Aubrey–Maturin series Times" Best Seller list. These novels comprise the heart of the canon of an author often compared to Jane Austen, C. S. Forester and other British authors central to the English literature canon. The 2003 film "" took material from books in this series, notably "Master and Commander", "HMS Surprise", "The Letter of Marque", "The Fortune of War", and particularly "The Far Side of the World". Russell Crowe played the role of Jack Aubrey, and Paul Bettany that of Stephen Maturin. Patrick O'Brian's "The Golden Ocean" (1956) and "The Unknown Shore" (1959) both depict fictional pairs of young men, loosely
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World tallied by the aggregate web site Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an overall positive rating. The site's consensus states: "Russell Crowe's rough charm is put to good use in this masterful adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's novel." On Metacritic, the film has an 81 out of 100 rating based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". However, the Metacritic “User Score” is considerably less positive, ranking 6.4 out of 10. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4, saying that "it achieves the epic without losing sight of the human". Christopher Hitchens gave a mixed review: "Any cinematic adaptation of