Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian

by Dean King, John B. Hattendorf

This companion for fans of the Napoleonic sea sagas offers maps of the novels’ streets, seas, and coasts, and much more.
The tall-masted sailing ships of the early nineteenth century were the technological miracles of their day, allowing their crews to traverse the seas with greater speed than had ever been possible before. Novelist Patrick O’Brian captured the thrill of that era with his characters Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, who visited exotic locales in the service of the Royal Navy. From frigid Dieppe to balmy Batavia, they strolled the ports of the world as casually as most do the streets of their hometown. Packed with maps and illustrations from the greatest age of sail, this volume shows not just where Aubrey and Maturin went, but how they got there. An incomparable reference for devotees of O’Brian’s novels and anyone who has dreamed of climbing aboard a warship, Harbors and High Seas is a captivating portrait of life on the sea, when nothing stood between man and ocean but grit, daring, and a few creaking planks of wood.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, History, Nautical, Historical, Military Fiction, Naval History

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

I like to read, wander cross-country, travel in cultures I don't understand, cycle, play squash, and I'm a foodie. But most of all I like to be in the throes of writing a book. This is invigorating work. The moment when the hard-won research combines with a bit of sweat and blood and occasionally a tear to become a fluid paragraph is like no other. What I hope to achieve is to suspend time and disbelief for the reader and carry her or him into another world, where they live more fully and in the moment.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean King so wants to have a bromance with his favorite author Patrick O'Brian. Hey, who am I to talk, I popped an O'Brian boner too when I walked into a bookstore and found upon a shelf Harbor and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian.

O'Brian's 20 book series (21 if you count the unfinished one) can be read and enjoyed without such Cliffs Notes-style assistance. However, O'Brian wrote with exquisite attention to detail for time and place, so if you've read this seafaring epic set in the early 1800s and are left with as many questions as I was (what the hell is a backstay and where is Minorca?), you'll find King's work admirably fills in the gaps pertaining to setting with illustrations and maps. And since Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon-friend Stephen Maturin find themselves on the far sides of the world in ports and upon coasts foreign to most readers and no longer existent in some cases, understanding the lay of the land can only further enhance your enjoyment of landscapes so intrinsically tied to the story.

NOTE: I would not suggest reading this book before reading O'Brian's works, as Harbors and High Seas is filled with spoilers. But each chapter deals solely with one book, so you can read a book and then read a chapter, and get the "ahhhh" of understanding I didn't get until I found this very helpful book.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up at the used-book store I frequent on the same fishing expedition that netted The Lucky Strike. I always feel bad if I can't find something there to buy, and not just because they're a used-book store in a world where that species is increasingly rare but also because they were my source for many of the Sylvia Townsend Warner and T.F. Powys volumes I own.

I figure it's the least I can do to help keep them in business.

[Malacorda · Rating 4 out of 5]

For armchair seafarers who follow every adventure of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin... here is the ideal Baedeker.

Le mappe, i riferimenti storici, gli approfondimenti sui luoghi e persone realmente esistenti e/o esistiti e le annotazioni sui luoghi e i personaggi di mera finzione. Informazioni generiche relative alla marina inglese del diciannovesimo secolo e informazioni dettagliate in ordine per episodio, dal primo all'ultimo. Agile, completo, essenziale. E intendo proprio essenziale tout-court: per chi ama la celebre serie di O'Brian, e anche per chi per il momento (ma solo per il momento...) ancora non è O'Brian-dipendente.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book amply fulfills its stated purpose and makes a great series even more enjoyable. For me, seeing a graphic representation of the journeys by Captain Aubrey enhanced my understanding of what this captain and crew faced. The text is most helpful in giving additional information about countries, ports, etc.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this bits at a time as I completed the Aubrey/Maturin novels. Each chapter of the book contains a short summary of the corresponding book in the series with detailed maps and descriptions of places and people central to each story. It's a great companion to O'Brian's books and the maps especially are invaluable in identifying where the action in the books take place. The summaries never give away the complete story (although the last few chapters seem to more detailed than previous ones), but still tell enough that the books should be read before reading the corresponding chapter.

[Lewis M · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reference guide to the series. Please be aware that there is a synopsis of each book inside this book and it may spoil the series for you if you jump ahead. Of course since the book covers messrs Aubrey and Maturin and comprises 21 novels, one can reasonably assume that they don't collectively meet their end in book 7 or 8 try as they might and that the adventure isn't wholly dependent on a 1 or 2 page plot synopsis. The real fun as always is in the details and the journey itself.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

indispensable when reading the series!

