Master and Commander

This article is about the historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. For the 2003 film, see Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. For the naval rank, see commander.
Master and Commander

First edition (US)
Author Patrick O'Brian
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Aubrey-Maturin series
Genre Historical novel
Publisher Lippincott (US)
Publication date
 1969 (US)
1970 (UK)
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD)
Pages 411 Hardback edition
352 Paperback edition
ISBN 0-393-03701-0 Hardback edition US
OCLC 31728441
Followed by Post Captain

Master and Commander is the first historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1969 in the US and 1970 in UK. The story features Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, and is set in the Napoleonic Wars.

The novel follows the lives of three men, two who meet at a musical performance in 1800 in Port Mahon, and the third who is first lieutenant of the ship on which they sail, as Britain is at war with Napoleon's France. Aubrey's ship encounters in this novel draw on the naval feats of Lord Cochrane. He is observer to the Algeciras Campaign.

The novel was written by O'Brian at the suggestion of J. B. Lippincott, a US publisher. A UK publisher published the novel in the next year. It proved to be the start of a 20-novel series, written from 1969 until the author's death early in 2000, with characters as deeply described as the accuracy of the rigging of the sailing ships.

Plot summary

The story starts out on April 1, 1800, in Port Mahon, Minorca, a base of the Royal Navy. A shipless lieutenant wasting away in port, Jack Aubrey, meets Stephen Maturin, a penniless half-Irish and half-Catalan physician and natural philosopher, at an evening concert at the Governor’s Mansion. An offense against honour arises when Jack Aubrey gets elbowed by Maturin to stop beating "a half measure ahead" of the time while the string quartet is playing. Each man is at a low point; they exchange names and locations (so that their seconds might call upon them to arrange a duel).

Later that evening, at his living quarters, Jack Aubrey learns that he has been promoted to the rank of commander and has been given command of the brig HMS Sophie. Meeting Maturin on the street the next day, Aubrey's joy overcomes his animosity and he invites Maturin to dine. Maturin accepts. They each discover a shared love of music and a similar level of talent in the other: Aubrey plays the violin and Maturin plays the cello. Upon learning that Maturin is a physician Aubrey, somewhat impetuously, asks him to sign on and ship with him, the surgeon for Aubrey's new ship having left with the previous captain. Although Maturin is a physician, with training far beyond the naval designation of 'surgeon', he agrees, as he is currently unemployed.

In Sophie‍ '​s crew are master's mates Thomas Pullings, William Mowett, midshipman William Babbington, and James Dillon, the first lieutenant. Dillon and Maturin met earlier as members of the United Irishmen, a secret they keep between them. Three men about the same age, Aubrey, Dillon and Maturin, begin an adventure on Sophie.

Aubrey improves Sophie‍ '​s sailing qualities by adding a longer yard which allows him to spread a larger mainsail. She then is sent to accompany a small convoy of merchant ships. During their journey east, the new captain, Aubrey, takes the opportunity to get to know his sailors and work them into a fighting unit, with the aid of Lieutenant Dillon. As he does this, he and the crew explain many naval matters to Maturin (and to the reader) since the doctor has never served aboard a man-of-war, including the gaining of prize money beyond any fixed rate of pay. Maturin quickly makes friends aboard the ship for his medical skills and his joy in finding rare birds and fish. The crew treat him as a landsman, but without insult.

After the convoy duties, Lord Keith allows Aubrey to cruise independently, looking for French merchants. After a number of prizes are taken, they meet and defeat the Cacafuego, a Spanish xebec-frigate, losing a number of crew, including Dillon, in the bloody action and gaining the respect of other naval officers. However, Captain Harte, the commandant at Mahon, has a grudge against Aubrey, who has been having an affair with his wife. Harte's malevolence ensures that the victory brings Aubrey and his crew no official recognition, promotion, or significant prize money, although Aubrey gains a reputation among members of the British Navy as one of its great, young fighting captains. The loss of Dillon is great to both Aubrey and Maturin, and felt in the ship, especially when his replacement is nowhere near the seaman to match Dillon.

