The Best Historical Novels Ever Written: Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin Series
Categories: Staff Picks , Fiction
I started reading Patrick O’Brian’s novels about the British Navy of the Napoleonic era after Richard Snow called them “the best historical novels ever written” on the cover of the New York Times Book Review in 1991. I thought, sure, sea stories, who cares? But my interest was piqued, and I gave them a try.
Millions of other readers have made the same decision, and many of us are now happy fanatics.
If you saw the Russell Crowe movie and didn’t understand the fuss, or picked up a volume and were swamped by the seafaring jargon, try again. Not so much, maybe, if you’re looking for fast-paced adventure, though there are heart-stopping scenes of battle and peril at sea. But if you’re a fan of historical fiction and enjoy authors who effortlessly slip you into the life in another century, definitely. I’ve never read another author who has so perfectly mastered the language, ideas, and everyday details of another period. O'Brian has been compared to Jane Austen on the high seas.
The series is set in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In twenty-one volumes, beginning with Master and Commander, the series follows the careers and adventures of a pair of friends. Jack Aubrey, a big, bluff captain, is superbly competent at sea but rather gullible ashore. Stephen Maturin, his ship's surgeon, is a small, secretive man who in addition to his medical accomplishments is an eminent naturalist and a highly effective spy.
These superbly drawn characters are followed in a sweeping story that takes them from youth to age, through friendship and romance, with rousing naval and political and military adventures around the globe. The novels are just unmatched in their rich period detail and atmosphere.
As I mentioned, they inspire fanatic loyalty. In addition to numerous companion volumes, they’ve launched a listserv of O’Brian devotees, CDs of period music, and (my personal favorite) a cookbook, Lobscouse & Spotted Dog. The mother and daughter authors of this delightful homage pursued their obsession with the novels by attempting to recreate all the food mentioned in the books. Since eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tastes are very different from modern ones, and since the characters eat everything from hardtack to “millers” (ship rats), the quest took them to some pretty quirky places.
In short, the Aubrey/Maturin novels are just perfectly splendid. They offer all the pleasures of a long series—beloved characters, well realized settings, an inimitable narrative voice, humor, and lots of stirring drama. Some critics complain of too much familiarity in the later volumes, but fans don’t mind more of what they fell in love with.
If you’re intimidated at the thought of starting a twenty-one volume series, try The Golden Ocean, O’Brian’s standalone novel about George Anson’s 1740 circumnavigation voyage, or his biography of Sir Joseph Banks, the wealthy botanist and explorer who sailed with Captain Cook. And don’t miss the recordings of the Aubrey/Maturin series, particularly those read by Patrick Tull.
W. W. Norton has just posthumously published O’Brian’s early novel Richard Temple, a non-series novel about World War II, and I’ll be reading that, but nothing can replace Jack and Stephen.
Still with me? Bibliomania forever! What authors and books are you passionately devoted to?
