The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels Volume 1: HMS Surprise by Patrick O’Brian (2016 Harper Collins hardcover 361pp)
The Aubrey/Maturin adventure continues, this time the action all starts with...a meeting. The British Admiralty are reviewing their policy of paying out captains who capture enemy vessels. At one point during the proceedings loose lips cause Stephen Maturin’s cover to be blown. Soon he is captured by Britain’s enemies and faces a short future of torture and interrogation in Spain.
Jack Aubrey meanwhile is in command of the HMS Lively, patrolling up and down the French Atlantic coast. He dreams of combat and hopes for prize money to pay off the debts that beset him still and keep him from marrying his sweetheart Sophie. Aubrey learns of Maturin’s capture and leads a daring mission to rescue his friend from captivity.
Maturin is freed but remains physically and mentally scarred, as he convalesces Aubrey is given command of HMS Surprise, an elderly frigate on which he used to serve as a young man. Jack’s mission is to transport a diplomat half way around the world to Malaya. After many incidents and accidents, they make it into the Indian Ocean where the captain half hopes to meet the French fleet and make some money as a result. After a largely uneventful trip they reach Bombay, India where the ship must be resupplied and repaired.
The Bombay section of the book is a lengthy interlude. We see all the poverty and wealth of 19th century India under British control. Maturin befriends a local Dalit child who runs errands for him but the friendship ends in tragedy after he rewards her for her efforts. Maturin also meets once again with Diana Villiers, the woman he cannot stop thinking about and has secret hopes of marrying.
After leaving India the Surprise’s mission comes to an abrupt end and they turn around to return to England. On the way back they encounter the East India Company’s treasure fleet also heading westwards and soon after that the enemy French fleet. Using subterfuge and his sailing skills Aubrey manages to save the treasure fleet and bloody the nose of the French. As a reward Jack is given the task to carry some precious stones back to England and be paid ‘freight’ for the trouble. At last, will he be free from debt?
The Surprise stops in at Calcutta and Maturin’s affections for Villiers sees him end up fighting a duel with her current protector the merchant Richard Cannings. Heading back westward Aubrey sends messages ahead for Sophie to meet him for an immediate marriage. Villiers also heads back to England but it is not a happy ending for Maturin.
I found this third instalment a little lower key than the proceeding books. The heart of the book is the sojourn in India and all that happens on land there rather than action on the high seas (although that does eventually come in the last third of the novel). Again, a lot of what’s really going on comes from internal monologues and letters. The rest of the narrative seems quite straight forward – either I’ve gotten used to it or the author has toned down the naval lingo somewhat. I don’t think this novel would stand alone, much of what motivate the main pair had been set down in the first two books and might puzzle the casual reader. Maturin is put through the wringer in this volume and makes some dubious choices as a result. I felt like the author was trying to alter the amount of sympathy I had with the character, which felt a little odd. Jack Aubrey meanwhile felt a little undeveloped this time out, I guess he is just meant to a simpler man than his companion. Both men continue to interest me and I still look forward to the rest of the series.
