Capitán de mar y guerra (Master and Commander)

Escrito por Patrick O'Brian

Narrado por Martin Untrojb

Es el amanecer del siglo XIX; Gran Bretaña está en guerra con la Francia de Napoleón. Jack Aubrey, un joven teniente de la marina de Nelson, es ascendido al mando de H.M.S. Sophie?, un viejo y lento calabozo que es poco probable que haga su fortuna. Pero el capitán Aubrey es un marinero valiente y talentoso, su sed de aventura y victoria inmensa.Con la ayuda de su amigo Stephen Maturin, cirujano de la nave y agente de inteligencia secreto, Aubrey y su tripulación participan en una emocionante batalla tras otra, su viaje culminó en un impresionante choque con una poderosa fragata española contra cuyas armas y mano de obra la pequeña Sophie es irremediablemente superada.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: BookaVivo
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 9 mar 2021
• ISBN: 9781638111290

Patrick O'Brian

Patrick O’Brian (1914-2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist, biographer and translator from French. His translations include Henri Charrière’s Papillon, Jean Lacouture’s biography of Charles de Gaulle and many of Simone de Beauvoir’s later works, including Les Belles Images, All Said and Done and A Very Easy Death.

Comentarios para Capitán de mar y guerra (Master and Commander)

[Ricardo Gonzalez · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Gran comienzo de serie. Me encantó. Muy interesante y emocionante.

[ron18-1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

My 4 stars are a rounded 3.5

I've long been interested in reading Aubrey/Maturin, ever since having learned that it was a primary influence on Gene Roddenberry for the creation of Star Trek. This feeling pervades the book and is a delight to consider retroactively.

The style is a bit difficult because it isn't really comparable to contemporary literature that I'm familiar with - but anyone who can read Moby Dick for pleasure will be *more than* right at home. A solid 3/4 of the details and plotting are directly related to the composition of warships of the time period, and their hierarchy and disciplines. This can be dry, and whole pages can go by without ample context to translate the nautical terminology... and yet, it's a good read.

This is a series that is beloved by far too many for the considerate reader to dismiss. I imagine that it only gets better - because now I know my way around a sloop (or frigate, or man-of-war for that matter), and more importantly: because now we know our cast of characters.

The main two are Aubrey (Commander) and Maturin (Ships Medic... unofficial surgeon). Aubrey is so refreshingly NOT a Captain Kirk... in the sense that Zap Brannigan is Captain Kirk... but an imperfect temper-prone horndog whose judgement is clouded from time to time, but whose character is solid enough that you like him more for it. Maturin is your Spock (while technically being Bones - - or visa versa) - - he might as well be a different species from the other crew members (though he's blending well as time goes by). He's a science officer philosopher, the Laurel to Aubrey's Hardy. He manages to be far beyond the reader, and our entry point to seeing life aboard the vessel at the same time.

I look forward to reading more, as first books in beloved series that span decades are often a mere shadow of the goodness you find once the ball really gets rolling.

I found the main death of the novel (withheld to prevent spoiler) to be downplayed and under-explored.. and felt there were some serious loose ends that were never tied w/ relation to it - but that's life.

[rmarch2 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Fabulous series. O'Brian brings you aboard this wholly different world.

[hredwards · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Different then I expected. More humorous with a satirical bent.

[johnmunsch_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

The amount of sailing jargon can be very offputting but don't let it get to you. Much, if not most, of it can be ignored.

[mybucketlistofbooks · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

For a reason that I don’t quite understand my agnostic, science loving, computer geek of a father really loved the “Aubrey-Maturin” series of novels. It seemed quite out of character for him. He liked history, but more from a reasoned approach, as a way to understand how past solutions could be applied to modern problems. Reading a rip-roaring historical yarn really just never seemed like his style. Anyway, before he passed away three years ago, knowing of my love of history, he passed along his collection to me. I just finished reading the first of this 20 book series, Master and Commander.

The “Aubrey-Maturin” series is a sequence of twenty novels that take place during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) and centers on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the British Royal Navy and his ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, an Irish born doctor and naturalist. This is the series the excellent Russell Crowe movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, is based on. The first book in the series Master and Commander introduces us to the two characters, goes through their initial meeting and how they came to serve aboard Captain Aubrey’s first command the HMS Sophie, fleshes out their back stories and personalities, and the high adventure that ensues.

‘Nuff said on the plot…as usual I don’t want to ruin it for anyone that hasn’t read the book.

