Page 39 of H.M.S. Surprise


  Aubrey and Maturin, though very different, also share in common a high degree of physical and moral courage, a firm interest in women, and a love of music; both are competent amateur musicians. All this, of course, with much more. Suffice it to say, as friends and shipmates, the two are more than the sum of their parts.

  Their friendship is, in fact, the most appealing and interesting I know of in literature. Most fictional friendships are simply declared by the author. Damon and Pythias, Athos and D’Artagnan, Huck Finn and Nigger Jim are all wonderful characters, but their friendships are not significantly explored. Even that famous pair, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, which I have experienced as an actor, do very little as friends beyond pursuing Conan Doyle’s plots together. With Aubrey and Maturin, the readers come to understand and cherish their friendship perhaps as much as they do themselves.

  The wonder is that it has taken so long for O’Brian’s talents to be adequately recognised. Happily, I think that is now happening. He is more than a merely popular writer. He is a very, very fine one.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Arms and the Man

 


 

  Patrick O'Brian, H.M.S. Surprise

 


 

 
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