On her following escort duty, Sophie is captured by a squadron of four large French warships after a pursuit and a brave but hopeless resistance. The French Captain Christy Pallière is most courteous to Aubrey; he tells Aubrey of his cousins in Bath, and feeds them well. The Battle of Algeciras begins, and after a short period as prisoners of war, they are exchanged, missing the fighting. Back at Gibraltar, Aubrey must undergo a court-martial over the loss of his ship, but he is cleared of the charges.

Characters

See also Recurring characters in the Aubrey–Maturin series

Ships

British:

Spanish:

Norwegian:

French:

Also, O'Brian names all of the British, French and Spanish ships present at the Battle of Algeciras Bay.

Allusions and references

Literary allusions

While in conversation with Dillon, Maturin quotes "non amo te, Sabidi" from the 33rd epigram of Martial: "Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere—quare; Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te."[Note 1][1]

Historical allusions

Maturin and Dillon, both Catholics, are revealed in the book to have been members of the Society of United Irishmen, and these activities now compromise them politically in what is the aftermath of the unsuccessful Irish Rebellion of 1798. Maturin was a close friend and relative of Lord Edward FitzGerald, the Irish peer who was one of the leaders of the movement. Both Maturin and Dillon keep their Catholic beliefs and their old political allegiance quiet for fear of exposure, and the continuing official hunt for conspirators in 1801, the year of the novel's setting, is illustrated when Sophie is ordered by Harte to intercept an American ship carrying two fugitive United Irishmen and capture them by force if necessary.

The novel opens at a musical performance of a quartet by a composer called Pietro Locatelli. The composer existed, wrote and performed many pieces for violin, but he is not known to have written any music for a quartet.[2]

The capture of the Spanish xebec-frigate Cacafuego by the greatly inferior Sophie brings Aubrey and his crew great glory (although no great wealth). This episode is based on the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo by Cochrane commanding the sloop HMS Speedy.[3][4]

The exploit of setting up a decoy of a large ship at night by attaching lights to a small boat was executed by Cochrane and described in his Autobiography of a Seaman. It is reported to have been used by the French privateer Joseph Potier to escape a British frigate.[5]

Aubrey is a childhood friend of Lord Keith's wife Hester Thrale. In the book she is referred to by her nickname "Queeney".

The book ends with Aubrey and Maturin witnessing the Battles of Algeciras, the first part as prisoners aboard the French ship Desaix, then after they have been paroled, from the Rock of Gibraltar.

Biology

In many of the novels, Maturin is fond of identifying and discussing biological finds. Among those discussed in Master and Commander are:

Medicine

O'Brian in his characteristic detailed precision, makes multiple references to medical practices:

Music

The novel begins with the famous line: 'The music-room in the governor's house at Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli's C major quartet.' Locatelli's concerti a quattro for strings,such as his Concerto a quattro da chiesa No.7 in C major, Op.2 no. 7, were usually accompanied by a continuo.

Literary significance & criticism

This book was first printed by J. B. Lippincott & Co., an American publisher who asked O'Brian to try his hand at such a novel.[11] Collins published it in Great Britain and Ireland. Reception was good as noted by the New York Times ("Even for readers not specifically interested in matters nautical,")[12] and Kirkus Reviews ("A welcome treat for sea hounds who care more for belaying pins than ravaged bodices below decks."),[13] but the audience was not large; soon the British publisher Collins issued succeeding novels in what became a long series. In 1988, Starling Lawrence of W. W. Norton read the current novels; they so impressed him that W. W. Norton began issuing the novels in the US, including a re-issue of all novels prior to the twelfth in the series, The Letter of Marque, first publication 1990, jointly with HarperCollins (successor to Collins) in the UK.[11] The series found a new market, receiving widespread critical acclaim and much larger sales.[14] There are fewer reviews of the earlier novels in the series at the time of publication, including Master and Commander. Once the W. W. Norton re-issues were printed, many reviewers of the novels in 1990 to 1995 tended to review the series as a whole, up to the currently printed novel that was the topic of their review, for example Patrick Reardon's review of The Wine Dark Sea, saying "The best way to think of these novels is as a single 5,000-page book."[15] and Dick Adler's review of The Truelove / Clarissa Oakes including the remark that "His books add up to a portrait of an entire world, containing every single aspect of human life."[16] With such acclaim more than twenty years after its first publication,[17] Master and Commander has been reprinted a number of times. In 2003 the book was listed at No. 149 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel."[18]

Following the death of author C. S. Forester in 1966, who wrote the Horatio Hornblower series, which was set in the same time period of the Napoleonic Wars, depicting life aboard Royal Navy ships and the career of one officer, it was expected that many reviewers would compare O'Brian's Master and Commander to Forester's work.

