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Patrick O'Brian

Born

in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, The United Kingdom

December 12, 1914

Died

January 02, 2000

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fiction

Influences

Walter Scott ...more

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Patrick O'Brian was an English novelist and translator whose reputation rests above all on the Aubrey-Maturin novels, a twenty-volume sequence set during the Napoleonic Wars. The books follow Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, his friend and ship's surgeon, whose Irish-Catalan background and scientific interests complement Aubrey's practical naval outlook. Beginning with Master and Commander, the series combines historical events with fictional adventures, preserving the outcome of real history while placing its protagonists within the action. O'Brian's command of period language, naval terminology, medical detail, and maritime practice gives the novels a convincing sense of nineteenth-century life, while their humor Patrick O'Brian was an English novelist and translator whose reputation rests above all on the Aubrey-Maturin novels, a twenty-volume sequence set during the Napoleonic Wars. The books follow Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, his friend and ship's surgeon, whose Irish-Catalan background and scientific interests complement Aubrey's practical naval outlook. Beginning with Master and Commander, the series combines historical events with fictional adventures, preserving the outcome of real history while placing its protagonists within the action. O'Brian's command of period language, naval terminology, medical detail, and maritime practice gives the novels a convincing sense of nineteenth-century life, while their humor and the evolving relationship between Aubrey and Maturin provide their emotional center. The series became a long-form narrative in which professional duties and private lives develop continuously across successive voyages. O'Brian's literary career began remarkably early. Writing as Richard Patrick Russ, he published his first novel, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda-Leopard, as a teenager, followed by animal stories collected in Beasts Royal. His novel Hussein: An Entertainment appeared in 1938 and received critical attention. After the Second World War, he adopted the name Patrick O'Brian and continued publishing fiction, including The Last Pool, Testimonies, and The Catalans. His early naval novels for younger readers, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, already contained elements that anticipated Aubrey and Maturin. He also became a translator from French, producing more than thirty English translations, including works by Simone de Beauvoir, Henri Charriere, and Jean Lacouture. His nonfiction included biographies of the naturalist Joseph Banks and the painter Pablo Picasso, whom he knew in Collioure, France. O'Brian lived in Wales after the war before moving with his wife Mary to Collioure in 1949. Their collaboration was important to his working life, with Mary assisting him in research and preparing his handwritten manuscripts for publication. O'Brian wrote by hand throughout his career and resisted modern writing technology. His literary breakthrough came unusually late. Although the Aubrey-Maturin books had a modest British following after their first appearance, their American revival in the early 1990s, led by W. W. Norton, brought sales and recognition. The novels eventually sold millions of copies and attracted devoted readers well beyond the age group normally associated with historical adventure fiction. O'Brian received the inaugural Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 1995, an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, and a CBE in 1997. His reputation was complicated when British media revealed details of his early identity and first marriage, matters he had kept private. Despite the controversy, his fiction remained central to his legacy. His unfinished twenty-first Aubrey-Maturin novel was published posthumously, preserving both handwritten pages and typescript. His manuscripts, notes, and research materials have since become part of major literary collections. His influence is also reflected in the continued readership of the novels and the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which drew primarily from The Far Side of the World while incorporating material from elsewhere in the series.
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Combine Editions
Patrick O'Brian’s books

Average rating: 4.29 · 395,603 ratings · 23,239 reviews · 166 distinct works • Similar authors

	Master and Commander (Aubrey & Maturin, #1) 4.06 avg rating — 66,259 ratings — published 1969 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Post Captain (Aubrey & Maturin, #2) 4.26 avg rating — 26,415 ratings — published 1972 — 151 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	H.M.S. Surprise (Aubrey & Maturin, #3) 4.42 avg rating — 22,429 ratings — published 1973 — 140 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mauritius Command (Aubrey & Maturin, #4) 4.35 avg rating — 19,253 ratings — published 1977 — 130 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Desolation Island (Aubrey & Maturin, #5) 4.41 avg rating — 17,072 ratings — published 1978 — 118 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fortune of War (Aubrey & Maturin, #6) 4.41 avg rating — 15,813 ratings — published 1979 — 106 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Surgeon's Mate (Aubrey & Maturin, #7) 4.40 avg rating — 14,772 ratings — published 1980 — 97 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Far Side of the World (Aubrey & Maturin, #10) 4.45 avg rating — 14,239 ratings — published 1984 — 108 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Treason's Harbour (Aubrey & Maturin, #9) 4.39 avg rating — 13,161 ratings — published 1983 — 99 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Letter of Marque (Aubrey & Maturin, #12) 4.50 avg rating — 12,430 ratings — published 1988 — 89 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Patrick O'Brian…

Series by Patrick O'Brian

Aubrey & Maturin (21 books)
by

Patrick O'Brian

4.32 avg rating — 330,825 ratings

Golden Ocean (2 books)
by

Patrick O'Brian

4.14 avg rating — 4,215 ratings

Quotes by Patrick O'Brian (?)

“Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.”
― Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days

tags: dr-maturin, patrick-o-brian

1050 likes

“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”
― Patrick O'Brian, Master & Commander

tags: jingoism, maturin, nationalism, nationality, patriotism, stephen-maturin

227 likes

“Jack, you've debauched my sloth.”
― Patrick O'Brian, H.M.S. Surprise

tags: debauched, drunk, sloth

95 likes

See all Patrick O'Brian's quotes »

Polls

September 2016 New School Group Read

1982, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, 448 pages

40 votes, 19.0%

1980, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 416 pages

35 votes, 16.6%

1979, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, 260 pages

23 votes, 10.9%

1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, 256 pages

23 votes, 10.9%

1969, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, 304 pages

21 votes, 10.0%

1996, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, 432 pages

20 votes, 9.5%

1969, Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, 459 pages

19 votes, 9.0%

1997, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 432 pages

11 votes, 5.2%

1986, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, 208 pages

10 votes, 4.7%

1965, The Magus by John Fowles, 656 pages

9 votes, 4.3%

211 total votes

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Patrick O'Brian’s Followers (2,521)

Patrick O'Brian

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