Who is Stephen Maturin from The Wine-dark Sea and what is their importance? The_Wine-Dark_Sea English & Literature Stephen Maturin | The Wine-dark Sea

Maturin is one of two principle protagonists of the novel and shares the narrative focus with his close friend and confidant Jack Aubrey. Maturin is a quiet man who much prefers the closeness of his study to the attention of others; his personal expertise lies in the area of medicine and he is also a natural scientist of repute. He is an unchallenged and undoubted master in his element of medicine and science and his medical opinions are often surprisingly modern and nearly always correct. Although possessed of great financial means, he cares nothing for the finer things in life and champions political causes that are obviously doomed simply because they are philosophically correct. Maturin, in addition to being a physician and scientist, is a pro bono agent for the secret intelligence network of England. Indeed, Maturin's mission to Peru is secretly endorsed by British government and forms the narrative plot of the novel.