by the Royalists who pretended to be taking him to another prison. Instead they brought him to Le Havre where he boarded a fishing boat and was picked up by a British frigate on patrol in the English Channel, arriving in London on 1798-05-08. Some historians have speculated that he allowed himelf to be captured so that he could make contact with the Royalists.

The title of the novel is a play on words, referring not just to Maturin's assistant but also to his long-time love interest and future wife, Diana Villiers.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591845)

The Ionian Mission

Aubrey is given the command of a 74-gun ship of the line and has to endure blockade duty off Toulon under the command of Lord Collingwood. However, he is reassigned to detached duty aboard his beloved Surprise and sails to the Adriatic to deal with French attempts to take over parts of the Ottoman empire.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN: 1402591810)

Treason's Harbour

While HMS Surprise is being repaired in Malta, Aubrey and his crew are assigned to a untidy, complex mission on behalf of the EIC in the Red Sea. The plan has been betrayed by a British double agent in Malta and after much hardship and exertion the British achieve nothing - Maturin is even robbed of his carefully gathered collections.

Back in Malta Aubrey learns that Surprise is to be retired and that his hoped-for heavy frigate command has gone to another. He commands the Surprise as a convoy escort to the Adriatic, on the return leg he captures a fine French privateer, and then on a political mission to Zambra with Admiral Harte and the aged HMS Pollux before continuing to Gibraltar and home. The two ships are surprised at Zambra by an eighty-gun man-of-war and two frigates, evidence of further failures in British intelligence.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591853)

The Far Side of the World

The Far Side of the World is set during the War of 1812. In this novel Captain Jack Aubrey takes the frigate HMS Surprise around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean in pursuit of the American frigate USS Norfolk and in defense of British whalers in the South Seas. Parts of the exploits of the Norfolk are based on the historical expedition of the USS Essex, although the ending is changed.

Film

The novel provided much of the overall plot structure for the 2003 Peter Weir film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, though the fictional USS Norfolk was changed to the fictional French privateer Acheron, and episodes were also taken from other books in the series, including Master and Commander and HMS Surprise. The design and size of the fictional Acheron were based upon those of the USS Constitution.

Editions

Collins (1984)
W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint Paperback edition (1992) (ISBN 0393308626)
Books on Tape; Audio edition (1993) (ISBN 5555768079)
W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint Hardcover edition (1994) (ISBN 039303710X)
Thorndike Press; Large-print Hardcover edition (2002) (ISBN 0754017834)
Thorndike Press; Large-print Paperback edition (2002) (ISBN 0754091759)
W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue (movie tie-in) Paperback edition (2003) (ISBN 0393324761)
Soundings Ltd; Audio CD Edition (2003) (ISBN 1842832689)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591764)

The Reverse of the Medal

Newly returned to England, Aubrey hears a rumor from a stranger he meets in an inn that a peace with France will soon be signed. The stranger, who seems to be a diplomatic agent named Palmer, indicates to Aubrey how he can make money on the stock exchange by buying stocks sure to go up as soon as the news becomes public. Aubrey makes the transactions as he has been advised, and also gives the advice to his father, the widely-disliked Radical General Aubrey, who makes much larger stock transactions and spreads the rumor much farther. The rumor of a peace treaty gets out, and the stock transactions are highly profitable - more so to the General and his stock-jobbing friends than to Aubrey.

Then it is revealed that the rumor is a false one, and that Palmer was no part of the government (it is later revealed that he was directed by the two highest placed English agents in the service of the French). Aubrey is arrested, imprisoned at Marshalsea, and undegoes a Guildhall trial for fraud.

Maturin tries to help his friend. He uses his colleagues in the government and hires an investigator, but is unable to secure enough proof to win an acquittal - Palmer, the key figure, having been murdered and mutilated. Aubrey, despite a touching belief in British justice, is convicted after a two day trial, fined £2,500 and sentenced to one hour in the pillory. He is also dismissed from the Royal Navy (struck off the list) - a shattering blow to him.

Maturin has inherited a vast sum from his Spanish godfather. He utilises a small part of his money to buying the old HMS Surprise at auction and obtaining letters of marque and reprisal. In part he does this because he is still deep in the intelligence game and could not, would not, sail with any one other than Jack.

