Patrick O’Brian’s nautical Aubrey-Maturin books are not so much a series of novels as they are one long serial novel. In the world of these books the reader experiences a deep immersion in 19th C shipboard life and feels the strength of camaraderie and unity of purpose that marks life aboard the Surprise, Captain Jack Aubrey’s favorite ship. Surprise is a ‘happy ship’ (though some other vessels in the books are not), led by a captain who is firm, fair, highly competent and dedicated. Aubrey and his close friend, ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin, complement each other in their strengths and weaknesses.
Every buddy movie ever made is built on the principle that two diverse characters are better off working together than going their separate ways. The initial encounter of a buddy duo often makes for a humorous scene, as one or both of the pair is surprised and discomfited. In the case of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the catalyst that brings them together is music, which both of them adore…but their behaviour at the concert where they meet is quite different. As the musicians at the Governor’s House play their final crescendo
“… on the little gilt chairs at least some of the audience were following the rise with an equal intensity: …two in the third row…happened to be sitting next to one another…The listener farther to the left was a man …whose big form overflowed his seat, leaving only a streak of gilt wood to be seen here and there. He was wearing his best uniform…the deep white cuff of his gold-buttoned sleeve beat the time….The high note came, the pause, the resolution; and with the resolution the sailor’s fist swept firmly down upon his knee. He leant back in his chair, extinguishing it entirely, sighed happily, and turned towards his neighbour with a smile. The words ‘Very finely played, sir, I believe’ were formed in his gullet if not quite in his mouth when he caught the cold and indeed inimical look and heard the whisper, “If you really must beat the measure, sir, let me entreat you to do so in time, and not half a beat ahead.”
But the inauspicious beginning is soon put behind them, for Jack is convivial by nature and Stephen too honest with himself not to admit the music was so fine that Jack’s rather unrefined enthusiasm was in fact justified.
The excellent film adaptation Master and Commander (drawing on events from several books in the series and not just the initial volume of the same title) captures, in particular by means of music, the essence of the multi-volume progress of the friendship between the open, bluff English ship’s captain and the intense, secretive, philosophical physician. The books of course show us in much more detail how at times their national outlooks—Stephen is Irish—and their personal agendas clash. We see them through thick and thin, battling the elements and the enemy; Stephen unable quite ever to get his sea legs, Jack at a loss on land. We see them each at their fallible worst—Stephen succumbing to laudanum addiction, Jack to marital infidelity.
But through it all, the evenings spent playing string duets and sharing meals reaffirm the surprising harmony between a pair who are very unlike. Friends and shipmates become much more than the sum of their parts, and their story is a joy to read.
Every buddy movie ever made is built on the principle that two diverse characters are better off working together than going their separate ways. The initial encounter of a buddy duo often makes for a humorous scene, as one or both of the pair is surprised and discomfited. In the case of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the catalyst that brings them together is music, which both of them adore…but their behaviour at the concert where they meet is quite different. As the musicians at the Governor’s House play their final crescendo
“… on the little gilt chairs at least some of the audience were following the rise with an equal intensity: …two in the third row…happened to be sitting next to one another…The listener farther to the left was a man …whose big form overflowed his seat, leaving only a streak of gilt wood to be seen here and there. He was wearing his best uniform…the deep white cuff of his gold-buttoned sleeve beat the time….The high note came, the pause, the resolution; and with the resolution the sailor’s fist swept firmly down upon his knee. He leant back in his chair, extinguishing it entirely, sighed happily, and turned towards his neighbour with a smile. The words ‘Very finely played, sir, I believe’ were formed in his gullet if not quite in his mouth when he caught the cold and indeed inimical look and heard the whisper, “If you really must beat the measure, sir, let me entreat you to do so in time, and not half a beat ahead.”
But the inauspicious beginning is soon put behind them, for Jack is convivial by nature and Stephen too honest with himself not to admit the music was so fine that Jack’s rather unrefined enthusiasm was in fact justified.
The excellent film adaptation Master and Commander (drawing on events from several books in the series and not just the initial volume of the same title) captures, in particular by means of music, the essence of the multi-volume progress of the friendship between the open, bluff English ship’s captain and the intense, secretive, philosophical physician. The books of course show us in much more detail how at times their national outlooks—Stephen is Irish—and their personal agendas clash. We see them through thick and thin, battling the elements and the enemy; Stephen unable quite ever to get his sea legs, Jack at a loss on land. We see them each at their fallible worst—Stephen succumbing to laudanum addiction, Jack to marital infidelity.
But through it all, the evenings spent playing string duets and sharing meals reaffirm the surprising harmony between a pair who are very unlike. Friends and shipmates become much more than the sum of their parts, and their story is a joy to read.
