HarperCollins, Copyright 1970, 412 pagesISBN: 0 00 616626 1
Read: April 2010 (at age 32)
First time read
If you haven’t read it:
This is the first book of a long series. It’s very technical. Don’t read it unless you really like sailing jargon. Do read it if you want an accurate description of life at sea in the 1800’s.
From the back of the book:
Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O’Brian’s now famous Aubrey/Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship’s surgeon and an intelligence agent. It contains all the action and excitement which could possibly be hoped for in a historical novel, but it also displays the qualities which have put O’Brian far ahead of any of his competitors: his depiction of the detail of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war, of weapons, food, conversation and ambience, of the landscape and of the sea. O’Brian’s portrayal of each of these is faultless and the sense of period throughout is acute. His power of characterization is above all masterly.
My Reactions (spoilers ahoy!)
