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Aubrey/Maturin — by Patrick O'Brian
Aubrey/Maturin Series in Order: 21 books
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Master and Commander
Book - 1
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R. N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life...
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Post Captain
Book - 2
"We've beat them before and we'll beat them again." In 1803 Napoleon smashes the Peace of Amiens, and Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., taking refuge in France from his creditors, is interned. He escapes from France, from debtors' prison, from a possible m...
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H.M.S. Surprise
Book - 3
Third in the series of Aubrey-Maturin adventures, this book is set among the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and...
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The Mauritius Command
Book - 4
Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command--until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held isla...
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Desolation Island
Book - 5
Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy--and a treacherous disease th...
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The Fortune of War
Book - 6
Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a dispatch vessel. But the War of 18...
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The Surgeon's Mate
Book - 7
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the att...
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The Ionian Mission
Book - 8
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans now of many battles, return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior captain commanding a line-of-battle ship in the Royal Navy's blockade of Toulon, and this i...
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Treason's Harbor
Book - 9
All of Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assu...
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The Far Side of the World
Book - 10
It is still the War of 1812. Patrick O'Brian takes his hero Jack Aubrey and his tetchy, sardonic friend Stephen Maturin on a voyage as fascinating as anything he has ever written. They set course across the South Atlantic to intercept a powerful Amer...
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The Reverse of the Medal
Book - 11
Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., ashore after a successful cruise, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the City. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage--the provin...
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The Letter of Marque
Book - 12
Captain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship's surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of Briti...
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The Thirteen-Gun Salute
Book - 13
Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea, shepherding a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes. Stephen Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catch...
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The Nutmeg of Consolation
Book - 14
Shipwrecked on a remote island, Captain Aubrey and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck, only to have their makeshift vessel burned in an attack by Malay pirates. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the ingenuity of...
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The Truelove
Book - 15
A British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the Sandwich Islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the office...
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The Wine-Dark Sea
Book - 16
At the outset of this adventure, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a heavy American privateer through the Great South Sea. Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, w...
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The Commodore
Book - 17
Having survived their adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin now return to England. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, but for Stephen disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or c...
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The Yellow Admiral
Book - 18
Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy, in Patrick O'Brian's long-awaited sequel to his bestseller The Commodore. It is 1814; with the coming of peace and for several other reasons his future at the admiral...
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The Hundred Days
Book - 19
Napoleon, escaped from Elba, pursues his enemies across Europe like a vengeful phoenix. If he can corner the British and Prussians before their Russian and Austrian allies arrive, his genius will lead the French armies to triumph at Waterloo. In the...
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Blue at the Mizzen
Book - 20
Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace brings with it both the desertion of nearly half of Captain Aubrey's crew and the sudden dimming of Aubrey's career prospects in a peacetime navy. When the Surprise is nearly sunk on her w...
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21: The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey
Book - 21
To the delight of millions of Patrick O'Brian fans, here is the final, partial installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series, for the first time in paperback.Blue at the Mizzen (novel #20) ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevatio...
Series Premise
The core premise is the long, evolving friendship and professional partnership between two very different men during the Napoleonic Wars. Jack Aubrey is a bold, optimistic, and deeply patriotic British naval officer whose greatest joy is commanding a ship and engaging the enemy. Stephen Maturin is a brilliant, introspective, multilingual physician, naturalist, and secret intelligence agent for the British Crown, whose passions lie in science, music, philosophy, and the cause of Irish and Catalan independence. Together they serve on a succession of warships, fighting the French and their allies across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and beyond. Aubrey wins battles, captures prizes, and climbs the promotion ladder, while Maturin gathers intelligence, performs surgery, studies exotic wildlife, and occasionally undertakes clandestine missions. Their contrasting temperaments—Jack’s exuberant physicality and Stephen’s cerebral detachment—create a dynamic balance. The books are not just sea stories; they are richly layered explorations of friendship, courage, duty, love, music, natural history, and the moral ambiguities of war.
