8.6 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Dell'Orco Language English Publication date 1972 Followed by HMS Surprise Genre Historical Fiction | 4.3/5 Goodreads Country United Kingdom Publisher Collins (UK) Originally published 1972 Preceded by Master and Commander Page count 414 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Compact audio cassette, Compact Disc) Similar Patrick O'Brian books, Aubrey–Maturin series books, Historical Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Post Captain is the second historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1972. It features the characters of Captain Jack Aubrey and naval surgeon Stephen Maturin in the early 19th century and is set in the Napoleonic Wars.
Contents
- Plot summary
- Characters
- Ships
- References to events in history
- Allusions to literature
- Literary significance and criticism
- Publication history
- References
During the brief Peace of Amiens, Aubrey and Maturin live in a country house allowing both of them to meet the women they love. The mores of courtship restrict both men as to making a proposal of marriage. Then their lives are turned upside down when Aubrey loses his money due to decisions of the prize court and a dishonest prize-agent. To avoid seizure for debt, they proceed through France to Maturin's property in Spain. When the war begins afresh, Aubrey has a command aboard HMS Polychrest, seeing action while gaining fewer prizes yet succeeding in his military goals. He gains his promotion and is captain of the frigate HMS Lively while its captain is ashore. The emotions of his love life interfere with his ways at sea, showing him sharply different in his decisiveness at sea compared to his clumsiness on land.
The novel was received well at its initial publishing, but received more and better notice after its re-issue in 1990. That much of the story is set on land drew some to consider it O'Brian's homage to Jane Austen, one of his favorite authors. Author Mary Renault gave this novel high praise, while Alison Sulentic commends the novel for the two different ways that Maturin and Aubrery "come to know wisdom" as a result of falling in love.
Plot summary
With the Peace of Amiens, Jack Aubrey returns to England and rents a house with Stephen Maturin, with shipmates running the household, spending time in the hunt. He meets the Williams family. Aubrey courts Sophia Williams, the eldest of three daughters, while Maturin pursues Diana Villiers, Sophia's cousin. Aubrey wants to marry Sophia, but they delay making a firm engagement. His fortune abruptly disappears when his prize-agent absconds with his funds and the prize court finds that two merchant ships he captured were owned by neutral nations. The court demands he repay the value of the ships (rather than gain the prize money he expected), a sum beyond his means. Mrs Williams takes her daughters away to Bath on this news. Aubrey dallies with Diana, straining his friendship with Maturin and showing himself indecisive on land, a contrast with his decisive ways at sea. Aubrey and Maturin flee England to avoid Aubrey being taken for debt.
In Toulon to visit Christy Pallière, the French captain who had captured Aubrey's first command Sophie before the peace, they learn that war is imminent. French authorities round up all English subjects. Aubrey and Maturin escape over the Pyrenees to Maturin's property with Maturin disguised as an itinerant bear trainer and Aubrey as the bear, Flora. They make their way to Gibraltar where Aubrey and Maturin take passage aboard a British East India Company ship. The ship is captured by the privateer Bellone, but a British squadron overtakes them and rescues Aubrey, Maturin and the other passengers.
In England, Aubrey is offered a letter of marque by Mr Canning, a wealthy Jewish merchant. At the same gathering at Queeney's, Mrs Williams and Cecilia are among the guests; unaware he would be there, Sophia stayed home with Frances. Mrs Williams learns of Maturin's castle in Spain and his training as a physician, raising his status in her eyes. An inadequate thief approaches Aubrey as he walks outdoors; Mr Scriven proves to be a useful friend, knowing the law of debt and where Aubrey can be safe from bailiffs. He and Maturin move to The Grapes, safe in the Liberty of the Savoy.
