Product Description

No fiction writer of modern times has captured the world of wooden walls, broadsides, and the press gang as successfully as Patrick O'Brian. The twenty books in the O'Brian canon featuring the lives and adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his confidant, naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, have been lauded across the world for their blend of classic storytelling, historical accuracy, and inspired characterizations. In this new work respected naval historian Brian Lavery explores the historical framework of the O'Brian novels by examining the facts behind the grand narrative and putting the key episodes in context while detailing naval life in the era of Nelson and Napoleon. With well over a hundred illustrations, the book presents contemporary plans, drawings, engravings, maps, and photographs of museum artifacts that have inspired age-of-sail novelists and moviemakers. Introducing the book is a foreword by Peter Weir, director of the upcoming film of O'Brian's novel Master and Commander. Avid age-of-sail fans will not want to miss this colorfully detailed complement to the O'Brian series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #571476 in Books
• Published on: 2003
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Greenwich Times, December 4, 2003
"...close to a 'perfect' gift for the O'Brien/Aubrey fan."

Sailing, March 2004
"Every page is a broadside, with illustrations in full color, contemporary plans, drawings, engravings, maps and charts."

About the Author
Brian Lavery, the curator of ship technology at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, is the author of several books, including Nelson's Navy (see below), Nelson and the Nile, and The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815.

Customer Reviews

Re-living our naval past
Being a descendant of an Admiral of the Fleet I have always been intested in naval life in the days of sail and wondered what the balance was between wonderful and privileged adventure and virtual slavery below decks. "Jack Aubrey Commands" gives you all the answers!I am not a great fan of Patrick O'Brian's books, but am glad he wrote them. This book, by Brian Lavery, is well-researched, suitably illustrated and enjoyable reading for well-informed naval historians or schoolboys who have an interest in the subject.

Nelson's Navy for Dummies
This book covers a large area rather thinly. It is saved from "coffee table" status by some penetrating insights into such things at shipbuiding methods, or the composition of the Admiralty administration. It left me with the need to follow up many subjects, and I count that a plus for this type of book.
I was a little disappointed that there was so little nexus between the sections of the book, and O'Brian's stories. One of the joys of O'Brian's work is that it seems closely related to fact, and I'd hoped for the little tingle of pleasure when the fact and the fiction are joined together.
on a very minor point, it seems to me that the cover illustration shows a ship whose sails are not properly set...some are on starboard, and some on port tack. If I'm wrong, someone please show me my blunder.

Facts, as Related to the Stories
While the sub-title of this book relates it to Jack Aubrey's world, this book is equally at home in understanding the world of C. S. Forester and indeed to the real world of of the Royal Navy of the time.

The book is broken into sections on the major aspects of the Navy including: ships, officers, men, techniques, life at sea, enemies, the Navy in Action, and finally the experience of war.

The book is a delight to read. Each of these sections contains not only information about the actual navy of the time, but also relates many of the details to particular Forester or O'Brian books. For instance the naval blockade is discussed as a tactic. Then there it talks about Hornblower having the Hotspur on blockade duty, and Aubrey being part of the Mediteranean Fleet in the book The Ionian Mission. He even mentions other novels, such as Sharpe's Trafalgar, while normally a soldiers story, Sharpe is put at Trafalgar almost as an accident.

Profusely illustrated by paintings from the time, these include not only the usual outlines of ships, but of the details of the action. These include not only the use of the guns, but also of the less happy parts of the ship, like the surgeon's cockpit.

It's fascinating to read just how accurately life is portrayed in fiction.