Skip to the content Skip to the main menu
MuggleNet Book Trolley
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Blog Tour
  • Giveaways
  • Interviews
  • MuggleNet
  • Bookshop.org Shop
  • Amazon Shop

Ask Madam Pince

Recent Posts

  • Book Review: “All the Hidden Monsters” by Amie Jordan May 9, 2025
  • Book Review: “The Last One” by Rachel Howzell Hall December 5, 2024
  • Author Interview: Randy Ribay, Author of “The Reckoning of Roku” July 23, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Reckoning of Roku” (“Chronicles of the Avatar” #5) by Randy Ribay July 23, 2024
  • Book Review: “We Shall Be Monsters” by Tara Sim June 29, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Cursed Rose” (“The Bone Spindle” #3) by Leslie Vedder February 6, 2024
  • Book Review: “Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth” by Natalie Haynes January 8, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Blood Years” by Elana K. Arnold November 17, 2023
  • Book Review: “Check & Mate” by Ali Hazelwood November 7, 2023
  • Series Review: “Catwings” by Ursula K. Le Guin, Illustrated by S.D. Schindler October 24, 2023
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Bookshop.org Shop
  • Amazon Shop
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Blog Tour
  • Giveaways
  • Interviews
  • MuggleNet
  • Bookshop.org Shop
  • Amazon Shop

Ask Madam Pince

Recent Posts

  • Book Review: “All the Hidden Monsters” by Amie Jordan May 9, 2025
  • Book Review: “The Last One” by Rachel Howzell Hall December 5, 2024
  • Author Interview: Randy Ribay, Author of “The Reckoning of Roku” July 23, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Reckoning of Roku” (“Chronicles of the Avatar” #5) by Randy Ribay July 23, 2024
  • Book Review: “We Shall Be Monsters” by Tara Sim June 29, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Cursed Rose” (“The Bone Spindle” #3) by Leslie Vedder February 6, 2024
  • Book Review: “Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth” by Natalie Haynes January 8, 2024
  • Book Review: “The Blood Years” by Elana K. Arnold November 17, 2023
  • Book Review: “Check & Mate” by Ali Hazelwood November 7, 2023
  • Series Review: “Catwings” by Ursula K. Le Guin, Illustrated by S.D. Schindler October 24, 2023
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Bookshop.org Shop
  • Amazon Shop

Book Review: Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian

 

[button color=”black” size=”big” link=”http://affiliates.abebooks.com/c/99844/77798/2029?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abebooks.com%2Fservlet%2FSearchResults%3Fisbn%3D9780393307054″ target=”blank” ]Purchase here[/button]

You may have seen the very excellent film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a curiously titled film, so named because it is loosely based on two different books by the same author. Patrick O’Brian’s long series of naval novels about a British captain in the Napoleonic Wars begins with this book; the one called The Far Side of the World was the tenth of twenty books, all of them centering on the exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, surgeon, and conscience, Dr. Stephen Maturin. And if they aren’t the greatest series of historical novels about 19th-century naval warfare, they run a close second to C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series.

I can tell this already after only reading the first book. I can also tell that this series is going to cost me a fortune, even in paperback, because I will buy them and line them up on my shelf next to my prized Hornblowers. And not for showing off, either; I mean to read them to pieces.

Newcomers to sailing stories will be somewhat aided by a diagram of a ship and its sails on the frontispiece, though it is not the kind of ship Captain Aubrey commands in this book, nor are all the sails represented. Even more helpful is the way the book shows you the sailing life from Dr. Maturin’s point of view—a landsman who, before this story, had no knowledge of the workings of the ship. As he learns the parts of a ship, and the customs of its crew, so do you. I suppose this book would make an excellent laymen’s introduction to the subject of 19th century naval warfare, almost textbook material. But it is more; oh, so much more.

The first thing that grabs you about the book is the very un-sanitized, un-prettied-up, human portrait of the heroes of the British navy who stood between Napoleon and world domination in the early 1800s. You don’t just learn the difference between topmasts and topgallants; you also discover that the navy had all kinds of personalities in it, made up of all different good and bad parts, and plagued with every problem from greed, guilt, despair, and jealousy, all the way to substance abuse, vermin, weight problems, and debt. They conversed with women of ill-repute, ate with unwashed knives after using them in an autopsy, and occasionally had themselves let blood.

But zounds, how they fought! Most people living today would consider it an act of heroism just to live with seventy to ninety men together on a 14-gun sloop-of-war like Aubrey’s first command, the Sophie. The crowded conditions, the poor food and water (constantly running low), the danger from the elements, the swaying heights of the rigging, the short hours of sleep (watch and watch, four hours on deck and four hours below), the heavy work and severe discipline; and then, for an amusing diversion now and again, tons of burning metal being hurled at you from the deck of an enemy ship.

In this story, set around 1800, Aubrey and Maturin, together with other enjoyable characters, sail out of Minorca to harrass the trade along the Spanish coast. They take some lucrative prizes, win some spectacular battles, and also experience a good deal of loss. They are joined by a tortured but unforgettable Lieutenant named Dillon, a quiet master’s mate named Pullings, a hilariously boastful captain’s clerk named Richards, a merry captain’s coxswain named Bonden, a master rumored to be a pederast (alas, another tortured soul), a loblolly boy shunned by the superstitious sailors because of his on-land career as a sin-eater, and a similarly varied assortment of midshipmen, standing officers, and seamen. They use clever disguises, marvelous feats of navigation, maneuvers so daring you will hold your breath, and a lot of well-practiced gunnery to triumph over xebecs, snows, galleons, and sloops.

Even during the introspective lulls between engagements, you will be fascinated by the questions that whirl within and between the characters. Will Dillon and Aubrey ever become the friends they should be? Will Aubrey’s famous luck at sea uphold him on land? Or will he torpedo himself (to borrow a phrase from a different era) personally, politically, or in worse ways? Observe with pleasure how, in a short time, he comes on board a ship whose crew is set in its ways, and whips them into shape—makes them a fighting crew, and earns their respect and devotion. And feel your flesh crawl with the tension, not only between the characters but also between ships and nations, as Dr. Maturin looks on with his cool, philosophical, scientific eye.

OK, here it is in a nutshell. If you saw the movie, you saw almost everything that happens in this book—except the part where the Doctor operates on himself; that isn’t in the book. And the setting is the Mediterranean instead of the coast of South America. But other than that, if you saw the movie, you will find a lot of the events in this book very familiar. Nevertheless, the book does much that no movie could ever do. It is so convincing that you can all but feal the deck heaving under your feet as you read it, and become enveloped in the historical setting and the naval jargon until you find it running out of your own mouth. And instead of only seeing what’s happening on the surface, you come to understand what’s behind it all—which is what really makes this a great story.

  • Post date
    May 27, 2005
  • Posted by
    Robbie
  • Posted in Book Reviews
Previous post: Book Review: The Callender Papers by Cynthia Voigt Next post: Book Review: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf

Related Posts

Book Review: “Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck” by Dale E. Basye

  • Post date
    January 17, 2018

Book Review: “Jane, Unlimited” by Kristin Cashore

  • Post date
    October 3, 2017

Book Review and Giveaway: “Principal Mikey” by Derek Taylor Kent

  • Post date
    June 30, 2018

Book Review: “Tamsin” by Peter S. Beagle

  • Post date
    January 1, 2013

Theme by Anders Norén