The Commodore (Vol. Book 17) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)
by Patrick O'Brian
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patrick O'BrianEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-04-17
ISBN: 0393037606
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Book Reviews of The Commodore (Vol. Book 17) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)
Book Review: A more somber and reflective Aubrey & Maturin novel.
Summary: 5 Stars
The seventeenth installment of the Aubrey/Maturin series is vintage O'Brian. Those who seek mere relentless thrills and action will be disappointed. By contrast, those who enjoy a novel that flawlessly fuses historically accurate fleet actions in the Age of Sail with meditations on the nature of friendship, love, fine music, literature, wine and all that makes life worth living will come away as fulfilled as could be expected from any book in this wonderful series.
"The Commodore" finds Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and his friend Stephen Maturin, back in England after a prolonged, around-the-world voyage. For both, their respective home-comings are, at best bittersweet. Though substantially enriched from their last expedition, the two friends must confront personal and family challenges that are awkward at best, and, in Stephen's case, painful at worst. Over a decade has passed since the naval officer and the medical doctor/naturalist/intelligence agent had met in Port Mahon just before the Peace of Amiens. Sixteen novels later, in the waning months of the Napoleonic wars, we find them not only older, but more reflective and serious. Jack is now a Commodore, commanding a powerful squadron and charged with a complicated dual mission that will take him from England to the coast of West Africa and later, to the shores of Ireland. Stephen, his private life as complicated as ever, finds himself enmeshed in intelligence-related intrigues that threaten to reach far, far too close to home. For all that, the novel's dominant ambiance is never opressive. True to form, O'Brian provides his readers with plenty of flashes of humor and levity that pierce the somber clouds that now and again gather over the heads of the protagonists. There is a happy ending -- of sorts. As is always the case in the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the nature of happiness is always somewhat ambivalent, perhaps fleeting. But, then again, is that not true in real life?
Summary of The Commodore (Vol. Book 17) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)
The seventeenth novel in the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series of naval tales, which the New York Times Book Review has described as "the best historical novels ever written."
Having survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.
The subtle interweaving of these disparate themes is an achievement of pure storytelling by one of our greatest living novelists.
After several installments of gallivanting around the South Seas, Aubrey and Maturin return home to England, where the surgeon-cum-intelligence-agent discovers that his wife has disappeared. As if such a domestic crisis weren't enough, the intrepid pair are also dispatched to the Gulf of Guinea (to suppress the slave trade) and to Ireland (to rebuff an impending French invasion.) O'Brian's stunning range, coupled with his mind-bending command of minutiae, explain why James Hamilton-Paterson has called him "the Homer of the Napoleonic Wars."
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