Master and Commander
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Introduced by Max Hastings Bound in buckram, blocked with a design by Neil Gower. Set in Baskerville. 12 pages of colour and black & white plates, and 6 black & white tailpieces. Size: 9" x 6¼". 376 pages. |
Minorca, 1800 – during a chamber music recital Stephen Maturin is driven to distraction by his neighbour’s humming. Elbowing Jack Aubrey in the ribs, he nearly provokes a duel, yet out of this unpromising beginning, a firm friendship grows and Aubrey appoints Maturin to the position of ship’s surgeon aboard his tiny sloop, HMS Sophie. As Aubrey strives to turn the Sophie’s fortunes around, Maturin follows a dangerous career as a British spy.
First published in 1970, Master & Commander was the start of an extraordinary journey for millions of readers the world over – a journey that was to last 30 years. Author and journalist Max Hastings, introducer to this edition and one of O’Brian’s greatest admirers, explains: ‘The publication of each new Aubrey-Maturin volume became a literary event in London and New York alike, even in Paris and Tokyo.’ Whilst the naval adventure novel has a long and distinguished literary history, none has inhabited the genre with such unqualified mastery as Patrick O’Brian.
To read Master & Commander is to experience life at sea in the days of Nelson, from the racy below-deck humour to the breathless thrill of a skirmish with an Algerian quarter-galley. The atmosphere on board ship is palpable: the slap of the surf on deck, the feel of the rigging under bruised fingers, the monotonous diet, the tensions, disciplines and loyal friendships.
Above all, there is a sure and subtle grasp of plot and character, and of the larger issues of the period, from medicine and politics to music and philosophy. O’Brian allows us to be eyewitnesses to history, making him, as Hastings says, ‘the most brilliant historical novelist of modern times’. impeccably researched maps and battle plans which illuminate the historical milieu and take us to the heart of the action.
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