The story and many of the details of the trial are based on the trial of Lord Cochrane.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 140257827X)

The Letter of Marque

Maturin purchases the Surprise and Aubrey is granted a letter of marque. Aubrey prepares the Surprise to sail as a privateer, finding many things quite different than in the Navy. He is bitter and low-spirited about his dismissal for much of the book.

(Note: the "letter of marque" of the title probably refers to the Surprise herself, rather than the document.)

Editions

Fontana; Paperback Edition (1989) (ISBN 0006177042)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402578334)

The Thirteen-Gun Salute

This novel tells the story of a venture to the fictitious Malay island of Pulo Prabang, where an ambitious King's emissary attempts to win over the local king with a treaty, while the French attempt the same.

The same English traitors who were responsible for Aubrey's disgrace are now openly assisting the French, and Stephen engages in a political duel for influence at the court of Kampong.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 0788767178)

The Nutmeg of Consolation

The book opens with Aubrey and his crew shipwrecked on a remote island in the South China Sea after surviving the destruction of HMS Diane in a typhoon. While stranded on the island they fight a ferocious battle against Dayak pirates and are eventually rescued by Chinese traders.

Upon arriving in Batavia, Aubrey is provided by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles with a 20-gun ship which Aubrey renames Nutmeg of Consolation in reference to one of the titles of the Sultan of Kampong. Back at sea, Aubrey and the out-gunned Nutmeg engage in battle with a French frigate; at the height of the battle Nutmeg is joined by Surprise (no longer in commission at this point, but sold out of the service as a letter of marque and sailing as a Hired Vessel of the Royal Navy) under the temporary command of Aubrey's old friend and former lieutenant, Commander Thomas Pullings.

Resuming command of Surprise, Aubrey and Maturin continue their interrupted journey to New South Wales. On their way to Australia, Maturin rescues two young girls who are the sole survivors of an outbreak of smallpox that has killed the entire population of their small Pacific island.

Once in New South Wales the book contains graphic descriptions of the hell-on-earth that was the life in the penal colony under Governor Lachlan Macquarie shortly after the "Rum Rebellion" of the New South Wales Corps and its coup against Governor William Bligh. There are also detailed descriptions of the landscapes and fauna in and around Sydney harbour; Stephen Maturin has an interesting encounter with a male platypus in the final pages of the book.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull

Clarissa Oakes (titled The Truelove in the US)

A young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, is smuggled aboard HMS Surprise in Sydney by midshipman Oakes, to whom she is subsequently married by Aubrey. Her presence and activities cause much dissension aboard and upset the smooth running of the ship. Despite this Aubrey successfully adds a Polynesian island to the British crown and chases away an American privateer.

Mrs. Oakes proves to have knowledge which is helpful to Stephen Maturin in his role as a counter-intelligence agent.

Clarissa Oakes was published in the US as The Truelove, which is the name of a ship in the novel, but may also refer to the woman.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1419302728)

The Wine-Dark Sea

The book opens with the pursuit of an American privateer (the Franklin) in the south Pacific, and a volcanic eruption which damages the Surprise and disables the Franklin. The Franklin is taken, and Dutourd, a Frenchman, is found to be the owner. He plans to conquer a south Pacific island and establish a paradise of equality, justice, and little labor.

Maturin recognizes Dutourd from earlier days in Paris, and takes pains to hide his identity from the Frenchman. Aubrey, meanwhile, finds that not only does Dutourd not know the basic courtesies of life at sea, but does not have a letter of marque permitting him to operate the Franklin as a privateer. The Franklin had taken several British ships as prizes and Doutard's legal status is that of a pirate, liable to be hanged.

Dutourd proves to be problematic, both for Maturin and for Aubrey. Maturin needs to maintain his identity as a simple ship's surgeon and naturalist, keeping his secrecy as a secret agent for the British, particularly since the current voyage of the Surprise is intended to deliver Maturin to Peru where he is to incite a revolution against the Spanish colonial government.

An unnamed American whaler is taken by the Surprise and the Franklin, and a British sailor on the whaler tells Aubrey of a French ship — the Alastor — turned a true pirate, unlike the Franklin, flying the black flag and demanding immediate surrender or death of its victims. The Franklin encounters the Alastor first, is outmatched, but the Surprise overcomes the pirates, with Aubrey being wounded.

