Master and Commander (Aubrey Maturin Series) - Softcover

O`brian, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393307050 ISBN 13: 9780393307054

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991

Synopsis

3 cassettes / 4 1/2 hours
Read by Robert Hardy
Abridged
AudioBook contains an illustration of the sails of a square-rigged ship .
"The best historical novels ever written..."
- "The New York Times Book Review"
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.

About this title

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:

The best historical novels ever written.--Richard Snow

If Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian.

O'Brian is a novelist, pure and simple, one of the best we have.

Taken as a whole, the Aubrey-Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind...they are uniquely excellent.--Terry Teachout

There are two types of people in the world: Patrick O'Brian fans, and people who haven't read him yet.--Lucy Eyre

[The series shows] a joy in language that jumps from every page...you're in for a wonderful voyage.--Cutler Durkee

One does not get many pages into the Aubrey-Maturin sequence before falling under the spell of O'Brian's prose, which is...elegantly paced, quietly witty.--Katherine A. Powers

My hero is Patrick O'Brian...I read all of his books many, many times. I've read them so many times I can't read them anymore because eventually you know the whole book by heart.--David Mamet

I prefer the Aubrey-Maturin series to all others, even Holmes-Watson. Every book is packed to absolute straining with erudition, wit, history, and thunderous action.--Joe Hill

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0393307050
• ISBN 13: 9780393307054
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464