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This long-running and widely popular series of sea stories relate the adventures of an oddly-matched pair of men in the days of the Napoleonic Wars. Tall, burly Jack Aubrey is an officer in the Royal Navy. Stephen Maturin, a physician, is a smaller man, intense and intellectual and a thoroughgoing landlubber until the day when he, hard on his luck, gets the offer to be surgeon on Aubrey's new command, the sloop Sophie. From that is forged a friendship that will last through all manner of travail.
Sadly it appears that Blue at the Mizzen, the twentieth Aubrey-Maturin novel, will also be the last of this long-running and much-loved series. After several years of ill health, Patrick O'Brian died on January 2, 2000, at the age of 85. There were rumors that he had begun a twenty-first Aubrey-Maturin book, but it apparently was not very far along, and hopefully it will not be farmed out to some junior writer to finish, a practice which has often resulted in travesties instead of memorable art.
Master and Commander
The first of the series introduces Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, sending them to sea aboard the sloop Sophie to battle the Spanish, allies to Napoleon's France.
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Post Captain
In the second book of the series, Jack Aubrey is without a ship and in danger of being imprisoned for debt. His only hope is an experimental ship regarded by the sailors as unlucky. But if he is to succeed, he must gain the loyalty of his crew in spite of a brutal lieutenant who is driving them to mutiny.
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HMS Surprise
Jack Aubrey's financial problems seemed to be solved, until a sudden reversal of government policy wiped away all the prize money he'd taken. Now his only hope for redeeming himself and winning the hand of his beloved is a mission to the East Indes, delivering a government official. But first he must rescue his old friend Stephen Maturin, who has been betrayed into the hands of the French while on a spy mission.
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The Mauritius Command
Ashore on half-pay again, Jack Aubrey is despairing when relief comes in the form of a secret mission to sieze two African islands from the French. However the plum assignment turns out to have two unpleasant worms within it, two difficult captains who will be under his command and who may yet be the cause of his failure.
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Desolation Island
The fifth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series takes them on a mission to Australia to transport prisoners and relieve the notorious Captain Bligh.
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The Fortune of War
The sixth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series finds them struggling to get back to England during the War of 1812.
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The Surgeon's Mate
The seventh installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series finds them returning at last to England amidst the War of 1812. However, all is not yet well, for the Admiralty has more work for Aubrey to do, work that will take him into the Baltic and ultimately the hands of the French.
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The Ionian Mission
The eighth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series takes them back to the Mediterranean, where they must deal with the Turks.
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Treason's Harbour
The ninth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series takes them to the Suez to foil a French scheme to move treasure.
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The Far Side of the World
The tenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey and Maturin series takes them to the Pacific, where they deal with a gunner driven insane by cuckoldry and a boatload of man-hating Polynesian warrior women.
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The Reverse of the Medal
The eleventh installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin finds them ashore, where Jack Aubrey proves particularly vulnerable to shysters and crooks.
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The Letter of Marque
The twelfth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin finds Jack Aubrey commanding a private man-of-war while he struggles to restore his reputation and be reinstated as a post-captain on the Navy List.
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The Thirteen-Gun Salute
The thirteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin finds Jack Aubrey back at sea on a King's ship after being vindicated and restored to the Navy List, with an assignment to take a diplomat to the South Seas.
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The Nutmeg of Consolation
The fourteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin continues their adventures in the South Seas, finding rescue from shipwreck only to head off to Australia for more adventures.
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The Truelove
The fifteen installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin continues their adventures in the South Seas, leaving Australia only to sail straight into a Polynesian civil war.
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The Wine-Dark Sea
The sixteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin continues their adventures in the South Seas, taking them to Peru to participate in actions against the Spanish.
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The Commodore
The seventeenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin takes them to Africa to fight against slavers.
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The Yellow Admiral
The eighteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's popular tales of Aubrey and Maturin finds Jack Aubrey in serious danger of not receiving the promotion to flag rank for which he desperately longs.
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The Hundred Days
The ninteenth installment of Patrick O'Brian's popular series finds Jack Aubrey despairing of his career because peace has suddenly broken out in Europe. But then Napoleon escapes from Elba and there is fighting to do once again.
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Blue at the Mizzen
The twentieth and final book in Patrick O'Brian's popular series bring Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin beyond the close of the Napoleonic Wars. But while political peace may have been achieved, they still have not found peace in their personal lives.
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Now you can order all twenty books in the Aubrey-Maturin series at once. These are fine hardcover books, suitable for passing down to future generations.
Click here to order the complete twenty-book series in hardcover.
Like many popular series, the Aubrey/Maturin Chronicles have also generated a number of companion books to offer readers a glimpse behind the scenes of the stories.
If you enjoy the stories of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, you will probably also enjoy C.S. Forester's Hornblower books.
If you also enjoy science fiction, check out David Weber's Honor Harrington series, which has been described as Napoleonic-style naval adventures in space.
Updated March 22, 2001
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