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    The Surgeon's Mate
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    The Surgeon's Mate
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    The Surgeon's Mate
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Surgeon's Mate

    Written by Patrick O'Brian

    Narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home to bring news of their latest victory. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he caused to the French intelligence network in the New World and the British packet carrying them is shadowed by two American privateers.

    The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as tense, and as unexpected in its culmination of this seventh Aubrey/Maturin adventure, as anything Patrick O'Brian has ever written.

    "Vividly detailed 19th-century settings and dramatic tension punctuated with flashes of wry humor make O'Brian's nautical adventure a splendid treat." (Publishers Weekly)


    From the Cassette edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2000
    ISBN9780375417016
    Unavailable
    The Surgeon's Mate
    Author

    Patrick O'Brian

    Patrick O’Brian (1914-2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist, biographer and translator from French. His translations include Henri Charrière’s Papillon, Jean Lacouture’s biography of Charles de Gaulle and many of Simone de Beauvoir’s later works, including Les Belles Images, All Said and Done and A Very Easy Death.

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    Reviews for The Surgeon's Mate

    4/5

    553 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A good installment into which to sink one's reading teeth.As he continues to stretch himself and his characters, Patrick O'Brian finds a rather different task for them to undertake than the grand cruises and endless chases of the open sea, and a setting more rich in the dangers of coastal fortifications and the looming leeshore. New characters include the droll Jagiello, and new situations abound, including some almost reminiscent of Dumas.
    • 4/5
      Book seven in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series features some complications in the personal lives of its characters on land and a delicate mission for them to carry out by sea. I really enjoyed this one. Like many of them, it maybe gets a bit slow in the middle, but even during long passages about doing things with sails, I never stopped thinking happily about how much I like these characters. And the ending is fantastic, full of engaging and unexpected developments. I swear, there was one moment when I actually exclaimed out loud as I was reading.
    • 4/5
      The Surgeon’s Mate, Patrick O’Brian’s seventh book in his Aubrey-Maturin series, sees Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin sheltering in Halifax, Nova Scotia after their escape as prisoners of war in Boston at the end of the previous novel. Both eagerly await a return to England, Stephen worried about Diana Villiers’ legal troubles following her connection to the American, Mr. Johnson, and Jack troubled about the running of his estate back home, where a confidence man swindled Aubrey into investing in a lead smelting operation with promises of a fortune. After returning to England, Maturin enlists Jack to aid him in a mission to turn Catalan forces defending Grimsholm Island in the Baltic against their French allegiance and to the American side. Though they succeed, Aubrey’s ship, the Ariel, runs aground on French soil in the Channel, leading to their capture. From there, Maturin must work to protect his status as an intelligence agent and secure their quick escape back to England.Like his previous novels, O’Brian perfectly recreates the world of the Napoleonic War in 1812, using Maturin’s intelligence connections to discuss much of the land war, such as Napoleon’s victory at Luetzen after his defeat in Moscow (pg. 100). The title, Surgeon’s Mate, serves as a triple entendre, referring to the ship’s surgeon’s mate, Maturin’s intelligence work (as in checkmate), and his relationship and eventual marriage to Diana Villiers, his mate. Similar to the second novel, Post Captain, this novel largely focuses on Maturin’s espionage work with he serving as the primary protagonist of the pair. This Folio Society edition reprints the original text with insets containing historical portraits and sketches to illustrate some of the scenes. A great contribution to the Aubrey-Maturin series and the first of twelve to focus on what O’Brian described as an extended 1812, with these dozen books taking place between the beginning of June 1813 and November 1813.
    • 4/5
      Jack is deeply dismayed when a ill-judged fling in Nova Scotia threatens to come back to England and reveal his perfidy. He's thrilled to be ordered back to sea, this time to transport his friend Stephen to co-opt a Catalan base to England's side. Meanwhile, Stephen has just returned from a trip to Paris, where he presented a scholarly paper (very badly, though it was well received) and found a place for Diana to stay for her confinement. The mission is a success, the base is taken--and then on the way home, flush with success, they are captured by the French. They suspect Stephen is a spy, and so while Jack scrapes away at their prison walls searching for escape, Stephen spends day after day trying to seem as innocent as possible to his captors, all the while keeping a capsule of poison precariously held in his cheek.

      This book contains a number of subversions of a reader's expectations. Jack is scared of a woman coming back to England with his bastard--and instead she marries another and he seems to have gotten away with it. Stephen and Diana battle over her pregnancy--only for it to end apparently naturally, thus making it unnecessary for him to blame her for getting an abortion, or for either of them to raise the child fathered by their enemy, the vicious Johnson. Jack scrapes away at his French prison walls, and much of the book is given over to the complications of shifting the stone--and the very same moment he finally breaks through, French spies (who want to get Stephen out of the country) unlock the prison door and help them escape, so that all Jack's work is unnecessary, though appreciated.