After getting through about 20% of the book I began to understand what my Dad saw in them. The level of detail is incredible, especially the minutiae of running a naval ship in the early 19th century including extremely detailed descriptions of every part of the ship, its rigging and sails, its configuration and how it propelled itself. My Dad had the kind of mind that could take in this information and retain it which I am sure enhanced his enjoyment of these books. For me however it was kind of tedious. There is no way I can keep up with that much new information without either constantly looking it up to refresh my memory or just letting it flow by assuming the momentum of the story would carry me through. I chose the latter option which worked well in this case, as in the second half of the novel, having gotten through all of the preliminary description of the characters and naval jargon, it finally transformed into the adventure I had anticipated. So, by the end I had really gotten into it.

The reputation of the these novels as literature is quite high, with many comparing the author, Patrick O’Brian, to Jane Austen and C.S. Forrester. I can see why. The writing is superb, character descriptions are very vivid, and the arc of the story really compelling. I will definitely be reading more of these as time goes on!! Highly recommended!

[karlstar_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A really excellent book. You have to enjoy navy stories from the Age of Sail to really enjoy this book, as it will overwhelm you with nautical terminology. The characters are oustanding, and it makes you feel like you are on the deck of a warship, sailing barely explored territory all over the world while chasing fame and glory. Great stuff.

[murphy4jacobs · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I was right -- Dillon didn't make it.

Rollicking adventure book without a lot of depth (thank goodness), flashy with research and a touch of "Boy's Own", yet still quite enjoyable. A popular book (and series) 30 years after its original publication, it's obvious the publisher didn't think much about it when it came out, expecting it, no doubt, to be something for airport racks, but it has a durable heart. I could pick apart various bits of it -- the way the story tends to leap ahead in time, skipping over what are obviously important scenes and events to give them a backwards glance and move on, which can be both quite interesting and totally confusing; some truly comical torture of the English language that has nothing to do with writing period dialog; the jumping into the heads of assorted characters who do not rank too much importance but whom (I'm guessing) the author drags in because he can't think of another way to get the information to the reader without this particular form of mallet-banging. Yes, I found little faults along the way, but nothing to keep me from reading on about sea battles and Navy politics. I couldn't tell you exactly what made it so much fun, so easy to read, except that - at least for me -- it was a new viewpoint and a new story, yet with a familiar and comfortable air about it.

In short, I can only say that if Georgette Heyer had gotten drunk and decided to write Captain Wentworth's story (from Austen's Persuasion) she might have come close to this. She'd have had one hell of a hangover when she was done. Perhaps Patrick O'Brian was better suited.

I intend to find the next book in the series, to see how the brash young Captain Aubrey and the brilliant if slightly clueless Stephen Maturin will continue.

[rosenstern · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

One of the most elegant novels I've read on old ships. Old ships, in my opinion, are considerably more awesome than the newer yachts. Not only are they beautiful, but the functioning is magnificent. O'Brian gives us detailed descriptions. Worth the read if only for the ships.

[teafancier · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Perfectly OK Napoleonic sea adventure story with characters more interesting than is common in adventure fiction.

[amerynth · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

It's always weird when people recommend books to me. In this particular instance, I was reading "Paradise of the Blind" when someone said I should read "Master and Commander." I'm not sure why I decided to read it, as it's not really my kind of book and I'm not at all into sailing.I can see why people who are into sailing would love Patrick O'Brian's series.... it was a lot of boat talk. Once the book really got going on the sailing part, it was pretty good. At any rate, this really isn't my kind of book but I can see how others might enjoy it.

[mrslee_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A sea adventure of the top notch. The story of the captain of a ship, Jack Aubrey, in HMS, during the early 1800s, this book is full of little details of life aboard ship intricately woven into the narrative. You will also meet Stephen Maturin, a physician who finds himself aboard as a ship's surgeon. I love the details of medical knowledge and treatment at that time, again, woven into the tale. The author has a gift of helping you understand the nautical terminology and battle events. This was a real page turner and I'm looking forward to more books in the series.

[kslade-1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Wonderful novel about Capt. Jack Aubrey and how he met his friend, Dr. Maturin. During the time of the Napoleonic wars. I like this series better than the Hornblower books, which are good too.

[sumik_18 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I'm currently re-reading and so far enjoying it.

