Book description
Set sail for the read of your life …
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be
the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Now, for the
first time, they are available in electronic book format, so a whole new
generation of readers can be swept away on the adventure of a lifetime.
Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O'Brian's now famous
Aubrey/Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of
historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between
Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive
ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent. It contains all the action and
excitement which could possibly be hoped for in a historical novel, but
it also displays the qualities which have put O'Brian far ahead of any
of his competitors: his depiction of the detail of life aboard a
Nelsonic man-of-war, of weapons, food, conversation and ambience, of the
landscape and of the sea. O'Brian's portrayal of each of these is
faultless and the sense of period throughout is acute. His power of
characterisation is above all masterly.
This brilliant historical novel marked the début of a writer who grew
into one of our greatest novelists ever, the author of what Alan Judd,
writing in the Sunday Times, has described as 'the most significant
extended story since Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time'.
'…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 Patrick O'Brian, until his death in 2000, was one of our
greatest contemporary novelists. He is the author of the acclaimed
Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He
is the author of many other books including Testimonies, and his
Collected Short Stories. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the
Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to literature. In the
same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary
doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin. He lived for many
years in South West France and he died in Dublin in January 2000.