      This is also the book where finally, FINALLY, after six books of tension and torment, Diana consents to marry Stephen. Their coming together at last is a little odd, for me, because Stephen is only just coming to love her again (after realizing he'd fallen out of love with her because she'd grown too "coarse" in the previous book) and because Stephen is so very willing to control and deceive her. I don't like that he seems to think he needs to manage her. She's a grown-ass woman, she's dealt with spies and maharajahs and love affairs before--she doesn't need Stephen pretending that she was the reason he got free. It felt patronizing--almost as patronizing as his disturbing refusal to let her make her own medical decisions:
      "'That is why I have come to you, the only friend I can rely on. You understand these things. You are a physician. Stephen, I couldn't bear to have that man's child. It would be a monster. I know that in India women used to take a root called holi--'
      'There my dear, there is certain proof that your judgment is astray, otherwise you would never have thought of such a course, nor would you have ever said such a thing to me. My whole function is to preserve life, not to take it away. The oath I have sworn, and all my convictions--'
      'Stephen, I beg of you not to fail me.' She sat twisting her fingers together, and in a low pleading voice she murmured, 'Stephen, Stephen.'
      'Diana, you must marry me.'
      She shook her head. Each knew that the other was immovable, and they sat in a miserable silence until the door burst open."
      Stephen's reluctance is pretty rich coming from a man who talked dispassionately about gunning down or knifing a cadre of Frenchmen just pages ago. Ah well, even he cannot be perfect. And in fact, I find I like Maturin least when he's silently martyring himself, as he has a tendency to do, and like him most when he's squabbling with Aubrey over silly things like bad jokes and seaman slang. When I think O'Brian thinks Maturin is being particularly impressive, I actually dislike him.

