Patrick O'Brian
"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it." —Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press
In H.M.S. Surprise, British naval officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin face near-death and tumultuous romance in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Tasked with ferrying a British ambassador to the Sultan of Kampong, they find themselves on a prolonged
...When Napoleon escapes from Elba, the fate of Europe hinges on a desperate mission: Stephen Maturin must ferret out the French dictator's secret link to the powers of Islam, and Jack Aubrey must destroy it. Like a vengeful phoenix, Napoleon pursues his enemies across Europe. If he can corner the British and Prussians before their Russian and Austrian allies arrive, his genius will lead the French armies to triumph at Waterloo.
In the Balkans,
...This is the seventeenth novel in the bestselling Aubrey-Maturin series of naval tales, which the New York Times Book Review has described as "the best historical novels ever written."
Having survived a long, desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it's disastrous. His little
...In response to the interest of millions of Patrick O'Brian fans, here is the final, partial installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series.
Blue at the Mizzen ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to South Africa. The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author's death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides.
...6) Post captain
After nearly losing the Leopard to the ocean, Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, and his diminished crew sail into harbor in the Dutch East Indies. There Aubrey finds himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Royal Navy, but not before some forceful arguing with Admiral Drury. Aubrey and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a dispatch vessel, but the War of 1812 breaks out while they are en route. Bloody
...Captain Jack Aubrey has been getting into trouble during his time ashore, his trusting nature causing him problems in both business and cards. His friend, surgeon Stephen Maturin, is having a little trouble of his own. Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Aubrey Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy—and a treacherous disease that decimates the
...Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant. Once there he is to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains—Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain
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This exciting historical novel of adventure is the inspiration for the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe.
The War of 1812 continues, and Captain Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. Stephen Maturin has orders of his own in the world of secret intelligence, as
...Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Jack Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. Though a vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, the makeshift vessel burns, and Aubrey and his crew are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O'Brian—or Stephen Maturin—could
...14) The truelove
In the early 1800s, the British Navy stands as the only bulwark against the militant fanaticism of Napoleonic France. Captain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he has not committed. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually acting as the ship's surgeon to cover his activities on behalf of British intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his old ship, the Surprise, to command as
...This ninth volume in Patrick O'Brian's beloved Aubrey-Maturin series is full of suspense, taking on the role of both nautical adventure and spy story. The polished prose vividly evokes the nineteenth century atmosphere.
All of O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Jack Aubrey worries about repairs to his
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In the early 1800s, the British Navy stands as the only bulwark against the militant fanaticism of Napoleonic France.
Captain Jack Aubrey, ashore after a successful tour of duty, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the city. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage, the province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey's humiliation and the threatened
...Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans now 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 in the Royal Navy's blockade of 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, where all his old skills of seamanship
...Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attention of two privateers soon becomes menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is tense—and unexpected in its culmination.
Aubrey and Maturin must
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Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy on a false accusation, he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturin—his friend, ship's surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agent—on a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes that would put English merchant shipping
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