"Nothing is glamourised. The press gangings, the squalor are all here....The battle scenes are tremendous...This is not secondhand Forester, but a really fine piece of writing."—Sunday Mirror.[19]

"Mourning Hornblower fans may prefer to read a good if disappointing new book rather than to reread one of the master's epics."—Library Journal.[20]

"This is probably the best of many good novels about Nelson's navy since the loss of C. S. Forester."—Observer.[21]

"Not, I think, memorable, at least in the Hornblower way." —Irish Press.[22]

Film adaptation

The 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, with actors Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, was made using themes and puns—but not the plots—from the book Master and Commander and other books in the series, including The Far Side of the World. The film is named so because of a general belief on the part of the movie studio that the series is known as the "Master and Commander" series, as opposed to the "Aubrey-Maturin" series.

Publication history

Sixteen paperback editions in the UK and USA have been published, in addition to five hardback editions (excluding the first editions). Twenty-two audio editions are listed for this novel, plus one MP3 version. Two Kindle editions are available as well, Harper in the UK and W.W. Norton in the USA.[23]

  • 1969, USA, J. B. Lippincott Co hardback ISBN 0-393-03701-0
  • 1970, UK, Collins Publishers hardback ISBN 0002215268 / 9780002215268
  • 1972, UK, Fontana paperback ISBN 0-00-612913-7, 1 May 1972
  • 1989, UK, Harper Collins paperback ISBN 0-00-616626-1, 9 February 1989
  • 1990, USA, W. W. Norton & Company paperback ISBN 0-393-30705-0, November 1990
  • 1991, USA, Borders Recorded Books Audio CD ISBN 1402526083 / 9781402526084
  • 1992, UK, ISIS Audio Books Audio cassette ISBN 1-85089-877-4, October 1992
  • 1994, USA, W. W. Norton & Company paperback ISBN 0-393-03701-0, November 1994
  • 1995, UK, Bespoke Audio Audio cassette (abridged) Robert Hardy Narrator ISBN 1-86051-003-5, June 1995
  • 1996, UK, Harper Collins paperback ISBN 0-00-649915-5, 7 October 1996
  • 1998, UK, Harper Collins hardback ISBN 0-00-221526-8, 27 January 1998
  • 1999, USA, Thorndike Press Large print paperback ISBN 0-7862-1932-7, November 1999
  • 1999, USA, Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & Co Large print paperback ISBN 0-7540-2248-X, 1 August 2000
  • 2002, UK, Soundings Audio cassette (abridged) Christopher Kay Narrator ISBN 1-84283-310-3, June 2002
  • 2003, USA, W. W. Norton & Company Paperback ISBN 0-393-32517-2, October 2003 Movie Tie-In
  • 2003, UK, Harper Collins hardback ISBN 0-00-716608-7, 6 October 2003 Movie Tie-In
  • 2003, UK, Harper Collins paperback ISBN 0-00-715786-X, 6 October 2003 Movie Tie-In
  • 2003, UK, Harper Collins Audio cassette (abridged) Robert Hardy Narrator ISBN 0-00-105329-9, 6 October 2003
  • 2003, UK, Harper Collins Audio CD (abridged) Robert Hardy Narrator ISBN 0-00-716085-2, 6 October 2003
  • 2004, USA, W. W. Norton & Company paperback ISBN 0-393-32476-1, 21 January 2004 Movie Tie-In
  • 2004, UK, Blackstone Audiobooks MP3 CD, Audio CD Simon Vance Narrator ISBN 0-7861-8713-1, March 2004
  • 2004, USA, Blackstone Audiobooks MP3 CD, Audio CD Simon Vance Narrator ISBN 978-0786186297, March 2004
  • 2005, UK, Soundings Audio cassette (abridged) Christopher Kay Narrator ISBN 1-84283-260-3, January 2005
  • 2008, UK, The Folio Society Hardback re-issue of 1970 edition September 2008 with new illustrations
  • 2011, USA, W. W. Norton & Company e-book ISBN 978-0-393-05895-6, 5 December 2011
  • 2011, UK, Harper Publishers e-book December 2011 ISBN B006FH2W4O

This novel was first published by J. B. Lippincott in the USA in 1969. Collins followed with UK edition in 1970. W. W. Norton issued a reprint 21 years after the initial publication, in 1990, as part of its reissue in paperback of all the novels in the series prior to 1991. The process of reissuing the novels initially published prior to 1991 was in full swing in 1991, as the whole series gained a new and wider audience, as Mark Howowitz describes in writing about The Nutmeg of Consolation, the fourteenth novel in the series and initially published in 1991.

