Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0-393-30762-X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.76 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Aubrey hoists his pennant...
Comment: "The Mauritius Command" opens a few years after the end of "HMS Surprise". Jack has discovered married life to be very different than he imagined, & longs to be back at sea. The arrival of Stephen Maturin (& mushrooms) stirs the household to a frenzy.
This humorous beginning shows Patrick O'Brian's masterful abilities. In a few deft strokes, the past years are filled in with no heavy exposition or flashbacks, & the events to come are put into motion. Aubrey faces many new challenges in the course of "The Mauritius Command", having to learn to sooth battling egos, command while refraining from fighting, & create a fighting machine from almost nothing. His faithful follower Tom Pullings plays an expanded role in this tale as the captain of a transport & deus ex machina, while Stephen Maturin's political abilities overshadow his medical duties.
This is one of the most exciting Aubrey/Maturin novels, a real "Boys Own Life" type tale, full of gunplay, cat & mouse feints & hearty comradeship. The most exciting aspect of it is that it all really happened (of course with different protagonists!). Learn about a forgotten campaign of the Napoleonic wars & enjoy yourself in the process! Read "The Mauritius Command"!
Rating: 4
Summary: Good but not the Best in this Series
Comment: I have read the prior three novels in O'Brian's masterful Aubrey/Maturin series, and thought the first three were uniformly excellent. After a layoff, I returned to the series and while I enjoyed The Mauritius Command, I thought there was somewhat of a slip from the first few books of this 20 novel series.
The novel opens promisingly, with Aubrey suffering in a less-than-ideal domestic situation. His mother-in-law lives with Jack, his wife Sophie and their cranky daughters, and his efforts to manage a farm are comical in his ineptitude. When Maturin visits, and Aubrey tries to show him around and put a brave face on his domestic struggles, the comedy inherent in O'Brian's writing comes shining through. While Jack (and the reader) itch to get to sea, it is there that O'Brian seems to lose control of the story.
Aubrey gets an order to go to the Cape of Good Hope, where he is sent on a mission to dislodge the French from the Mauritius Islands and help set up a British Colonial Governor by the name of Farquar. As is usually the case, despite great achievements in the past, Jack is shackled and insufficiently rewarded by his superiors in the admiralty, and his supposed connections, through his father in the Parliament, are of little help.
O'Brian seems to assume a good bit of nautical knowledge by the reader, and this landlubber sometimes got a little lost in the naval warfare scenes. The most engaging aspects of the novel seemed to me the differences in character, and the seething one-upsmanship among the various ship captains under Jack's overall command including Captains Pym, Clonfert and Corbett. The problem was, just when the author whets your appetite for some great internal conflict or drama between the brutal Corbett and the popular Clonfert, Corbett is sent from the area.
Moreover, the final battle scenes are almost thrown together in summary form, as if the culmination of the mission did not really concern O'Brian as much as the hassles of getting there, and so there was a bit of a letdown at the end. I look forward to the next novel (Desolation Island I think), but have to be luke-warm in my praise of this one. I give it a fairly generous 4 stars, 3 and 1/2 if I could.
Rating: 4
Summary: Superb nautical tale.
Comment: The Mauritius Command is a first rate piece of historical fiction. Patrick O'Brian deftly weaves this swashbuckling nautical tale into the historical account of the British retaking the Mauritius Islands. Lucky Jack Aubrey, with a little help from Stephen Maturin, becomes a Commodore and leads his squadron of ships into battle with the French.
A new father, Jack Aubrey leaves behind his wife to venture out to the Indian Ocean. His wife, Sophie, lost her dowry and story begins with Jack hurting for money. So the opportunity to have command and be back on full pay is most welcome. Commodore Aubrey's command is complicated by the personalities of his subordinate commanders. Maturin comes out of the closet and works his espionage in the open.
With victory just within his grasp, Admiral Bertie arrives to take command and the credit away from Jack. Despite that setback, Lucky Jack stills finishes on top.
I highly recommend this book.
 |
Title: The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308138 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: Post Captain (Aubrey-Maturin (Paperback)) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393307069 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308200 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Ionian Mission (Aubrey-Maturin (Paperback)) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308219 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: Treason's Harbour (Aubrey-Maturin (Paperback)) by Patrick O'Brian ISBN: 0393308634 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
