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H. M. S. (Aubrey/Maturin Novels, 3) (Book 3) Hardcover – November 17, 1994

by Patrick O'Brian (Author)

4.7 4,060 ratings

Book 3 of 21: Aubrey/Maturin Novels

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"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it."―Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press

Third in the series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures, this book is set among the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy enjoying overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could make him rich beyond his wildest dream: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet...

Editorial Reviews

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"I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop."
― E. O. Wilson, Boston Globe

About the Author

One of our greatest contemporary novelists, Patrick O’Brian is the author of the twenty volumes of the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series, as well as many other books, including Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore, and biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (November 17, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393037037
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393037036
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #214,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,456 in Historical Fiction (Books)

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4.7 4,060 ratings

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Patrick O'Brian

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In addition to twenty volumes in the highly respected Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's many books include "Testimonies," "The Golden Ocean," and "The Unknown Shore". O'Brian also wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks and translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture's biographies of Charles de Gaulle. He passed away in January 2000 at the age of 85.

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Allan R. Glass

Excellent story

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

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Full of mystery and battles and far off lands. Romance a d warmth plus a duel for doctor M. And finally a wonderful reunion.

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Andrew Updegrove

one of the better books in the series

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2023

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A fine read, as usual encumbered with more existential amatory anguish on the part of Maturin than most readers would likely prefer, but not too much to get in the way of the story. Some lovely writing as well as O’Brian’s remarkable period voice throughout, graced as usual by a vocabulary that would force an Oxford don run to their dictionary - great fun if you’re reading in ebook form and can easily consult the Wikipedia for context as well as definition.

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2023

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Readable and interesting; far more Jane Austin than expected and less history. Allotting board would have helped. I’ll finish the series.

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2013

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The Aubrey/Maturin novels have given me a lot of pleasure since my first exposure to them. I can think of no pleasanter way of spending Saturday afternoon after church than sitting in a quiet (internet) café, with just a low level of café noises and easy listening, if any, music in the background, and slowly reading one of these books, pausing from time to time to consult Wikipedia or Google Earth to flesh out some of O’Brian’s fascinating references.

All of them are 5-star reads as far as I’m concerned, such is the richness of the author’s writing, the historical, political, nautical, botanical, biological detail, the clever, economical depiction of his characters and relationships, the wry humour, his utterly convincing portrayal of a storm at sea …...

I suppose some of the books might be marginally better than others but, compared to any other authors' novels I can recall reading, they’re all worth 5 stars.
Having said all that though, they may not be to everyone’s taste. I’m 66 years old and male, and I suspect those two demographics might explain much of my enamourment. Someone of a different generation or gender may not be as entranced by the 18th century language, the naval-historical themes, the authenticity of description of things of that era (at least I presume it’s authentic, I wouldn’t know, maybe some of O'Brian's apparent erudition is bluff). I know my 15yo son read a paragraph of “Surprise” at random and wasn’t tempted to read on. His loss I say.

7 people found this helpful

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John F. Schmidt

HMS Surprise was a suprise opening to a wonderfujl world

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2013

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I read this book - and the succeeding series of books - at least five times over the last fifteen years, and find new "suprises" every time I read Patrick O'Brian's historical fiction. The world he creates - and it is a fictional world of two characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturiin - is rich in historical fact, and exciting fiction, based on the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars. It is not just the battle scenes that fascinate - in fact they are almost a backdrop to the interplay of the personalities of the two characters, and their lives - but the way in which these two carry out their two lives in a very strange harmony.. Here are two unlikely friends, almost enemies at the beginning, who become the deepest of companions, helping one another and saving one another in sensitive and critical ways, at the same time being two very different individuals. I recommend the books for the breadth of the world they reveal, and the richness of O'brian's creations. The best recommendation I could give is that at times I wish I could serve along with these two on one of the ships Jack commands: they are two people who I would value as friends.

2 people found this helpful

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neurotome

Just gets better with the years

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2012

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I own all 20 of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, including the incomplete one. Lots of genre fiction I sell to a used bookstore or keep in piles somewhere out of the way; but these books have pride of place on my bookshelf, and I find I reread them every 2 or 3 years or so, just for sheer pleasure.

Well, I am on the fourth read through of the cycle now, and HMS Surprise - book 3 - has captivated my interest like never before. The book is almost wholly concerned with Maturin; Aubrey and his sea escapades this time provide a backdrop, a cyclorama against which the true drama unfolds. Maturin the character is really introduced in this book; the circus-sideshow character developed in Master and Commander and Post Captain is fleshed out, and we learn that behind that entirely self-unaware facade of the absent-minded natural philosopher, there stands a man of uncommon mental acuity; a secret agent; a man of incredibly strong will; a heart torn by unrequited love; and above all, a man of honor.

The first time I read through these novels I was only peripherally aware of the code of duello, and the several ways of giving the lie, including the lie direct. Maturin's honor is offended twice in this book, and the final duel is the climax, with its aftermath providing a satisfying anticlimax.

Honor in the early 18th century was a peculiar and interesting concept, and as we watch Maturin negotiate the challenges of his walled-off and secretive life, we see it explained - by demonstration, in its highest form. As I read through again, I came to feel that I perhaps came to this book too young; what seemed like pointless maundering takes on greater gravity if you have lived a little before you come to it.

Of course, there is a downside; the language in which these books are written is infectious, and I find that for weeks after I complain that I have been "utterly brought by the lee," and when someone says something truly offensively stupid I have been known to state "I prefer it otherwise," a remark which in those days might have led to pistols at dawn. Nowadays my drooling interlocutors barely realize that a remark has passed, much less its significance. I, personally, would prefer it otherwise; which is why I so greatly treasure the hours I have spent in these magnificent time-machines, these novels.

I hope you may do likewise, and profit by it as I have.

9 people found this helpful

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