Given command of HMS Polychrest, Aubrey turns Canning down. Polychrest is an odd ship that was purpose-built as an experimental weapon, the project now abandoned. He asks that Tom Pullings be promoted to lieutenant. Polychrest is structurally weak and sails poorly, and the first lieutenant, Parker, is free with punishment. Aubrey is given a free hand by Admiral Harte, who stands to benefit personally from any prizes taken. To Harte's disappointment, Aubrey captures no prizes. When he drives the French privateer Bellone aground outside a Spanish port, the merchants reward him. Harte assigns Aubrey to escort convoys in the English Channel. Aubrey gains a reputation for lingering in port as he carries on a furtive affair with Diana. Maturin is sent on an intelligence gathering mission in Spain. On his return, Maturin is advised by Aubrey's friend Heneage Dundas to warn Aubrey about his reputation with the Admiralty. When Maturin does so, Aubrey gets angry and the two agree to fight a duel. Aubrey calls on Diana, but finds her with Canning, ending Aubrey's interest in Diana. Aubrey is ordered to raid the French port of Chaulieu to sink the French troopships and gunboats and to destroy the Fanciulla. The crew plans to mutiny because of their harsh treatment under Parker. Maturin overhears their plans and warns Aubrey. Aubrey quashes the mutiny by putting the instigators and some loyal crew in a ship's boat and then begins the attack on the moment. He rues his angry words with Maturin. During the engagement in Chaulieu, Polychrest runs aground. Aubrey leads three of the ship's boats to board and capture Fanciulla. The successful mariners refloat Polychrest, which founders soon after leaving Chaulieu, and the crew transfer to Fanciulla. After the battle, Aubrey and Maturin resume their friendship.
Aubrey returns to England in Fanciulla and is promoted to Post-captain. Debt still hanging over him, he asks for any command. He is assigned as temporary captain for HMS Lively, whose Captain Hamond has taken leave to sit in Parliament. Returning from Spain, Maturin tells the head of naval intelligence, Sir Joseph Blaine, that the Spanish will declare war as soon as four ships full of bullion from Montevideo arrive safely in Cadiz. At Maturin's urging, Sophia asks Jack Aubrey to transport her and her sister to the Downs. While on board, Aubrey and Sophia come to an agreement not to marry anyone else; Aubrey is too poor to propose a marriage settlement satisfactory to Mrs Williams. Maturin is close friends with Sophia, but does not take up her advice to propose to Diana. While attending the opera, he sees that Diana is being kept by Canning; his pain is deep.
Maturin takes no pay for his intelligence work, but he does ask a favour: that Lively be included in the squadron sent to intercept the Spanish. The Admiralty agrees, and asks Maturin to negotiate the treasure fleet's surrender. Because of Maturin's temporary rank and his connection to the Admiralty, Aubrey realizes that Maturin has been involved in intelligence work for Britain. Aubrey understands that there is a side of his friend that he did not know. The Spanish convoy refuses to surrender, and battle breaks out. One Spanish frigate (the Mercedes) explodes and the other three (Fama, Clara, Medea) surrender. Clara, carrying the treasure, strikes her colours to Lively, greatly pleasing its captain. Then he chases Fama. He invites two of the Spanish captains to dinner, along with Dr Maturin, and they all toast Sophia.
Characters
See also Recurring characters in the Aubrey–Maturin series
Ships
References to events in history
Stephen Maturin, in presenting his radical position against the tyranny of the navy, says that he would "certainly have joined the mutineers" had he been at the Spithead Mutiny.
The Treaty of Amiens was signed 25 March 1802 by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace". The consequent Peace of Amiens lasted only one year, ending on 18 May 1803. It was the only period of peace during the so-called 'Great French War' between 1793 and 1815. Captain Christy-Pallière, whom Jack and Stephen visit at Toulon, was a real French Navy officer who did command the naval base at Toulon, though not in 1803.
For a few hundred years beginning in the 14th century, the Duchy of Lancaster was not subject to the King's laws, including pursuit for debt, having its own courts, laws and power of decision. Savoy was part of the lands in that Duchy. Though it was adjacent to the City of London and to Westminster, the Liberty of the Savoy, sometimes called the Liberties of the Savoy, was a safe haven from debt collectors acting under the King's law until sometime in the 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars. The author explained this from his own knowledge at a publisher's web page.
The novel describes the political tensions between Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty with the support of Pitt, and the Whigs, whose First Lord had been Earl St Vincent, immediate predecessor to Lord Melville. The Whigs charged Lord Melville with misappropriation of public funds. The novel posits that Melville could not properly defend himself, because the funds in question were associated with the secret appropriations for intelligence gathering while he was Treasurer in the Admiralty. At the end of the novel, Lord Melville still holds his position, as the impeachment and trial occur in the House of Lords. Lord Melville is acquitted in real life, but does not hold the office of First Lord again; his son Robert holds the post later in the Napoleonic Wars, and like his father, is in favor of the fictional Captain Aubrey.
The last action in the novel is based on a real action, the Battle of Cape Santa Maria in October 1804, in which four British frigates – HMS Indefatigable, HMS Lively, HMS Medusa and HMS Amphion – successfully intercepted a Spanish flotilla carrying gold from South America, leaving from the mouth of the River Plate in present-day Montevideo, Uruguay. Captain Hamond, later Sir Graham Hamond, 2nd Baronet, was not in fact a member of Parliament and was in command of Lively in the action, taking the Spanish ships as Aubrey does in the novel.