[museofire · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I had heard of these books long before I ever read them. The adventures of a Royal Navy captain and a doctor during the Napoleonic Wars? What could be more boring? Then I broke my foot, was more or less confined to the house, and desperate for reading material. My Dad happened to have Master and Commander, the first in the series. Oh my God. I love these books. They are witty, erudite, exciting, and fun. Jack and Stephen are great characters who only grow in richness and complexity as time goes on. O'Brian's command of the minutiae of the Regency world is astounding. The last three or four books represent a sharp drop-off in quality, as O'Brian began running out of ideas on how to keep the series alive without ending the war. But as a whole, the books are a monumental achievement that remains rewarding on repeated rereadings. I love these books so much that I turned on first my sister, then my brother, and finally my father (remember him? he gave me the first book) to their glories. We may be the only nuclear family in America with four complete sets.

[darthdeverell · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I came to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series through the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and, knowing that the film took certain liberties, I was excited to experience the original text. I'm glad to say that O'Brian does not disappoint. In focusing on the relationships between his characters, he makes it easy for a reader without a nautical background to jump in and follow the text. O'Brian furnishes explanations when necessary, but does not succumb to the temptation to halt the narrative à la Herman Melville in Moby Dick.This first book in the series introduces readers to O'Brian's main characters, Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin. The two are different enough that O'Brian can use each to focus on different aspects of nineteenth century life and give them their own motivations, but have enough similarities that readers will not question their friendship. The confined atmosphere of a ship at sea allows O'Brian to explore a great deal of communal psychology and the drama (and humor) that comes with it.This Folio edition includes gorgeous period illustrations that the publishers expertly paired with examples from the text to the benefit of readers. Both previous fans of the series and newcomers alike will enjoy this edition.

[condorena · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

If I had a grasp of the technical terms, the nautical lingo or even understood half of the English I might have enjoyed this book.

[ctpress_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This is Jane Austen on a ship of war, with the humanity, joy and pathos of Shakespeare. (quote from a blog-review)The praise and accolade for Patrick O’Brians 20-novel long Napoleonic naval series are worth attention. And I agree. This first one in the series was just great. You are instantly brought back to this period in time - with attention to detail and naval expressions and conversation. In this first book we are introduced to our hero, Jack Aubrey, a fighting captain in the British Navy, and the beginning of his long-lasting friendship with Stephen Maturin, naturalist and naval surgeon.Aubrey gets his first command and there’s ups and downs through the book as the newly appointed captain navigates the seas. I couldn’t have asked for a better narrator in Simon Vance - but I regret the choice of listening to the novel. I needed explanations of the seaman’s terms and quaint expressions - and several times I was lost (at sea) and couldn’t figure out the naval tactics and ships positions.

[sumofan · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

heavy going as am not a sailor and lots of archaic and sailing terms but listened to it (and the rest in series) on audio books and is enthralling

[davido1103 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

whole series of 20 books make it as one to my top 5 all-time favorite. The character development and friendship between Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin alone make these rip-roaring tales whole the price of purchase

[hoosgracie · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Quite a rousing adventure, but I found the story choppy. It is a highly detailed book, which I generally enjoy, but there were times I felt like O'Brian tired of his description and just stopped. Well done on audio. I may listen to other titles in the future.

[nothingtosay_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This is probably going to be 'the book where I only read when I am on vacation that involves long traveling time with nothing else to do' for me, though for the life of me I don't know why I do this in the first place. The character is intriguing, so that is pretty much the reason that I keep coming back for the next page after leaving it alone for months. That's also what got me into historical fiction without feeling like reading a textbook.

[nickidemus · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

The Basics

Jack Aubrey has just recently gotten his first command aboard the Sophie, and as luck would have it, he also just met Dr. Stephen Maturin, a perfect fit for ship’s surgeon. Adventure ensues but so do some difficulties. Jack isn’t good at playing the social game that is required of officers as much as felling ships is, and it’s probably going to come back to bite him.

My Thoughts

I’m not normally a historical novel reader. I’m one of those ugly Americans who when you ask me about history, I wouldn’t know what to tell you and would likely fail the simplest test. I had a history teacher who was a douche, whatcha gonna do? But as I get older, I do find points in history that interest me, and a time like the aptly named Age of Sail is intriguing. It fascinates me the same way the Old West in American history does, because it was unapologetically messed up and bloody and so different from what I’m familiar with. There was a different code, different rules, with polite society and gory ship battles somehow existing at the same time.

