Master and Commander - Softcover

O’Brian, Patrick

4.07

57,956 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007255837 ISBN 13: 9780007255832

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2007

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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 these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback by Harper Perennial with stunning new jackets.

‘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.

Establishing the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship’s surgeon and an intelligence agent, ‘Master and Commander’ contains all the action and excitement of a historical novel whilst displaying the qualities which have put O’Brian far ahead of any of his competitors: his evocative depiction of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war, of weaponry, food, conversation and ambience, and of the landscape and life on the high seas.

This brilliant historical novel marked the d�but of a writer who grew into one of our greatest novelists, 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’.

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Review:

The opening salvo of the Aubrey-Maturin epic, in which the surgeon introduces himself to the captain by driving an elbow into his ribs during a chamber music recital. Fortunately for millions of readers, the two quickly make up. Then they commence one of the great literary voyages of our century, set against an immaculately detailed backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. This is the place to start--and in all likelihood, you won't be able to stop. --Amazon.com

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

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