Allusions to literature
In a conversation with MacDonald, Stephen Maturin argues about the various qualities of the Gaelic poet Ossian's writing and authenticity. This references similar controversy which had arisen during the period about the true authorship of James Macpherson's translation of his epic cycle, and continues to be questioned today in literary circles. In this same conversation, MacDonald references the Roman legal principle "falsum in unam, falsum in omnibus", which translates to "false in one thing, false in all things".
Literary significance and criticism
"One of the finest seafaring novels of the Napoleonic wars." — R. W., Taranaki Herald (New Zealand), on Post CaptainMary Renault had high praise for this novel:
Master and Commander raised almost dangerously high expectations, Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them. Mr O'Brian is a master of his period, in which his characters are finely placed, while remaining three-dimensional, thoroughly human beings. This book sets him at the very top of his genre; he does not just have the chief qualifications of a first-class historical novelist, he has them all. The action scenes are superb; towards the end, far from being aware that one is reading what is, physically, a fairly long book, one notes with dismay that there is not much more to come....A brilliant book.
Library Journal found this to be a "rich blend of adventure, romance, and intrigue", reviewing an audio book version read by John Lee
The backdrop of this novel is the temporary cessation of British-French hostilities in 1803 and the consequent stalling of British naval officer Jack Aubrey's promotion from commander to post captain. As he wonders if he will ever be promoted or get another ship, Jack learns that his business manager has absconded with his investments and that collection agents are now after him. Jack still manages to pursue a woman who is a member of a very proper English family, and this affair in turn fuels a potentially lethal breach between him and his closest friend, Dr. Maturin, who is involved in high-level espionage. To avoid debtor's prison, Jack eventually goes to France, only to be trapped there when Napoleon resumes hostilities. This rich blend of adventure, romance, and intrigue will satisfy listeners of many different tastes. John Lee's strong narration is flawed only by his tendency to pronounce "forecastle" so it sounds like "foxhole." Recommended for most collections.
Frank Prial wrote about Post Captain, in an article about the author in 1998, that "The Aubrey-Maturin series has been said to rival the sequential novels of Trollope and Anthony Powell. Mr O'Brian is particularly pleased when he is compared to Jane Austen, whom he reveres as the finest of all English novelists. First editions of most of her novels share shelf space in his small library here with first editions of Gibbon and Dr. Johnson and a battered but still useful 1810 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The second book of the series, Post Captain, set mostly in country houses and as much a novel of manners as a sea story, has been said to be Mr. O'Brian's homage to Ms. Austen."
In an article published in a maritime law journal, Alison Sulentic proposes that "As inviting as Master and Commander may be, however, it is Post Captain, the second novel in the series, that unveils O’Brian’s genius and stakes his claim to recognition as the author of "the best historical novels ever written." The intricate interweaving of plot lines that trace the personal and professional fortunes of the main characters crosses many of the more traditional categorizations of popular fiction." Sulentic assesses the plot in some detail against moral philosophy and the notions of 'the law as it is' and 'the law as it ought to be', and the development of Aubrey and Maturin in Post Captain, saying on page 588, "Over the course of Post Captain, both Jack and Stephen come to know wisdom in a way that profoundly alters the approach each takes to the intersection of law and morality." She mentions on page 589 the felicitous choice of names, perhaps a "deliberate conceit", for the ship Aubrey loves, HMS Sophie and the woman he loves, Sophia, and the name Sophia meaning wisdom.
In a more recent review, Jo Walton finds this the book in the series with the poorest plot structure:
There’s no shape to this plot, and while the characters and incidents are as good as anything in the series, the book as a whole is broken-backed. The duel and then the fact that they never mention that they’ve reconciled feels very strange. Usually when O’Brian has a lacuna like that it helps to shape the story, here it’s just an odd absence. The duel is the last real obstacle between Jack and Stephen—they quarrel from time to time, but it never comes to this kind of thing. The main theme is the difference between land and sea, and to illustrate this we see a lot of Jack ashore—far more than in the first book. It may be the most England we get in any of the books. Jack isn’t very good at life ashore—he’s everything he isn’t at sea. He’s easily taken in, confused, indecisive and frightened. There’s a wonderful scene where he runs from the bailiffs back to sea and calls back “Mr Pullings, press that man!” He presses the bailiffs who have come to arrest him for debt!