That’s where I need to get into the character of Jack. O’Brian does an immensely clever thing here. He shows just how difficult it would be for a man who embraces battle and the notion of prize money to function in polite society. Jack is a man’s man, and he has a tendency to step in it and get on the bad side of people who would advance him if they didn’t find him to be such a boar. That makes Jack sound terrible, and he isn’t. He’s hilarious, and being hilarious makes him very endearing. He’s good-hearted if not always on the ball about what’s going on around him. He is brilliant with a boat if awful with people. He has to be one of the best male characters I’ve ever read, being so thoroughly written.

Then we have his polar opposite, Stephen Maturin. He’s quiet and introverted, better at handling people and hopeless at understanding what it is Jack and his crew do. Jack really did luck out in finding him, because he’s a very good doctor, even to down to his intense moral ideals about helping everyone, even people with the plague, which Jack isn’t too keen on. And yet these moments when they butt heads are part of what makes the book such a fun read. They’re friends to a fault, but they’re very different men. This book is all about the characters, which is why I’ve taken such a chunk of this review to go over them, because even with sea battles and adventure, Jack and Stephen are what shine.

As much as I loved this book, I have to mark up the point against it. O’Brian really loved his nautical jargon. He loved describing ships and typical tasks for the crew and went into what I assume is very accurate detail during the fights. It was like climbing a mountain getting through these parts and keeping your eye square on the summit. I have to get over this mountain is all. Then I can enjoy the rest. It’s so dense, so technical, and it took me about 125 pages before I reached that summit and realized it wasn’t so bad after all. So I can’t recommend this unless you’re willing to go through that for these characters and their story. Or unless you have an interest in this sort of thing.

As someone who values strong characters, this was a wonderful journey. I laughed my way through this book, because it’s probably the cutest, funniest book about war you’ll ever read. It totally captured me, and I mean to read the rest of the series now, which should say something as it’s quite a commitment with 21 books in all.

Final Rating

4/5

[ecw0647 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

In Master and Commander, the first of the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, Jack gets his first command. It's the Sophie, a seventy-eight-foot sloop with a crew of more than eighty. It's a wonder where they stuck them all. It's also the beginning of the friendship between Jack and Stephen Maturin, who becomes the ship's surgeon. They don't get off on the right foot, however, as Maturin castigates
Jack for tapping his hand out of rhythm during a chamber concert. Rather than come to blows, they discover they have several things in common, a love of music being the foremost.

Jack's first responsibility is to convoy a group of his Majesty's merchant ships, so they put to sea after first trying out some cannon in the bow that threaten to drive the ship's carpenter into severe apoplexy when he sees how the shock from the guns threatens to pull apart the little ship's seams. The most startling revelation to the modern reader is the number of offenses for which a seaman, or officer, could be put to death. Every first Sunday, the Captain was required to read the Articles of War, which delineated all these heinous crimes such as threatening an officer, or failing to proceed against the enemy with adequate haste, or any one of a number of miscellaneous other offenses, each of which would result in the death penalty.

This volume should be read first, for O'Brian clearly explains the nomenclature and functions of each part of a working eighteenth-century sailing vessel. The entire ship is explained, from bowsprit to spanker, and a description of the crews living quarters is given. Patrick O'Brian wrote in the introduction to Nelson's Navy: "...One’s pleasure in a sailor's account of his voyage is so very much enhanced if one can follow the more technical passages. This is even more true where the navy of Nelson's day is concerned, for by the time of Trafalgar the sailing man-of-war ... had reached its apogee, an immensely complex machine requiring extraordinary skill to handle and, of course, a copious vocabulary to speak of its parts and function." O'Brian knows his vocabulary.

Living quarters were cramped. Each sailor had only a hammock, which he stung in the fourteen inches of space assigned to him. When Maturin exclaims how surely that space is not enough for a man to sleep in, he is reminded that actually the amount of room is double that for about half the crew is on watch at any given time, providing double the space.

Stephen soon discovers much to his consternation, that Sophie's first lieutenant, is one James Dillon. He and Dillon are members of the United Irishmen, an organization of Protestants and Catholics trying to unite Ireland and responsible for a recently thwarted rebellion. One never knows how its former members might react to being in close quarters with others, especially as internal strife and numerous betrayals of former friends and comrades had rived the society. Jack's intolerance is revealed as he admits to Maturin his hatred of the dreaded Papists Unfortunately, he creates a potentially difficult situation
by making derogatory comments about Catholics to the crew before discovering Dillon and many of the men are Catholic, and he did so mean to get off to a good start with at least his first lieutenant!

