<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the great South Sea. Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean reminds Stephen of Homer's famous description, and portends an underwater volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader's imagination.</p><p>Their ship, the <em>Surprise</em>, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son; Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes; and Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative will reunite them at last in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>lf Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian.-- "Time"<br><br>[O'Brian's] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today's putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade.--David Mamet "New York Times"<br><br>Addictively readable.-- "Chicago Tribune"<br><br>I devoured Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog.--Christopher Hitchens "Slate"<br><br>I fell in love with his writing straightaway, at first with <em>Master and Commander</em>. It wasn't primarily the Nelson and Napoleonic period, more the human relationships. ...And of course having characters isolated in the middle of the goddamn sea gives more scope. ...It's about friendship, camaraderie. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin always remind me a bit of Mick and me.--Keith Richards<br><br>I haven't read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O'Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn't stop.--E. O. Wilson "Boston Globe"<br><br>It has been something of a shock to find myself--an inveterate reader of girl books--obsessed with Patrick O'Brian's Napoleonic-era historical novels... What keeps me hooked are the evolving relationships between Jack and Stephen and the women they love.--Tamar Lewin "New York Times"<br><br>Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.--James Hamilton-Paterson "New Republic"<br><br>The best historical novels ever written... On every page Mr. O'Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don't, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives.--Richard Snow "New York Times Book Review"<br><br>The Aubrey-Maturin series... far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart.--Ken Ringle "Washington Post"<br><br>There is not a writer alive whose work I value over his.--Stephen Becker "Chicago Sun-Times"<br><br>They're funny, they're exciting, they're informative. . . there are legions of us who gladly ship out time and time again under Captain Aubrey.-- "The New Yorker"<br><br>Gripping and vivid... a whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit.--A. S. Byatt<br><br>O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin volumes actually constitute a single 6,443-page novel, one that should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century.--George Will<br>
Cheapest price in the interval: 10.99 on October 22, 2021
Most expensive price in the interval: 10.99 on November 8, 2021
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