Back in May 2022 I wrote about my interest in giving Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series a try. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the series explores the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin amidst the backdrop of eighteenth-and-nineteenth century British navy life. After finishing the third book in the series, I think it is worth looking back at how I feel about the series up to this point.
One thing that immediately sticks out is how O’Brian presents eighteenth-and-nineteenth century British naval life with historical authenticity. He captures the slang and dialect of the eighteenth-and-nineteenth century British officer and sailor by using primary source material such as letters and other correspondence from the period. Not only that, but O’Brian also has his characters interact with historical figures and participate in actual naval engagements from the Napoleonic Wars such as the First and Second Battles of Algeciras in 1801 and the Battle of Cape Santa Maria in 1804.
The main characters are also well written and are the selling point of the series. Captain Jack Aubrey is strictly by-the-book about British naval customs, but he has the understanding temperament and natural leadership qualities required for a captain. Stephen Maturin, the ship’s doctor and surgeon, is curious about the world around him from the natural sciences to music. His additional experience as an undercover intelligence officer for the British Admiralty provides an interesting contrast to Aubrey’s overt presence.
With all that said, I do have some criticisms about the first three books in the series. It is a series that demands a lot from the reader. Specifically, clarity is at times sacrificed for historical authenticity. O’Brian is not shy about using eighteenth-and-nineteenth century naval terms and jargon to describe what is happening with the ship such as sail rigging, maneuvers, and other highly technical sailing terms. Occasionally, Maturin fills in as the reader’s surrogate when Captain Aubrey or the crew need to explain specific sailing terms or elements of the plot, but it does not happen consistently enough to alleviate the issue. The sailing jargon interrupted the flow of the story enough to where I would put the books away for days at a time.
Another problem is how O’Brian stylizes and structures the narrative. There are several instances where events will happen “offscreen,” and the characters will reflect on these events after the fact which can be confusing at times. Temporal chronology is also inconsistent: the story will sometimes go day-by-day and then several weeks, if not months, will go by in the next sentence. Of course, this technique can help when repetitive actions are happening over a significant amount of time (like sailing around continents), but it can make the story’s pacing disorienting.
Even with these criticisms, the series has been a fun read so far. I plan to start the fourth book soon. I have no idea whether I will read the entire twenty-one-book series, but I do not regret my time with the first three books.
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