Two of my favorite friends are fictitious characters; they live in more than a dozen volumes always near at hand. Their names are Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and their creator is a 77-year-old novelist named Patrick O'Brian, whose 14 books about them have been continuously in print in England since the first, "Master and Commander," was published in 1970. O'Brian's British fans include T. J. Binyon, Iris Murdoch, A. S. Byatt, Timothy Mo and the late Mary Renault, but, until recently, this splendid saga of two serving officers in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars was unavailable in this country, apart from the first few installments which went immediately out of print. Last year, however, W. W. Norton decided to reissue the series in its entirety, and so far nine of the 14 have appeared here, including the most recent chapter, The Nutmeg of Consolation.[24]

Notes

  1. ↑ Latin: "I don't like you, Sabidius, and I can't say why; all I can say is I don't like you"

References

  1. ↑ Patrick O'Brian (2003). Master and Commander. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 193. ISBN 0-393-32517-2.
  2. ↑ "Pietro Locatelli (Composer)". Bach Cantatas Website. November 26, 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  3. ↑ David Cordingly (2007). Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander. New York: Bloomsbury. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-1-58234-534-5.
  4. ↑ The British brig-sloop Speedy's defeat of the Spanish xebec-frigate El Gamo on 6 May 1801, generally regarded as one of the most remarkable single-ship actions in naval history, founded the legendary reputation of the Speedy's commander, Lord Cochrane (later Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, GCB).
  5. ↑ Cunat, Charles (1857). Saint-Malo illustré par ses marins (in French). Imprimerie de F. Péalat. p. 418.
  6. ↑ Patrick O'Brian (2003). Master and Commander. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 205. ISBN 0-393-32517-2.
  7. ↑ Amandine Péquignot & Michel Van Praët. "The collection of the "Cabinet du Roy" (1729-1793), an example of preservation and historical investigations" (PDF). Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  8. ↑ Patrick O'Brian (2003). Master and Commander. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 206. ISBN 0-393-32517-2.
  9. ↑ Patrick O'Brian (2003). Master and Commander. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 390. ISBN 0-393-32517-2.
  10. ↑ Patrick O'Brian (2003). Master and Commander. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 385. ISBN 0-393-32517-2.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Anthony Gary Brown (2014). "Patrick and Mary O’Brian". The Patrick O'Brian Muster Book: Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin Sea Novels. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  12. ↑ Martin Levin (14 December 1969). "Master and Commander". New York Times Book Review (registration required). New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  13. ↑ A. E. Cunningham, ed. (1994). Patrick O'Brian: A Bibliography and Critical Appreciation. British Library Publishing Division. ISBN 0-7123-1071-1.
  14. ↑ Mark Horowitz (May 16, 1993). "Patrick O'Brian's Ship Comes In". Book Reviews. New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  15. ↑ Patrick T. Reardon (13 December 1993). "The Wine-Dark Sea By Patrick O'Brian". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  16. ↑ Dick Adler (12 June 1992). "Original Insights Into The World`s Mysteries". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Master and Commander: Endorsements & Reviews". Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  18. ↑ "BBC - The Big Read" (Archives ed.). BBC. April 2003. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  19. ↑ "Master and Commander". Sunday Mirror. 18 Jan. 1970.
  20. ↑ David C. Taylor (1969). "Master and Commander". Literary Journal. 15 Dec.
  21. ↑ Benedict Nightingale (1970). "Master and Commander". Observer. 18 Jan.
  22. ↑ H.J. Poole (1970). "Master and Commander". Irish Press. 21 Jan.
  23. ↑ "Master and Commander". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  24. ↑ Mark Horowitz (8 September 1991). "Down to the Sea in Ships". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 December 2014.

Bibliography

External links