Customer Reviews

The Commodore (Aubrey Maturin Series)

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Don't read this book unless you have read the previous sixteen in the series. It's not that this book is bad on its own but simply that you will miss so much by not having grown with Aubrey and Maturin as they make their way through the shoals and lee shores of war and peace, marriage and separation, famine and feast. These books have been compared with the Hornblower series but this damns them with faint praise. They are, in every respect, far superior, truly works of great literature. The research and the depth of character development are staggering achievements on their own but these are no stuffy historical tracts; the pages are filled with sly humour. There are great acts of courage and infamy and sweeping tragedy. There is the story, which threads its way through all the books, of a lasting, deep friendship between two disparate personalities. The scenes of battle, winning and losing are among the best writing of this century. Think I exaggerate? Buy the first three books in the series and see for yourself.

After finishing this seventeenth installation in the Aubrey/Maturin series, I found myself wishing that there were still another seventeen novels to read. Patrick O'Brien's weaves a wonderful tale - one so vivid and magical that it is so very difficult to put any of the irresistible Aubrey/Maturin novels down. The seagoing tale that Patrick O'Brien has crafted is filled with interesting characters and a consistently compelling story-line. It is also replete with accurate historical detail and fully captures the political intrigue of the British Navy's involvement in the Napoleonic wars of the nineteenth-century.

Even though Commodore Aubrey's mission is to suppress the slave trade off the west coast of Africa and later onto a secret mission on the Irish coast to prevent a French invasion, `The Commodore' is not filled with seagoing adventure. In fact, the main components of the tale take place ashore. Maturin and Aubrey find themselves home after a long and successful adventure. While Lucky Jack is promoted to Commodore of the First Class, not all is well at home. Both he and his wife suspect the other of infidelity. Dianne has run away leaving Stephen's autistic child with the widow Clarissa Oakes. Political intrigue forces Stephen to slip some of his fortune and his child to Spain.

At sea, Stephen battles his addition to coca leaves and a severe bout with Yellow Fever. Commodore Aubrey's leadership and seamanship are tested by two Captains under his command. One is more interested in polished brass and drives his crew hard with the whip. The other is a sodomite, whose favoritism to those young men among his crew that he beds disrupts discipline and the fighting efficacy of his vessel.

This is one of the more magnificent books in the series and I heartily recommend it, as I do with the rest of the books in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

This book is the 17th in a series of historical novels, beginning with Master and Commander. It is said by some that these books comprise one long, glorious novel. If you've read them this far, you've become immersed in the 19th century world of Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin (much as Stephen often becomes immersed in the sea). If you haven't, you're in for a treat. The Commodore once again showcases Patrick O'Brian's sly wit, command of the English language and knowledge of the early 19th century. This knowledge includes all things nautical, of course, along with zoology, art, music, politics, medicine and the "natural philosophy" (science) of the time. Intricate plots, sea battles, espionage, character-based humor and the friendship between Jack, the English sea captain and Stephen, the ship's surgeon, keep us coming back for more.

After returning from years at sea, in the East Indies, Botany Bay, the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, the Peruvian coast and Cape Horn--during which Aubrey freed an old servant of Dr. Maturin from imprisonment and unwittingly took on a stowaway from Botany Bay, frustrated an attempt by a prototypical communist to set up an "ideal" government which would have been inimical to British interests in the Sandwich Islands, and a failed attempt by Dr. Maturin (a British intelligence agent) to free Peru from the Spanish influence--as well as encountering terminal storms, volcanic eruptions, encounters with icebergs, pirates and other enemy ships, in the last book (The Wine Dark Sea); our heroes, Dr, Stephen Maturin and Captain Jack Aubrey finally arrive back in England in this, the 17th book of the 20 book Aubrey/Maturin series.

However, all is not well. Aubrey's wife, Sophie, suspects him of having an affair with the stowaway, Mrs. Oakes, although he is innocent. He, in turn, suspects her of having an affair with the local parson, who pursued her before their marriage. Stephen finds his wife, Diana, gone to parts unknown, and his girl child whom he has never seen, is suspected of being an idiot.

Jack is given a new command, promoted to Commodore, and embarks on an effort to stop the slave trade out of Africa, as well as to frustrate a French squadron from interfering in Ireland.

No one knows square-rigged ships as well as the late Patrick O'Brian, the author. His 19th century sea battles are often taken directly from British Admiralty records, but more than that his dialogues are replete with period expressions and turns of phrase that add greatly to his stories. What magnificent stories!

The newcomer to the series should start with the first book, Master and Commander, and take them in order. I envy you the hours of pleasure that await you.

Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity

"Come grow old with me / The best is yet to be..."

Browning's lines from "Rabbi Ben Ezra" apply nicely to O'Brian's great Aubrey/Maturin series (although I understand that the last couple of volumes in the series are not quite up to the standard). Partly because so few writers can create vital and interesting characters any more, O'Brian stands out with his correct Tory Naval captain (Jack Aubrey) and his British intelligence agent/scientist friend (Stephen Maturin), who show here that they can age gracefully.

