Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75416 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 5
• Binding: Hardcover
• 6980 pages

Synopsis
Collects Patrick O'Brian's seafaring novels about the Royal Navy involving Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and includes Aubrey's final mission to South Africa.

Customer Reviews

Great books, but beware editing
The books are great, but before anyone buys this set, they should go over to Amazon.com and read all the comments about the execrable editing and typesetting.

A delightful set
Reading the other reviews reinforces the adage that you can't please all of the people all of the time. I adore this set. On a 'time stood still' tour of Iraq it was my mainstay at the end of a long day, a precious reminder of another world, of friends, Aubrey and Maturin, that were my friends too.

Let me deal firstly with the set itself. The dustjackets are gorgeous, each volume containing four novels. The volumes are smaller than the individual hardback editions that many readers will be familiar with, but I think this is due to economy of size etc. The box itself is handsome, easily the centre piece of the bookshelf it inhabits, and I have hundreds of books.

I have no comments to make on type errors etc. I think it a little churlish to dwell upon them. Consider purcasing each novel as an individual item, in either hardback or paperbook. You have the far greater cost and the amount of space such a collection would take. I wanted the complete collection in a set and I have that now. In previous readings over many years I had purchased individual books, lent them to others, mislaid them etc. The Norton collection is a permanent one.

A word, if any are needed, on the novels themselves. I have long maintained that Patrick O'Brian is one of the finest writers it has been my priviledge to encounter. He combines great knowledge of the historic period with an astute understanding of the human condition. His portrayal of the friendship between Jack and Stephen is, in my reading experience, unmatched for warmth, humour and absolute devotion to each other. Above all, it is O'Brian's literary eloquence, his employment of the right word at the right time, with humour and discerning utility, that binds the novels together. I elevate him above all my favourite authors. What a loss his departure created. Please enjoy the boxset. You won't be disappointed.

Sad but true
I have read these novels a number of times now, (maybe five or six), and I love them still. I agree with David H to a certain extent. The books are fairly handsome but I don't think we needed a picture of the author on every one, I preferred the paintings on the paperbacks. Inside on the fly leaf is the usual place for such a picture, (much as I honour the man). The set is indeed compact and enhances the look of any book collection that it dwells amongst, however, its flaws are not minor and they detract significantly from my enjoyment of the stories. In one entire story, HBM Ship Java is repeatedly misnamed as the Fava, extremely aggravating. I am currently reading the Ionian Mission and the errors are still there, although they diminish the further on in the series you go. If you have already read the entire series, say from the library, and want to own the set, then perhaps this is a sound economic purchase, otherwise I would buy the paperbacks slowly over time and build the collection into one that can really be thoroughly enjoyed at every reading.
P.S. I also missed the reviews from other authors that appeared in the paperbacks.