The Surgeon's Mate
- Book Review,
by Patrick O'Brian
From Publishers Weekly
O'Brian's superb series on the early-19th-century adventures of Jack Aubrey, a Royal Navy officer, and his friend Stephen Maturin, Navy surgeon and naturalist, continues with a look at the darker side of Maturin's life: his work in British intelligence. Aubrey, Maturin and Diana Villiers (Maturin's fickle and enigmatic love) are passengers on a packet ship from Nova Scotia to England when two American privateers give chase. They are hunting Maturin, who has compromised U.S. spy networks. The Americans are eluded, and upon reaching England, Maturin sets off to France. Armed with safe conduct papers, he lectures on natural history and installs Villiers in Paris. Suspicious French agents try to bait Maturin but he refuses to be lured into an indiscretion. On his return to London, Maturin is sent to woo Catalan officers and troops from the French cause to the British. Aubrey provides transport, but despite his best support, including staging a splendid charade chase on the water, the mission takes a nasty turn when their ship founders; seized by the French, Maturin and Aubrey are hauled off to Paris's infamous Temple Prison. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Tim Piggott-Smith is a marvelous narrator, and here he performs splendidly one of the Aubrey/Maturin sea stories by the late Patrick O'Brian. Captain Aubrey and surgeon Maturin are headed home to England after a successful espionage caper in the U.S., but they find the resentful Yankees close on their heels. A marvelous, long chase scene punctuates this book and provides enough action to please the most jaded listener. Piggott-Smith reads with British accents that are serious, expressive, precise, easy, and convincing. He is acting, but there is little flamboyance, a lot of persuasiveness. Well done! D.R.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Kirkus Reviews
This time out, Captain Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin limp home from America for a brief rest before sailing to the Baltic to subvert the occupying Catalan troops--and then to the Bay of Biscay to run aground. The dashing Aubrey/Maturin naval tales (among others, The Ionian Mission--see above) continue to come out in intervals from England, where they are hugely and deservedly popular. Published some years ago in the UK, they've been arriving out of order, so readers find themselves sorting out prequels from sequels. But shipping arrangements do no damage to these polished, historically accurate, and intensely pleasurable tales of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic era. Anglo-Iberian physician and spy Stephen Maturin is again the linchpin, providing the excuse for his dashing friend Aubrey to flee the mess he has made of his British investments. Aboard H.M.S Ariel, Aubrey transports Maturin to the Baltic, where the doctor will use his linguistic skills and impeccable Catalan separatist credentials to convince Spanish troops holding Baltic islands for Napoleon that they should desert the Corsican monster and throw their lot in with England. The Baltic mission is successful, but the subsequent flight from Scandinavia runs into the rocks off the French coast. The officers are taken prisoner and transported to Paris, where they dine handsomely on meals cooked by a pretty widow as they await execution. Splendid escape. Literate and amusing. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Buy from Amazon
Compare Prices
|
|
Home
