Master and Commander

In an introductory Author's Note to the novel, O'Brian sets out his approach to historical accuracy, noting that historic records of naval battles are filled with "actions that few men could invent". He goes on to say, "That is why I have gone straight to the source for the fighting in this book ... and so when I describe a fight I have log-books, official letters, contemporary accounts or the participants' own memoirs to vouch for every exchange ... Yet, on the other hand, I have not felt slavishly bound to precise chronological sequence; ... within a context of general historical accuracy I have changed names, places and minor events". He considers that "authenticity is a jewel", and that "the admirable men of these times ... are best celebrated in their own splendid actions rather than in imaginary contests".[9]

The naval actions of the novel are closely based on the exploits of Thomas Cochrane (1775–1860), 10th Earl of Dundonald, a notoriously fiery naval captain and later admiral.[1][10] Cochrane's own ship, HMS Speedy, forms the basis for Aubrey's Sophie.[7]

Although Aubrey's exploits are historically-sourced, his personality is O'Brian's own invention and differs significantly from that of the real Cochrane,[11] a Scot who could at times be rash, confrontational and disagreeable.[12] The character of Maturin is likewise of O'Brian's devising,[1] though it has been said that the author's own personality, attitudes, interests and even appearance are closely reflected in his character's persona.[13]

The capture in the novel of the Spanish Cacafuego by the vastly inferior Sophie is based on the real-life capture on 6 May 1801 of the Spanish frigate El Gamo by the British brig-sloop HMS Speedy.[14][8] One of the most spectacular single-ship victories in British Naval history,[15] the El Gamo incident captured the public imagination and founded the reputation of the Speedy's commander, Thomas Cochrane.[16] Like Aubrey in the book, however, Cochrane did not receive from the Admiralty the promotion and prize money he might have expected from so spectacular a victory.[15]

The capture of Sophie by Christy-Pallière of the Desaix parallels the experience of Cochrane aboard the Speedy, down to the detail of the real Christy-Pallière refusing to accept the vanquished captain's sword: "I will not accept the sword of an officer who has for so many hours struggled against impossibility".[17]

The exploit of deceiving a ship at night by attaching lights to a decoy was executed by Cochrane and was described in his Autobiography of a Seaman.[18] A similar exploit was reported to have been used by the French privateer Joseph-Marie Potier to escape a British frigate near Quiberon Bay in January 1809.[19]

For the Algeciras Campaign O'Brian studied the dispatches of admiral Sir James Saumarez along with other contemporary reports of the battle.[20]

In the 1960s two of O'Brian's seafaring books for children, The Golden Ocean (1956) and The Unknown Shore (1959), caught the attention of a US publisher, J B Lippincott, who were seeking an author to follow in the footsteps of C S Forester, creator of the Hornblower series of novels. Forester had died in 1966 and a year later, at the age of 53, O'Brian started work on Master and Commander.[1][21] The novel was first published in the US by Lippincott in 1969.[1]

O'Brian's then UK publisher Macmillan, who had originally agreed to jointly commission the book,[22] rejected it as too full of jargon. It was taken up and published by Collins in 1970.[21]

The novel did respectably in Britain ("selling a most surprising number" according to O'Brian),[23] but was not initially successful in the US.[21] O'Brian later commented, "I am sorry to say that the Americans did not like it much at its first appearance (they have changed their minds since, bless them)".[23]

Lippincott persevered in the US with publication of the next two novels in the series, Post Captain (1972) and HMS Surprise (1973), though sales remained slow. A change of US publisher to Stein and Day for The Mauritius Command did not help, and US publications ceased with Desolation Island in 1978.[21][24]

In 1989 Starling Lawrence, an editor with the US publisher W W Norton, borrowed a copy of The Reverse of the Medal from O'Brian's London literary agent to read on his flight home to New York. Lawrence persuaded Norton that in spite of the failed attempts of two previous US publishers Master and Commander and the subsequent novels were worth re-publishing.[25] Norton's re-issued series (from 1990) was an almost immediate success and drew a new, large readership.[21]

C S Forester having died just a few years earlier, some critics were left bewildered and disappointed by the complexity of O'Brian's creation after the predictability of the Hornblower series.[26] "Not, I think, memorable, at least in the Hornblower way" wrote the Irish Press,[27] while according to the Library Journal, "Mourning Hornblower fans may prefer to read a good if disappointing new book rather than to reread one of the master's epics".[28]

The reception of other critics was more positive. In the US, The New York Times Book Review noted the author's "delightful subtlety", and his "easy command of the philosophical, political, sensual and social temper of the times [that] flavors a rich entertainment",[5] while Kirkus Reviews said that the book was "A welcome treat for sea hounds who care more for belaying pins than ravaged bodices below decks".[29]

Several UK press reviewers were also impressed. The Sunday Mirror said "Nothing is glamourised. The press gangings, the squalor are all here....The battle scenes are tremendous...This is not secondhand Forester, but a really fine piece of writing",[30] while Benedict Nightingale writing in The Observer called the book "Dashing, well-timbered, pickled in the period, and with strong human tensions and cross-currents".[31] According to Tom Pocock in The Evening Standard, "It is as though, under Mr O'Brian's touch, those great sea-paintings at Greenwich had stirred and come alive".[32]

The sailor Sir Francis Chichester, recently returned from his 1967 single-handed voyage round the world, described the book as "the best sea story I have ever read",[33] a quote which the publishers adopted for use on the novel's front cover. Also used on the book's jacket in Britain was a heartfelt quote from the author Mary Renault, "A spirited sea-tale with cracking pace and a brilliant sense of period. In a highly competitive field it goes straight to the top. A real first-rater".[4]

As the series of novels expanded, single-volume reviews became less common and reviewers tended to prefer retrospectives of the entire series to date.[34] As one reviewer noted, "The best way to think of these novels is as a single 5,000-page book".[35]

Although Master and Commander and its immediate sequels had received at first a somewhat muted reception in the US, in Britain and Ireland the voices of praise continued to increase and gradually became dominant.[36] By 2000, O'Brian's reputation was such that his American biographer Dean King was able to place Master and Commander at the start of what he called the author's magnum opus, a twenty-novel series that has become perhaps the best-loved roman fleuve of the twentieth century: "[an] epic of two heroic yet believably realistic men that would in some ways define a generation".[20]

Following O'Brian's death in 2000, Kevin Myers recalled in The Daily Telegraph his first reading of this and the subsequent two novels in the series: "the most glorious literary mixture ever – Jane Austen meets Gray's Anatomy meets John Buchan meets Apothecaries' Gazetteer. The author's cast of characters is Dickensian in its scope, but of greater subtlety and sophistication in its portrayal."[37]

According to Richard Snow in 2004, the first meeting between Aubrey and Maturin (with which the novel opens) led to "the greatest friendship of modern literature". Snow quotes Fredric Smoler, professor of history and literature, in a Shakespearean comparison: "It's like Prince Hal meeting Falstaff".[38]

Writing in 2013, the author Nicola Griffith professed herself smitten: "In these books every reader who loves fiction both intellectually and viscerally will find something to treasure – and every writer something to envy. They will sweep you away and return you delighted, increased and stunned". She noted that while many reviewers have compared O'Brian to C S Forester, such comparisons are 'nonsense' – "This is Jane Austen on a ship of war, with the humanity, joy and pathos of Shakespeare".[39]