Aubrey-Maturin · Book 1
Master and Commander
- Published
- 1 January 1969
- Pages
- 402
- ISBN-13
- 9780007892761
- Type
- novel
About this book
"Master and Commander" (1969, 402 pages) opens Patrick O'Brian's twenty-book Aubrey-Maturin sequence, introducing bluff Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon-naturalist-spy Stephen Maturin, who meet as strangers at a concert in Menorca in 1800 and nearly duel before becoming friends. Its early chapters are famous for throwing readers straight into period naval jargon with little hand-holding — most fans say it's worth pushing through the first hundred pages — and it later lent its title to the 2003 film adaptation.
Its place in Aubrey-Maturin
Master and Commander is book 1 in the Aubrey-Maturin series. It is followed by Post Captain. See the full Aubrey-Maturin reading order.
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels follow the friendship of Jack Aubrey, a bluff, brilliant, and perpetually broke Royal Navy officer, and Stephen Maturin, the ship's surgeon who is also a naturalist and, unbeknownst to most of the crew, a British intelligence agent. The two meet as strangers at a concert in Menorca in 1800 — nearly duelling before becoming friends — and the twenty novels that follow chart Jack's rise through the Napoleonic-era Navy and Stephen's parallel career gathering intelligence across…
Editions
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780007255832
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780006499152
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780007429288