But don't begin here. You have to have read the series in order to understand their tangled love and financial relationships and how the situation in THE COMMODORE came to be. If you have read the others through THE WINE DARK SEA, you are in for a real treat.

Aubrey and Maturin combat pro-Napoleonic forces at home and abroad. In the process, they deliver crippling blows to the West African slave trade and prevent a French landing in support of Irish independence.

Now that he has risen in the ranks, Aubrey must deal with issues raised by an incompetent spit-and-polish commander like Captain Thomas and by an otherwise talented sodomite in the person of Captain Duff whose officers rebel against favoritism shown to his catamites. Throughout the book, our heroes are uncertain of the welcome they will receive from their wives and families -- yet they are driven onward for King and Country.

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.

Patrick O'Brian's "The Commodore" is the seventeenth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The Aubrey-Maturin books are quite simply the best fiction I've ever read. I enjoy them so much that I find it difficult to read any other fiction now.

Although there are twenty (completed) Aubrey-Maturin novels, in a sense they are one long, unending story. O'Brian tells the story of an unlikely pair of friends in early 19th century Britain: a hard-charging Royal Navy captain and an Irish physician and naturalist (and British spy). Both are devoted, for different reasons, to the fight against Napoleonic France. Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin are dedicated friends, and the interplay between this unlikely pair is ranges from deep philosophical discussions to intended and unintended humor.

But what really makes these novels is Patrick O'Brian's writing style. Through his words, he paints wonderful pictures and creates real characters in brilliant narratives; which is good, because Aubrey and many of his exploits are based on real-life adventures during the Napoleonic Wars.

In "The Commodore," Aubrey leads a fleet of Royal Navy ships to the coast of Africa to interdict the slave trade. Aubrey has to deal with the internal problems of his fleet while also leading a successful campaign against African traders. Finally, Aubrey leads the fleet north to stop a French invasion of Ireland. This is a fabulous book, but I recommend that everyone with any interest in historical fiction or the Royal Navy read the entire series in order.

The seventeenth installment of the Aubrey/Maturin series is vintage O'Brian. Those who seek mere relentless thrills and action will be disappointed. By contrast, those who enjoy a novel that flawlessly fuses historically accurate fleet actions in the Age of Sail with meditations on the nature of friendship, love, fine music, literature, wine and all that makes life worth living will come away as fulfilled as could be expected from any book in this wonderful series.

"The Commodore" finds Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and his friend Stephen Maturin, back in England after a prolonged, around-the-world voyage. For both, their respective home-comings are, at best bittersweet. Though substantially enriched from their last expedition, the two friends must confront personal and family challenges that are awkward at best, and, in Stephen's case, painful at worst. Over a decade has passed since the naval officer and the medical doctor/naturalist/intelligence agent had met in Port Mahon just before the Peace of Amiens. Sixteen novels later, in the waning months of the Napoleonic wars, we find them not only older, but more reflective and serious. Jack is now a Commodore, commanding a powerful squadron and charged with a complicated dual mission that will take him from England to the coast of West Africa and later, to the shores of Ireland. Stephen, his private life as complicated as ever, finds himself enmeshed in intelligence-related intrigues that threaten to reach far, far too close to home. For all that, the novel's dominant ambiance is never opressive. True to form, O'Brian provides his readers with plenty of flashes of humor and levity that pierce the somber clouds that now and again gather over the heads of the protagonists. There is a happy ending -- of sorts. As is always the case in the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the nature of happiness is always somewhat ambivalent, perhaps fleeting. But, then again, is that not true in real life?

The seventeenth in O'Brian's brilliant twenty-volume nautical series finds Captain Jack Aubrey and sidekick Stephen Maturin returning from a circumnavigation voyage that took up the previous four volumes. The first part of the book is taken up with their shore visits, something we haven't seen in several volumes. These turn out to be bittersweet, as Sophie and Jack have a spat and Stephen's home life is even more confused. When they finally set to sea, Jack is the commodore of a squadron with a double-mission: to interdict the slave trade off the African coast and then to confront one of Napoleon's invasion fleets.

As always, O'Brian serves up nautical detail, a wry sense of humor, deeply developed characters, and minimalist prose. "The Commodore", like the first sixteen volumes in this series, is simply excellent.

Patrick O'Brian is a master at his craft: creating a vibrant, living world within the bounds of literature. The Commodore is the 17th book in O'Brian's series about two seafaring men. Jack Aubrey is a captain in the Royal Navy. Jack's best friend is Stephen Maturin, a surgeon in the Royal Navy as well as an intelligence agent working against the forces of Napoleon in the early 19th century. Even if you are not immediately attracted to tales of seagoing adventurers, the warmth, spirit and wealth of detail in O'Brian's prose is more than enough to delight even the most cynical reader. The Commodore is not the very best book in the series, but O'Brian is always, consistently excellent. I recommend this series most highly, and if you haven't begun the first book (Master and Commander), I envy you and your voyage ahead. Read it.