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HMS Surprise

Author	Patrick O'Brian
Cover artist	Geoff Hunt
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Aubrey-Maturin series
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Harper Collins (UK)
Publication date	1973
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD)
Pages	416 pages (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-221316-8, (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	Post Captain
Followed by	The Mauritius Command

This book is part of the Aubrey-Maturin series

HMS Surprise is the 1973 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is third in the series of stories of Captain Jack Aubrey and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin.

1 Plot introduction
2 Plot summary
3 Characters in "HMS Surprise"
4 Ships in "HMS Surprise"
- 4.1 The British
- 4.2 The Spanish
5 Major themes
6 Allusions/references to other works
7 Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
8 Literary significance & criticism
- 8.1 Reviews
9 Release details
- 9.1 Editions
10 Sources, references, external links, quotations
11 Footnotes

[edit] Plot introduction

[edit] Plot summary

Template:Spoiler Aubrey takes command of the frigate HMS Surprise, 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 also describes Aubrey's first stint in command of, and provides the readers' first encounter with the Surprise herself. Although apparently based on the real Royal Navy frigate HMS Surprise, she appears as a ship on which Aubrey had served as a youth. (His initials remain carved in the mast.) The real HMS Surprise, however, entered the Royal Navy as a prize captured from the French in 1796, so that O'Brian would seem to have added some fifteen years to her age, taking her capture (which he mentions) back to the previous phase of Anglo-French hostilities which formed part of the war of American independence (1776-1783).

The Surprise becomes Aubrey's favourite 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 reflects elements of 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.)

[edit] Characters in "HMS Surprise"

Jack Aubrey - Leutenant in the Royal Navy and appointed Captain of HMS Surprise.
Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, friend to Jack and intelligence officer.
Sophie Williams - Jack's love interest
Mrs. Williams - Sophie mother
Diana Villiers - Stephen's love interest
Tom Pullings – master's mate in Lively
William Mowett – master's mate in Lively
William Babbington – midshipman in Lively
James Dillon – first lieutenant in Lively

[edit] Ships in "HMS Surprise"

[edit] The British

HMS Surprise - frigate

[edit] The Spanish

* n.b. were real ships during the period depicted.

[edit] Major themes

Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Template:Endspoiler

[edit] Allusions/references to other works

[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

[edit] Literary significance & criticism

"His books can absorb and enthral landlubbers like myself who do not even know the difference between a jib-boom and a taffrail." ^[1]

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Release details

1973, UK, Collins (ISBN 0002213168), Pub Date ? ? 1973, hardback (First edition)
1973, USA, Lippincott (ISBN ???), Pub date ? ? 1973, hardback (1st American edition)

[edit] Editions

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