[Legens · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the plot summaries, the book tries to walk the fine line between giving spoilers to those who haven't read the respective instalment and being helpful for those who have. I have read from others that it fails in the first regard, and from my own experience, it fails in the second. Still, the descriptions of places and the introduction on sailing, winds, etc. was useful.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this to find places referred to in the sea stories I was reading. Since it was specifically written for the Novels of Patrick O'Brian, there were a lot of places not referred to.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful if you're a big fan of the series and are unfamiliar with the places they sailed to and from.

[Andrew Kaiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed more information—more detailed maps, more technical naturalist terms, more sailing terms. Just more.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable tool for the serious reader of the Aubry-Maturin series. Very helpful!

[Eli Kentner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading O'Brian's main works, this book is necessary for being able to understand the locations and whereabouts for where the settings take place.

[Kat B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide; really enhances reading the novels

[Drew Raley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why oh why am I taking my passion for the Aubreyad to this level, that I require supplementary materials for leisure reading? Oh well, the maps and capsule articles about 19th Century life and navigation are plenty helpful. I sure didn't feel the need for table space and cross-referencing when I sit down with Dickens and Hornblower. I guess this means I'm all grown up now. The sunset is that much closer on the horizon, and the sky is lowering on the last act of life. Will this book, this secondary text be the remora on the side of the shark that pursues my boat down the river Styx? I hope my little boat can carry me all the way. I'd hate to have to turn around and buy another blasted reference work just to enjoy sitting down for a spell reading about old naval battles. Where has the time gone? Farewell Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown, I am but an old man now, and must cover my lap with many tomes just to figure out what the actual hell was happening with the orlop on page 38. A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book comprises a chapter for each of the 20 completed Aubrey-Maturin novels, with a technical introduction (by John B Hattendorf) and some general maps of Europe, England and Ireland. The 20 chapters each contain a summary of the corresponding book, a short commentary on some of the key places, and one or more maps showing the routes taken by the protagonists.

I read it alongside the last 7 of the books and found the maps very useful - I wish I had had them to hand when I was reading the earlier books, especially The Ionian Mission.

The rest of the text was of much less interest: the summaries are competent but of little use except as a ready reference for the maps, and the commentaries (some obviously written from an American perspective) and the technical material added too little to what I already knew or what seemed relevant. Nevertheless, I can see that they would be useful to readers with little basic knowledge of the matters concerned.

There are better reference works available, such as the excellent 'Patrick O'Brian's Navy' (2003). Indeed, there are now better maps of Jack Aubrey's voyages available on-line: 'the Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project' (http://www.cannonade.net/index.php ; http://www.patrickobrian.com/pobchart...), where the maps are annotated with relevant passages from which location can be inferred.

[MisterFweem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I read this book wrong.

Rather than reading it as a companion to Patrick O'Brian's books, I read it on its own, and really had to plod through it. It's a fount of good information, but not all at one go.

The authors do a great deal to explain places, but I was surprised at the sparse treatment of nautical terms and such. O'Brian does some of that in his books, but I would have liked to have seen the authors of this book do a thorough job of it.

[Roger W.]

This is the geographical arm of the reference volumes for the Aubrey-Maturin series of Patrick O'Brian. Here you can look up any real or invented place described in the books and find out just where Mahon was situated and what its harbor defenses looked like in that day.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great companion book to the Aubrey-Maturin series. This 3rd edition covers books 1-20. (#21 is the last and uncompleted book in the series. Maps and diagrams make the novels better understood geographically.

[Edward Truitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable companion to the Aubrey Maturin series, and now, as I near the end of reading the series through for the second time (but in chronological order this time) I am enjoying perusing it for its own sake, a very readable and enjoyable piece of work in its own right.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most useful of the reference books for the series. It is a must companion for getting full enjoyment reading this series. The gloss for the series "A Sea of Words" is also a must reference.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third Edition

This would have been rated one notch higher if I had had it available while reading through the series. An avid fan would own this volume and follow along with the maps (curiously absent from the books and sorely missed by landlubbers such as myself),

[Bill Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great companion to the book series. I like to go and review this after I have finished one of the novels. Really fantastic job done on this to be able to tell where Captain Aubrey traveled all over the world.

[Meg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much useless synopsis of all the stories. Has a few maps illustrating where battles were. I was hoping for LOTS of charts. The title is very misleading.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Geography lessons are extremely helpful. However, the short write-ups on places of interest could be a lot more engaging.

[Wendy Holliday · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read Patrick O'Brian at all, this is a must-have. Dean King gives you maps and other geographical info that literally makes the books come alive.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been using this reference as I read the books. It's nice to see the geography referred to, although sometimes the maps don't include all the detail I'd like.

[Fangirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful companion to the Aubrey-Maturin novels.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was great in parts, but more battle maps (and just more maps in general) would improve it. It's helpful for context, but not as much as I'd initially hoped.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book as a reference and as such not to be read cover-to-cover like a fiction book, which is why I marked it as read. Very good.