The Surgeon's Mate

The Surgeon's Mate, (1980) is a historical novel set during the Napoleonic Wars and written by Patrick O'Brian. From the title, the reader might expect the "Surgeon's Mate" to be Stephen Maturin's medical assistant. However, in the course of the novel (one in which Maturin has no assistant), it becomes clear that the "mate" is Maturin's long-time love-interest and future wife, Diana Villiers. The story of The Surgeon's Mate starts in Halifax, Nov... more

The Surgeon's Mate, (1980) is a historical novel set during the Napoleonic Wars and written by Patrick O'Brian. From the title, the reader might expect the "Surgeon's Mate" to be Stephen Maturin's medical assistant. However, in the course of the novel (one in which Maturin has no assistant), it becomes clear that the "mate" is Maturin's long-time love-interest and future wife, Diana Villiers. The story of The Surgeon's Mate starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Aubrey and Maturin, having escaped from the Americans in Boston on HMS Shannon, start their return journey to England aboard a packet ship. Two American privateer schooners - commissioned by Harry Johnson, an American spymaster - doggedly pursue the packet ship across the Grand Banks until one of them fortuitously hits an iceberg. On their return to England, Stephen receives an invitation to speak at the Institut in Paris on the extinct avifauna of Rodriguez and he and Diana visit the city. Stephen arranges for Diana, who is pregnant... less