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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780393307054
ISBN number: 0393307050
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 411
Printing Date: 1990-11
Publishing house: W. W. Norton & Company
Sale Popularity Level: 42652
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Product Description:
3 Cassettes, 4 1/2 hours
Read by Robert Hardy
Abridged
AudioBook contains an illustration of the sails of a square-rigged ship.
The 1st installment in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series
'The best historical novels ever written...'
-The New York Times Book Review
This, the very 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.
Amazon.com 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.
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Rated by buyers 
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I was expecting an exciting adventure on the high seas. This book delivers that, as well as well-drawn, nuanced characters, sly wit, and tremendously detailed and thoroughly researched descriptions of life at sea in the Napoleonic Wars. Rarely do I return to a book once I've read it, but I've revisited these novels again and again, and they never fail to entertain me.
Rated by buyers 
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Surprisingly adult sea story--at least based on my expectation that it was going to be geared to young boys--that is the very first of a long series and was the basis for a major Hollywood production in 2003. Captain Jack Aubrey is a warts-and-all hero who is heroic not in spite of but because of his quirks. Ship's Surgeon Stephen Maturin is his land-hugging friend and confidante who goes to sea to eat (he's unemployed and broke) and proves a fun foil for Aubrey and crew with his incredible naivete about the ways of the sea and the British Navy.
The plot, such as it is, meanders through the career of the ship Sophie as manned by Aubrey and crew. They have mostly successes, attributed to Aubrey's good luck, and one really bad encounter when Aubrey is surprised. Should he have noticed the trap coming up and escaped it? To O'Brian's credit, it isn't so clear. He makes no effort to white wash his hero.
Second in the series: Post Captain
If you intend to sail with Aubrey through the series, here are two reference books that can help you chart the course:
Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Third Edition
A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales
Rated by buyers -
Patrick O'Brian's series of seafaring novels is simply the best body of fictional work of the late 20th Century. Great clattering naval battles alternate with reflective passages. The humour which runs throughout the series is infectious. Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers -
I have lost count of the number of times I have read and re-read all 20 books in the Aubrey/Maturin canon (about 7000 pages) in recent years. O'Brian is a master storyteller with an unbounded imagination and razor wit. The action is fast paced, and his characters are richly drawn, compelling, amusing, heroic and flawed. O'Brian is 20th century Charles Dickens.
Rated by buyers -
I have read the entire series four times. I have several companion books including one w/maps of the various adventures and so on. I highly recommend that every reader give this series a try... you won't regret it.
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