Aubrey/Maturin Series Characters
Captain Jack Aubrey, RN: The heart of the series—large, fair-haired, open-hearted, and deeply musical. An outstanding fighting captain and navigator, but socially awkward ashore. Loyal, generous, impulsive with money, and passionately devoted to the Navy and his friend Stephen. He rises from commander to post-captain and eventually rear-admiral.
- Dr. Stephen Maturin: Irish-Catalan physician, naturalist, and British intelligence agent. Small, dark, brilliant, secretive, and eccentric. Speaks many languages, plays the cello exquisitely, and is passionately committed to liberty (especially Irish and Catalan independence). He is Aubrey’s closest friend and moral counterweight—skeptical, melancholic, and often physically frail.
- Supporting recurring characters:
- Sophie Aubrey (née Williams): Jack’s wife—beautiful, gentle, and long-suffering due to his frequent absences.
- Admiral Sir Blaine and other intelligence figures who employ Maturin.
- Barrett Bonden: Jack’s coxswain—loyal, tough, and devoted.
- Tom Pullings, William Mowett, Stephen Higgins and other officers who serve under Aubrey at various times.
- Killick: Jack’s irascible, loyal steward.
- Preserved Killick (steward), Joe Plaice (able seaman), and the crews of various ships.
Setting of the Aubrey/Maturin Series
The setting is the world of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars (1800–1815), with action spanning the globe: the Mediterranean (Minorca, Malta, the Adriatic), the Atlantic (West Indies, Brazil, the Cape of Good Hope), the Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Java, the Red Sea), the Pacific (Tahiti, Hawaii, the Galápagos), the South China Sea, and the waters around Britain and Ireland. The ships themselves are the true setting—tiny sloops like Sophie, powerful frigates like Surprise (Aubrey’s favorite), 74-gun ships-of-the-line, and captured prizes. O’Brian recreates every detail of life aboard: the creak of timbers, the smell of tar and gunpowder, the rhythm of watches, the rituals of the quarterdeck, the cramped cabins, and the constant physical labor of sailing a wooden warship.
On land the action moves through ports (Portsmouth, Valletta, Bombay, Sydney), colonial towns, mountain villages, and diplomatic residences. The natural world is richly present—storms, calms, exotic wildlife, coral reefs, and volcanic islands—reflecting Stephen Maturin’s passion for natural history. The historical background is meticulously accurate, incorporating real events (Trafalgar, the blockade of Toulon, the War of 1812, the fall of Napoleon) while allowing fictional flexibility.
Tone & Themes of the Aubrey/Maturin Series
The tone is elegant, ironic, humane, and deeply literate. O’Brian’s prose is precise, witty, and often beautiful, filled with period-appropriate dialogue, nautical jargon, and understated humor. The narration is third-person but frequently focalized through Jack or Stephen, giving intimate access to their thoughts. The series balances high adventure (cannonades, storms, boarding actions) with quiet, reflective moments—conversations over music, philosophical musings, or the study of birds and plants. Violence is vivid but never gratuitous; death and injury are treated with respect and sorrow. The humor is dry, character-driven, and frequently arises from the clash between Jack’s hearty optimism and Stephen’s mordant irony. Beneath the excitement lies a melancholy awareness of time passing, youth fading, and the cost of war. The overall mood is warm, intelligent, and profoundly human—celebrating friendship, loyalty, and the pursuit of excellence in a dangerous world.
Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin series is a towering achievement in historical fiction—twenty completed novels (plus fragments) that combine thrilling naval adventure, profound character study, and exquisite prose. Through the lifelong friendship of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the books explore courage, loyalty, intellect, music, love, and the human spirit amid the violence and grandeur of the Napoleonic Wars. Set aboard wooden sailing ships and across the oceans of a world at war, the series offers unmatched authenticity, wit, and emotional depth. It remains one of the great literary pleasures of the modern era—rewarding rereading, rich in humor, sorrow, and wonder, and beloved by sailors, historians, musicians, and readers of every kind. In the end, it is a celebration of friendship and the enduring human capacity for excellence in the face of danger and uncertainty.
Books in this series fall into the following genres
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