The Ionian Mission - Softcover

O’Brian, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000725590X ISBN 13: 9780007255900

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2007

Synopsis

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.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans of many battles, return to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior Captain commanding a line-of-battle ship sent out to reinforce the squadron blockading Toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate action of his early days.

A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek islands. All his old skills of seamanship, and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds, come triumphantly into their own. The book ends with as fierce and thrilling an action as any in this magnificent series of novels.

About this title

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 Back Cover:

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans of many battles, return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior Captain commanding a line-of-battle ship sent out to reinforce the squadron blockading Toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate actions of his early days.

A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands. All his old skills of seamanship and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds come triumphantly into their own.

“Everything that is said of the amazing Dr Maturin – ‘Such a range of inquiry, such erudition, such illuminating comparisons, such flashes of wit!' – also applies to Patrick O'Brian.”
T.J. BINYON, 'Times Literary Supplement'

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 000725590X
• ISBN 13: 9780007255900
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400