Master and Commander
| Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian |
| Master and Commander (1970) |
| Post Captain (1972) |
| HMS Surprise (1973) |
| The Mauritius Command (1977) |
| Desolation Island (1978) |
| The Fortune of War (1979) |
| The Surgeon's Mate (1980) |
| The Ionian Mission (1981) |
| Treason's Harbour (1983) |
| The Far Side of the World (1984) |
| The Reverse of the Medal (1986) |
| The Letter of Marque (1988) |
| The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989) |
| The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991) |
| Clarissa Oakes (1993) |
| (called The Truelove in the USA) |
| The Wine-Dark Sea (1993) |
| The Commodore (1995) |
| The Yellow Admiral (1996) |
| The Hundred Days (1998) |
| Blue at the Mizzen (1999) |
| 21 (2004) |
| (called The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey outside the USA) |
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Master and Commander (1971) is a novel by Patrick O'Brian, the first in the Aubrey–Maturin series.
The 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe, is very freely based on other books in the Aubrey–Maturin series.
Plot Summary
Master and Commander begins on April 18th, 1800 in Port Mahon, Minorca, at the time a base of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is a Lieutenant languishing in port without a ship, Stephen Maturin a penniless half-Irish, half-Catalan physician and natural philosopher. The two main characters are first set at odds by and then united by a love of music (Aubrey plays the violin, Maturin the cello).
The novel introduces these two characters and gives Jack his first command (and promotion to the rank of Commander) on a tiny sloop-of-war, HMS Sophie. Stephen accepts a position as Sophie's surgeon. We also meet Pullings, Mowett, and Babbington, who become permanent fixtures in the series, and James Dillon, Sophie's first lieutenant, whose secret background of Irish Republicanism intersects Stephen's own.
The capture of the Spanish xebec-frigate Cacafuego by the greatly inferior Sophie brings Aubrey and his crew great glory and wealth and is based on the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo by Thomas Cochrane commanding the sloop Speedy [1].
Printed Editions
- Harper Collins reprint paperback edition of 2002 : ISBN 0006499155