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Cover of The Mauritius Command

How long does it take to read The Mauritius Command?

Patrick O'Brian

The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian takes about 6 hours 36 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

Book 4 of Aubrey-Maturin series

Previous: HMS Surprise Next: Desolation Island

About 6 hours 36 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1977. 360 pages, about 99,000 words.

14 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 11 hours
Average, 250 words a minute 6 hours 36 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 8 minutes

The page count is the median across 32 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning, with Master and Commander, these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the fourth book in the series. Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half-pay without a command -- until his friend, and occasional intelligence agent, Stephen Maturin, arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope, under a Commodore's pennant. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains -- Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity can push his crews to the verge of mutiny. Based on the actual campaign of 1810 in the Indian Ocean, O'Brian's attention to detail of eighteenth-century life ashore and at sea is meticulous. This tale is as beautifully written and as gripping as any in the series; it also stands on its own as a superlative work of fiction.

Subjects: Jack Aubrey (Fictitious character), Stephen Maturin (Fictitious character), Naval History, Fiction, Ship captains, Ship physicians

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