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unusual facts about Recurring characters in the Aubrey–Maturin series


William Babington

William Babbington, fictional Royal Navy captain in the novels of Patrick O'Brian


Aubrey–Maturin series

The series focuses on two main characters, naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician, naturalist, and spy Stephen Maturin, and the ongoing plot is structured around Aubrey's ascent from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

The Republic of Cinnabar Navy series of science-fiction novels written by David Drake were directly inspired by the Aubrey–Maturin series.

Though sometimes compared to Trollope, Melville, Conrad and even Proust, the Aubrey–Maturin series has most often been compared to the works of Jane Austen, one of O'Brian's greatest inspirations in English literature.

Patrick O'Brian's The Golden Ocean (1956) and The Unknown Shore (1959) both depict fictional pairs of young men loosely based on real seamen who participate in George Anson's voyage around the world.

Chelengk

In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series of novels, Captain Jack Aubrey is awarded a chelengk by the Sultan after capturing two rebel ships.

Post-captain

Commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander or the fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower in Hornblower and the Hotspur); this custom is now defunct.

Being "made post" is portrayed as the most crucial event in an officer's career in both Forester's Horatio Hornblower series and O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series.

Y

In Spanish family names, y can separate the father's surname from the mother's surname as in Santiago Ramón y Cajal; another example is Maturin y Domanova, from the Aubrey-Maturin series.


see also