The Commodore: Book 17 (Aubrey-Maturin) - Hardcover

O’Brian, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002555506 ISBN 13: 9780002555500

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely hailed as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. All eighteen books are to be re-issued in hardback by HarperCollins with stunning new jackets.

Jack Aubrey’s long service is at last rewarded: he is promoted to the rank of Commodore and given a squadron of ships to command. His mission is twofold – to make a large dent in the slave trade off the coast of Africa and, on his return, to intercept a French fleet set for Bantry Bay with a cargo of weapons for the disaffected among the Irish. Invention and surprise follow at every turn in this tale of nineteenth-century seamanship, as rich, as compelling, as masterly as any of its predecessors.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick O’Brian 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 lived for many years in south west France and he died in Dublin in January 2000.

From the Back Cover

Jack Aubrey's long service is at last rewarded: he is promoted to the rank of Commodore, and given a squadron of ships to command. His mission is twofold – to make a large dent in the slave trade off the coast of Africa and, on his return, to intercept a French fleet set for Bantry Bay with a cargo of weapons for the disaffected among Irish.

But might the nature of the secret mission on which the squadron is sent present a conflict of loyalties for the complicated and inscrutable figure of Stephen Maturin? Invention and surprise follow at every turn in this tale of nineteenth-century seamanship, as rich, as compelling, as masterly as any of its predecessors.

'While his stories tell of men at war, he is a novelist of great gentleness of spirit. A pervasive serenity, a generosity towards human frailty, are among the qualities which have made his books irresistible.'
Max Hastings, 'Daily Telegraph'

'One of the most brilliantly sustained pieces of historical fictional writing this century.'
James Teacher, 'Spectator'

'In English fiction my chief pleasures this year came from reading four books in the series about Captain Jack Aubrey, RN by Patrick O'Brian, a writer whose work I have discovered late in the day, and who writes the sort of elegant, civilized and humorous prose that ought, in my opinion, just now and then to win the Booker Prize.'
Jan Morris, 'Independent Books of the Year'

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002555506
• ISBN 13: 9780002555500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306