Product Description

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 tenth book in the series. It is still the War of 1812. Patrick O'Brian takes his hero Jack Aubrey and his tetchy, sardonic friend Stephen Maturin on a voyage as fascinating as anything he has ever written. They set course across the South Atlantic to intercept a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. If they do not come up with her before she rounds the Horn, they must follow her into the Great South Sea and as far across the Pacific as she may lead them. It is a commission after Jack's own heart. Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Aubrey has to cope with a succession of disasters -- men overboard, castaways, encounters with savages, storms, typhoons, groundings, shipwrecks, to say nothing of murder and criminal insanity. That the enemy is in fact faithfully dealt with, no one who has the honour of Captain Aubrey's acquaintance can take leave to doubt.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8340 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for Cape Horn, determined to intercept an American frigate before it can wreak havoc on the British whaling trade. As always, he is accompanied by intelligence operative Stephen Maturin, and as always, Aubrey has no idea of what his companion is up to. Another impeccably written adventure, by the end of which you should be able to identify a mizzen topsail in your sleep.

Review
'!full of the energy that comes from a writer having struck a vein! Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.' James Hamilton- Paterson 'You are in for the treat of your lives. Thank God for Patrick O'Brian: his genius illuminates the literature of the English language, and lightens the lives of those who read him.' Kevin Myers, Irish Times 'In a highly competitive field it goes straight to the top. A real first-rater.' Mary Renault 'I never enjoyed a novel about the sea more. It is not only that the author describes the handling of a ship of 1800 with an accuracy that is as comprehensible as it is detailed, a remarkable feat in itself. Mr O'Brian's three chief characters are drawn with no less depth of sympathy than the vessels he describes, a rare achievement save in the greatest writers of this genre. It deserves the widest readership.' Irish Times

From the Publisher
If you have enjoyed any of Patrick O'Brian's novels there is a whole series of books and audiotapes to look out for :
1. Master and Commander
2. Post Captain
3. HMS Surprise
4. The Mauritius Command
5. Desolation Island
6. The Fortune of War
7. The Surgeon's Mate
8. The Ionian Mission
9. Treason's Harbour
10. The Far Side of the World
11. THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL
12. The Letter of Marque
13. The Thirteen-Gun Salute
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation
15. Clarissa Oakes
16. The Wine-dark Sea
17. The Commodore
18. The Yellow Admiral
19. The Hundred Days
20. Blue at the Mizzen

Customer Reviews

Truly Gripping
A truly stunning work from Patrick O'Brian. From reading this work, the central thrust of which follows the two main characters (Dr Steven Maturin, ships surgeon, naturalist and intelligence agent) and Captain Jack Aubrey RN (a genius at sea, a loser on land) onto the frigate HMS Surprise during the war of 1812, as they persue a powerful American frigate into the Pacific to prtect British whalers. O'Brian describes the characters so vividly, the surroundings and action so well that you could swear he'd lived it all. To cap it all off, there's a great supporting cast of characters that add more depth than other writers in this field ever seem capable of concocting, and at times the interractions of the men on board the ship had me laughing outloud.

Read it!
If you like subtle multi-layered well researched stories with a naval background then these are amongst the best. They are not crash bang wallop stories in the Hornblower mould - and all the better for it.

The pity of the world!
What's actually very interesting is the disparity of opinion here on O'Brien's writing and, of course, of the "Master and Commander" series especially. "Verbose" says one critic "Meaningless waffle" says another, as he recommends "Hornblower" as the real stuff. Of course it's easy for people like me who adore O'Brien's work to dismiss these critics as being insensitive to nuance or even plain ignorant, but, no, I don't believe that. Some people just don't take to O'Brien and, sure, I could see how some could think they see verbosity and waffle when they open these pages. But verbosity is a superfluity of words: words expended without any purpose and contributing nothing - mere waffle indeed. In reality there's nowhere that I can think of in O'Brien where such an accusation is deserved. Sure you need to read (and often to re-read) most carefully what he is saying, but if you have the time, the purpose of each and every single word is very clear and, in fact, O'Brien is extremely economical with his verbage, and he always, always sets out to convey exactly what he means to say! How refreshing that is when so often today a writer uses grand-sounding sentences and leaves you and me open mouthed in misunderstanding (and certain critics with the chance to say that the meaning is different according to the reader - but evidently deeply profound)! That's not O'Brien's style - the meaning is always unambiguously there for those with the perseverance to retrieve it. And that's the point: to put across complex (and often very novel) ideas about human nature,humanity, historical events, philosophy and classical learning and much more, you NEED quite a lot of words. The wisdom of O'Brien is extraordinarily deep. That he did not receive the Nobel prize is the pity of the world!