      Overall, another fantastic installment of a great series. I can't wait to read the next!
    • 4/5
      Another winner. O'Brian is such a generous author, never tormenting our heroes more than we can bear and rewarding us with little delights.
    • 3/5
      The Aubrey/Maturin series picks up where The Fortune of War left off, and the surgeon's mate of the title is not Stephen Maturin's surgical assistant but his on again/off again romantic interest Diana Villiers.I'm always turned of by the Villiers storylines because she is a dull and disagreeable character. Fortunately the Maturin-Villiers story is balance by some seafaring adventure and battles, spying and intrigue, and even our lead characters locked in a French prison. I'm a bit thrown by the timeline as it seems this book takes place 4 years prior to The Fortune of War but it's a rollicking good tale all the same
    • 4/5
      Good addition to Capt. Aubrey / Dr. Maturin sea battle series.
    • 3/5
      Ugh. This is so bad, I am wondering whether O'Brian delegated it to someone else to write. I don't recognize his style or sense of humor. It reads like amateur fan fiction. How else to explain the pages of monologue where Jack tells some girl about everything that happened to him in the previous six books? How else to explain the scene where Stephen contemplates re-telling Jack's weevil joke? Only a fan would even remember that joke in the first place, certainly not Stephen. And when did Diana become so empty-headed and start taking so long to dress?*** Updated after finishing *** Argh! This book was so disappointing, so amateurishly written, so annoying and aggravating and then, for the last 100 pages or so, so very, very good. It is totally confounding my rating system. But at least I can look forward to the next nine books now.The bee-hive cell was deep in filth and ooze and perhaps it owed its name to the hissing swarms of bluebottles and flies. It was bare, apart from some iron rings let into the wall, and Stephen stood through the ensuing hours by a barred opening at the level of the paving outside, the paving of the execution ground, loathsome great files settling upon him, their bellies cold.Their bellies were cold! That makes the aggravation worth it.
    • 4/5
      The Surgeon's Mate is number seven after Master and Commander, Post Captain, H.M.S. Surprise, The Mauritius Command, Desolation Island, and The Fortune of War.Last we left our friends Aubrey and Maturin, they were in the New World having just escaped Boston and succeeded in battle against an American ship. This book focuses on the consequences of the previous book's exploits. We see two unwanted pregnancies, financial ruin, and of course plenty of danger and derring-do. Most of the book focuses on Maturin, acting as an intelligence agent for the British against the French. Being an officer prisoner of war is all fun and games until he is recognized and suddenly an inconvenient delay becomes a life-threatening danger.As always, the writing is impeccable. Aubrey remains the commander with the perfect mind for making the most of the present and an abominable mind for understanding nuance and temptation and future consequences. Maturin is rational and cold but we see his heart bow yet again under the weight of Diana Villiers' presence. The characters are wonderfully fallible and the plot unpredictable. The battle may be won only to have the ship cast against a reef. An ordinary engagement between ships may change the face of the war by killing a general. You never know what will happen next!Once again, all I can say is Bravo! or should I say Huzzah! All the best to the King's Navy!
    • 4/5
      One of the better volumes in a great series. The dry humor as Aubrey and Maturin make fun of each others lack of expertise outside their own field really stands out in this one. This series is still going strong.
    • 4/5
      In which Aubrey and Maturin sail from Halifax to London via Diligence, a private packet hired by the Royal Navy to carry official news of a long-awaited victory against the Americans. Villiers is aboard, not yet a British citizen, and Johnson's offense at both her departure and her taking possession again of the diamonds he bought her, the Blue Peter, are assumed responsible for the privateers giving chase through the Grand Banks. Maturin and Villiers end up in Paris to elude ensuing political and social complications. Meantime, having lost his commission to the HMS Acasta due to delays, Aubrey is asked to undertake a political and military mission to Grimsholm in command of the sloop HMS Ariel, with Maturin aboard to direct the onshore tactics. Events lead to further actions in the Channel and in France.//Jack fetching the post while at Ashgrove Cottage, intercepting the frequent letters from Miss Amanda Smith, who implies she bears his child from assignations in Halifax, and announces she needs funds in order to visit. Kimber's con of Jack's mines proves to have blossomed like a cancer in Jack's absence, and Jack begins efforts to surgically remove it by consulting Pufendorf, a lawyer recommended by Stephen, and Skinner, recommended by Blaine.Stephen presents before the Institut de France on the solitaire of Rodrigues, a personal triumph as naturalist, perhaps never to be equaled in his lifetime. Jack reminisces of his time playing Ophelia while a mid.The Baltic naval joke of naming a captured Russian ship Humbug, risking charge of mutiny for any unfortunate lieutenant on watch who must name it to his captain, on deck. [197]Imprisoned in the Temple Prison in Paris, and glimpses into the French intelligence service, leavened with a humourous sub-plot between their colleague Jagiello, a Swedish officer in the Lithuanian army, and the French maid who brings their food. Jagiello bewitches both gentleman and ladies with his looks and manner, but rivals Stephen in injury sustained aboard. In fact, Stephen again falls between ships, but Jack anticipates this and nothing comes of it. Later unfortunately, Stephen falls between a boat and the jetty, in Grimsholm, and is rescued after calling out in Catalan; it is perhaps a ruse? We meet Duhamel, D'Anglars, Durand, Colonel Hector, Fauvet, Delaris, Laurie, and Major Glapier: it is unclear who of these if any will figure in later novels. O'Brian names both a Rousseau (jailer at Temple Prison) and a Wittgenstein (Ariel's quartermaster).Babbington to the rescue in HMS Oedipus, ultimately officiating in the onboard wedding of Stephen and Diana following another fierce row over their recurring misunderstandings concerning practicality and romance in marriage.Gower's endpaper maps in the Folio Society edition a particular pleasure, detailed review of the Channel, a relevant quarter in Paris, and the Baltic; outdone only by his double-spread interior map featuring the Ariel's journey from the North Sea and through the Baltic.As ever consulting Seltzer's Chronology, Surgeon's Mate is the first of the next eleven novels "which all take place in the repeating year of 1813." If true, this is astonishing if only for all that must take place in six months (the last novel left off in June). Consider that one or more of the previous novels spanned as much as four years! Seltzer notes that in 1808, British spy James Robertson persuades the Marquis de la Romana and 15,000 Spanish [sic] troops stationed in the Baltic to defect, with Admiral Keats transporting these back to Spain; apparently the inspiration for Jack and Stephen's foray to Grimsholm.Schuyler's "Butcher's Bill" is invaluable in tracking the myriad names throughout.
    • 5/5
      A welcome return to form after the previous The Fortune of War. Aubrey and Maturin are chased through the Grand Banks, have to persuade the Catalan garrison on the island fortress on Grimsholm to defect, and attempt to escape from a French prison. Lots of great moments, especially Maturin's speech on coincidence.
    • 4/5
      When Jack and Stephen return to England, they find that the ship previously promised to Jack has been given to another man after Jack's prolonged absence. Jack returns home to deal with his mounting debt and the hucksters who have been plaguing his finances. Stephen is also embroiled in a serious of personal dramas revolving around Diana Villiers. Eventually Stephen procures Jack a ship for an intelligence mission and they are off to sea again.
    • 5/5
      O'Brian delivers with his typical excellence. Thumping storyline, evocative prose, rich characterisation and you feel like you're reading a combination of an exhilarating page-turner and a thoroughly reasearched naval history tome.
    • 5/5
      Good God these books are incredible.
    • 5/5
      The story here covers a lot of ocean. Beginning with a chase across the Atlantic from Halifax to England, Jack and Stephen take on a key mission in the Baltic, suffer a shipwreck off the coast of France, spend time as prisoners in the Tower in Paris, before escaping to return to England. The interconnected stories are interesting and kept me reading to find out what would happen next. There are some truly poetic passages and just as many amusing ones. Jack continues inept on land, although when pressed (such as when pursuing escape from prison) his great competence comes to forefront, even out of his ship. Stephen continues to surprise.