Master and Commander's Varied Sources

Many of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Novels Inspired Film

Oct 23, 2009 Luke Arnott

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World didn't just adapt those two Patrick O'Brian novels. Incidents from numerous Aubrey-Maturin adventures appear in the film.

Starting with Master and Commander (1969), Patrick O'Brian wrote twenty Aubrey-Maturin novels, with another left unfinished at the time of O'Brian's death in 2000. The series chronicles the adventures of Royal Navy Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey and his friend, noted naturalist and spy Dr. Stephen Maturin, during the Napoleonic wars.

Such a wide-ranging corpus would prove challenging to adapt to film. But Peter Weir's acclaimed Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, released in 2003, pulled it off. To do so, the movie had to rework the plots of quite a few Patrick O'Brian novels.

Master and Commander and The Far Side of the World

As its title suggests, some of the plot of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is taken from two novels in the Aubrey-Maturin series. From the first book, Master and Commander, comes some of the more memorable acts of naval trickery in the film, like disguising the HMS Surprise as a whaler or using a decoy raft at night.

But since the novel Master and Commander details Aubrey and Maturin's first voyage together (when Aubrey is not yet a Post-Captain), most of the primary plot of the film comes from The Far Side of the World (1984), the tenth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Even so, there are differences: The Far Side of the World is set during the war of 1812, and Aubrey pursues the USS Norfolk; in the film, it is 1805, and the target is the French ship Acheron.

Other Patrick O'Brian Novels in Master and Commander

Many incidents from other Patrick O'Brian novels also found their way into the Master and Commander movie. In one scene, Captain Aubrey muses that Acheron's captain might be chasing him so relentlessly because his son might have been killed in an earlier battle with Surprise.

The dialog comes almost verbatim from Desolation Island (1978), the fifth Aubrey-Maturin novel. In it, a Dutch ship, the Waakzaamheid, obsessively pursues Aubrey, commanding HMS Leopard. At one point Aubrey peers out to see the opposing captain:

"Jack was familiar with the enemy. But now, instead of his usual light blue, he had a black coat on. 'I wonder,' thought Jack, 'whether it is just an odd chance, or whether we killed some relative of his? His boy, perhaps, dear God forbid.' " (Chapter 7)

Another scene in Master and Commander has Preserved Killick, Aubrey's loyal but gruff steward, complaining about Aubrey and Maturin's playing of the violin and cello. This comes from a passage in The Ionian Mission (1981), the eighth Aubrey-Maturin novel:

"... Killick's indignation broke out at last and he said to the Captain's cook, 'There they go again, tweedly-deedly, tweedly-deedly, belly-aching the whole bleeding night, and the toasted cheese seizing on to their plates like goddam glue, which I dursen't go in to fetch them; and never an honest tune from beginning to end.' " (Chapter 2)

Moreover, the scene in which Dr. Maturin is taken ashore at the Galapagos Islands is a combination of two incidents from HMS Surprise (1973), the third novel: an ambassador Surprise is conveying is taken ashore for a delicate operation (though he dies afterward), while later in the book Dr. Maturin operates on himself following a duel.

Master and Commander Still in the Spirit of Patrick O'Brian

There are many such moments peppered throughout Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. But far more is left out – Stephen Maturin's espionage activities, so often intertwined with Aubrey's voyages, are one element absent from the film. There certainly remains ample material for more than one Master and Commander sequel.

Yet by piecing together so many strands from the Aubrey-Maturin novels, and reweaving them into a coherent whole, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World stays true to the spirit of Patrick O'Brian's work, even if it isn't faithful to any one particular source.

The copyright of the article Master and Commander's Varied Sources in British/UK Fiction is owned by Luke Arnott. Permission to republish Master and Commander's Varied Sources in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Master and Commander Began Aubrey-Maturin series	Patrick O'Brian's The Far Side of the World	Parts of HMS Surprise in Master and Commander Film
The Ionian Mission Part of Aubrey-Maturin Series	Desolation Island Inspired Master and Commander