The story now turns to Maturin's secret mission to Peru. He is put ashore and makes valuable contact among local military and government officials sympathetic to Peruvian independence, aided by Aubrey's illegitimate son Sam Panda, a prominent official in the Catholic Church.

Maturin's plans go sour. Dutourd escapes from the Surprise, aided by sympathetic crewmen; he denounces Maturin on the eve of a revolution as an Englishman spreading English gold, and Maturin flees over the Andes mountains from Peru.

Aubrey, meanwhile, sails in a small boat with few crewmen to San Lorenzo in an attempt to warn Maturin of Dutourd's escape; after many days of hard sailing in daunting weather conditions against the wind, they are rescued by the Surprise, at which point Maturin has already fled.

Aubrey eventually picks Maturin up in Chile and takes the Surprise through a difficult passage around Cape Horn, dodging a superior squadron of American ships.

The title comes from the English version of a line by Homer.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 141930903X)

The Commodore

This book sees the return of Aubrey and Maturin to England, where the latter finds that his young daughter Brigid refuses to speak, and that his wife Diana has fled the situation, leaving Brigid in the care of the now-widowed Clarissa Oakes. The title refers to Aubrey's appointment to command a squadron of ships, the second time he has held the position of Commodore of a squadron. Once the squadron is formed, Aubrey and Maturin are very publicly charged with disrupting the African slave trade, now illegal, but the true mission of the squadron is to intercept a French invasion force which expects a sympathetic welcome in Maturin's native Ireland.

Audio edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1419320882)

The Yellow Admiral

The title concerns Aubrey's fear of being made a "yellow admiral", a rear-admiral who is assigned to no squadron, and who is effectively retired on promotion. But the book ends before Aubrey knows whether he will avoid this fate.

In the Royal Navy of this period, Admirals on active duty were assigned either the Blue, Red, or White squadrons (in order of seniority). The Blue Ensign, Red Ensign, or White Ensign indicated an admiral's rank and squadron assignment, and they were formally referred to as "Rear Admiral of the Red" or "Vice Admiral of the White". These three "squadrons" existed for administrative purposes, and should not be confused with physical squadrons, that is a group of ships commanded as a unit, but smaller than a fleet.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1419341170)

The Hundred Days

The title refers to the Hundred Days, a period when Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba and temporarily returned to power in France.

Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591802)

Blue at the Mizzen

This novel was the last completed work in the series.

A blue ensign at the mizzen-mast was the flag of the Rear Admiral of the Blue, the lowest flag rank in the Royal Navy of the early 19th century.

Editions

W.W. Norton & Company; Paperback Reprint edition (1999) (ISBN 0393048446)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1402591748)

The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey

The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey is the unfinished twenty-first novel in the series. It was released in the autumn of 2004. It comprises the partially corrected typescript of the approximately three chapters completed by O'Brian before his death in January, 2000, as well as a facsimile of the handwritten manuscript which continues beyond the end of the typescript. It is obvious that there would have to have been a lot more polishing and editing of the text to bring it to O'Brian's usual standards. There is a foreword by William Waldegrave and an afterword by Richard Snow, who had written an influential review of the series in the New York Times Book Review many years before. Snow's review has been credited with helping to popularize the series in the United States.

In the United States, this book was released under the simpler title of 21.

Editions

HarperCollins; Hardback (2004) (ISBN 0007194692)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1419308939)

Bibliography

Richard O'Neill (2003). Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World. Running Press. ISBN 0762415401.
Dean King (2001). A Sea of Words: Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales. Henry Holt. ISBN 0805066152.
Dean King (2001). Harbors and High Seas: Map Book and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian. Henry Holt. ISBN 0805066144.
Brian Lavery (2003). Jack Aubrey Commands: An Historical Companion to the Naval World of Patrick O'Brian. Conway Maritime. ISBN 0851779468.
Anne Chotzinoff Grossman, Lisa Grossman Thomas (2000). Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which Is a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels. W W Norton & Co Ltd. ISBN 0393320944.
David Miller (2003). The World of Jack Aubrey: Twelve-Pounders, Frigates, Cutlasses, and Insignia of His Majesty's Royal Navy. Running Press Book Publishers. ISBN 0762416521.
A.E. Cunningham (Editor) (1994). Patrick O'Brian: A Bibliography and Critical Appreciation. British Library Publishing Division. ISBN 0712310711. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)

N.B. for books on Patrick O'Brian himself see his own article.

External links