A recurrent theme of the Aubrey/Maturin series is the meaning of friendship, and that theme is certainly developed in Master and Commander. Maturin and Dillon have a chance to explain their feelings about the Irish republican movement after they are removed to a prize ship that must be sailed into port, Dillon to command and Maturin to help deliver a baby born to the French captain's wife. Maturin explains, and perhaps we can also assume this is O'Brian speaking, that the bloody results of the French Revolution have soured him to groups of any kind. "'I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium... - but man as part of a movement or a crowd is ... inhuman... the only feelings I have are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone.... Patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile."'

O'Brian's characters are human, with all that implies. They make mistakes, act stupidly on occasion, suffer from greed and ill temper. So many modern action stories have superhuman heroes who suffer only from occasional bouts of pseudo-remorse for their actions, explained in nauseating psychobabble,never suffering from anything remotely resembling a crisis of conscience. Sign of our times perhaps.
O'Brian also his a good deal of fun at the expense of the eighteenth-century stuffed-shirt upper class. Consider the following scene at a rather hoity-toity, mixed company dinner party: "Mr. Ellis was clearly very much at home in Captain Harte's house, for without having to ask the way he walked to the sideboard, opened the lead-lined door and took out the chamber-pot, and looking over his shoulder he went on without a pause to state that fortunately the lower classes naturally looked up to gentlemen and loved them, in their humble way' only gentlemen were fit to be officers. God had ordered it so, he said, buttoning the flap of his breeches ' and he as he sat down again at the table he observed that he knew one house where the article was silver - solid silver."

[thesmellofbooks · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I have wanted to dip into this series for a while, and finally stumbled across the first title. It is dense, rich, and very human fiction. For a landlubber, the nautical terms get a tad confusing at times, but like travelling in a foreign land, the lilt of the accent and the slight sense of uncertainty is all part of the enjoyment. Loved it.<>When a key character dies late in the book, I was left with a kind of flat feeling for the rest of the book. This is because of the way it was handled, that he was so very there and then so very gone. He goes so quickly, off stage, and we see so little of the impact on his mates. Clearly, they mourn him, but more weight is given to their irritations earlier in the book than to this devastating loss. Still, an excellent book.

[katherine_ashe · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Superb, a bit of a trial in the nautical language.

[gypsysmom_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I thought it would be good to read an account from the Napoleonic Wars that was based on reality unlike the fantasy series by Naomi Novik that involves dragons. Although I usually don't care for fantasy in this case I'll take it over the reality. Judging from the rating for this book I am in the minority.The book centres on Jack Aubrey, a navy captain, and Stephen Maturin, a physician who has never been to sea before. Aubrey is given command of the brig Sophie and he persuades Maturin to sign on as ship's surgeon. Maturin is a man of many talents including musical ability and scientific method. Aubrey is rather crass but he and Maturin discover a joint love of music which makes them fast friends. The Sophie, in Aubrey's hands, becomes an excellent fighting ship and the crew takes many prizes. If you ever wanted to know more about various types of sails and ships this is the book for you. For me, it became rather boring after a while.

[bookson23rd · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

MASTER AND COMMANDER, the first book in the Captain Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series written by Patrick O’Brian, shows off O’Brian’s enormous knowledge of ships of the Napoleonic era. The series includes twenty titles.
Captain Aubrey is given the Sophie to hunt down and capture enemy (French and Spanish) ships in the Mediterranean and Balearic Seas along the eastern edges of France and Spain. He wins many battles and earns prizes in the form of monetary compensation when the British government “buys” the captured ships. His men for the most part admire his penchant for aggressively overtaking the enemy.
O'Brian does honor to the maritime descriptions - there are some really wonderful imageries.
It seems to me that a lot more could have been added to this. While we do see a bit into Maturin’s character, I thought we didn’t get to know Aubrey much at all. I also felt that the ending was too abrupt.
I like stories about life on old-fashioned sailing ships but I don’t think this one will be incentive enough to lead me to the rest of the series.

[srboone · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

A grand, rough and tumble adventure featuring a bevy of nautical language that the author takes the time to explain. First class all the way.

[mohi_11 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

The first book in the series, and with very little connection to the movie of the same name. Somewhat slowed down by the sailors explaining sailing minutiae to Maturin (more so than the rest of the series), but it does have a rollicking end.