Showing results by author "Patrick O’Brian" in All Categories

When he was fourteen years old and beset by chronic ill health, Patrick O'Brian began creating his first fictional character. Caesar tells the picaresque, enchanting, and quite bloodthirsty story of a creature whose father is a giant panda and whose mother is a snow leopard. Through the eyes and voice of this fabulous creature, we learn of his life as a cub, his first hunting exploits, his first encounters with man, his capture and taming.

Ordered home by despatch vessel, Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin have been tasked with bringing the news of the latest victory in the war with America back to the government in Britain. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought upon the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attentions of two privateers who pursue their ship soon become menacing.

On half-pay and without a command, Captain Jack Aubrey is stranded at home in an over-crowded cottage with his large and frequently bad-tempered family. When Jack has almost given up hope of ever returning to sea, Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor, occasional intelligence agent, and Jack's closest friend, brings secret orders that Jack is to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a Commodore's pennant.

Los días de Stephen Maturin en la inteligencia británica lo han metido en un lío de problemas en "The Surgeon's Mate", séptimo libro de la serie de aventuras Aubrey-Maturin de Patrick O'Brian. Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin son ordenados a casa por el buque de despacho para llevar la noticia de su última victoria al gobierno. Pero Maturin es un hombre marcado por los estragos que ha causado en la red de inteligencia francesa en el Nuevo Mundo, y la atención de dos corsarias pronto se vuelve amenazante.

El capitán Jack Aubrey, un oficial brillante y experimentado, ha sido eliminado de la lista de post-capitanes por un crimen que no cometió. Su viejo amigo Stephen Maturin, generalmente elegido como cirujano de un barco para enmascarar sus actividades discretas en nombre de la Inteligencia Británica, ha comprado para Aubrey su antigua nave la Sorpresa para comandar como corsaria, más educadamente llamado una carta de marca. Juntos navegan en una misión desesperada contra los franceses, que, si tiene éxito, puede redimir a Aubrey de la privado infierno de su desgracia.

Comisionado para rescatar al gobernador Bligh de la fama de Bounty, el capitán Jack Aubrey y su amigo y cirujano Stephen Maturin navegan el Leopard a Australia con un retén lleno de convictos. Entre ellos hay un espía hermoso y peligroso, y una enfermedad traicionera que diezma a la tripulación. Con un hombre de guerra holandés a barlovento, el leopardo descarnado y con armas de fuego navega por su vida hacia las gélidas aguas de la Antártida, donde, en los mares de montaña, el holandés cierra.

Durch einen Wechsel in der Spitze des Marine-Ministeriums erhält Kapitän Jack Aubrey nicht das Prisengeld in der erwarteten Höhe, was seine Heirat mit Sophia verhindert - und Stephen Maturin gerät durch eine Indiskretion in Folterhaft. Doch Jack erhält endlich das Schiff, das er am meisten mag: Die Fregatte HMS Surprise. Er soll einen britischen Botschafter nach Ostasien befördern. Stephen, der unglücklich Verliebte, hofft dort Diana wieder zu sehen, die sich bei ihrem reichen Beschützer aufhält.

Der Friede zwischen England und Frankreich "bricht aus": Die Matrosen freuen sich, aber die Offiziere sitzen buchstäblich auf dem Trockenen. Jack Aubrey hat Probleme mit der Admiralität, mit seinem Vermögen und in der Liebe pflegt er eine doppelte Moral. Stephen Maturin entpuppt sich: Er ist nicht nur der weltfremde Wissenschaftler, sondern kann auch entschlossen und effektiv agieren. Auch er hat ein Problem mit der Liebe.

Todas las fortalezas de Patrick O'Brian están desfilando en esta novela de acción e intriga, ambientada en parte en Malta, en parte en las traicioneras aguas infestadas de piratas del Mar Rojo. Mientras que el capitán Aubrey se preocupa por las reparaciones de su barco, Stephen Maturin asume que el centro del escenario para los astilleros y salones de Malta están vivos con los agentes de Napoleón, y la red de inteligencia del almirantazgo está comprometida. La astucia de Maturin es el único baluarte contra el sabotaje de la audaz misión de Aubrey.

Jack Aubrey’s long service has at last been rewarded with promotion to the rank of commodore, and a squadron of ships to command. His new commission is twofold – first, inhibit the slave trade off the coast of West Africa, and then, on his return, intercept a French fleet loaded with weapons intended for the disaffected Irish.

As he sails away from Port Jackson, Captain Jack Aubrey feels nothing but relief at leaving the penal colony and its inhabitants far behind. But, unknown to him, hidden among his crew is one Clarissa Oakes. With Britain at war on two fronts, with both America and France, Aubrey’s orders are to make for the Sandwich Islands and intervene in the conflict there.

In the fight against the French, a treaty with the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a piratical Malay state, may prove decisive. Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, along with a hand-picked crew, must survive the dangers of the high forties and convey a diplomatic envoy to ensure this key alliance, but dangers, both natural and man-made, will dog their every move.

With a beleaguered Britain already facing war on two fronts – against Napoleon’s armies in Europe but also against the young and vigorous United States – the objective of ship’s surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin is to light the touch paper of Peruvian revolutionary fervour, all while Captain Jack Aubrey engages with their many and varied enemies at sea.

Shipwrecked on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies as the Napoleonic Wars rage on, circumstances look far from promising for Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew. And yet, having overcome the odds and contrived their escape, still further peril awaits in the fiercely tidal waters of the Salibu Passage and the penal settlements of New South Wales.

En route to England and his next command, Captain Jack Aubrey, and his friend, ship’s surgeon and secret agent Stephen Maturin, find themselves swept up in the War of 1812. As Aubrey convalesces from his wounds in a Boston hospital, awaiting the next prisoner exchange, Maturin’s past activities as a spy return to haunt him and precipitate both men into new and unexpected dangers.

Jack Aubrey, veteran of numerous battles, has been promoted to senior captain commanding a ship that has been sent out to reinforce the squadron blockading Toulon. Compared to the early days of the Napoleonic conflict, the action is slow, cold and dull. But a sudden turn of events takes Aubrey, and ship’s surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin, off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands, where the skill, daring and, indeed, luck of both men will be tested to the utmost.

As Captain Jack Aubrey cools his heels in a Maltese harbour, awaiting repairs to his ship, war rages on. Fearing that hostilities will end before he has any further opportunities for fame and fortune, Aubrey accepts several secret missions, but all is not as it seems.

Racing against time, Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew must chase the USS Norfolk as she rounds Cape Horn, pursuing her into the Great South Sea and beyond. Following the equator, ahead of them lies not only the natural wonders of the Galapagos but also a succession of disasters – men overboard, castaways, typhoons, shipwrecks, to say nothing of murder and criminal insanity.

Jack Aubrey is a naval officer, a post-captain of experience and capacity. When The Letter of Marque opens he has been struck off the Navy List for a crime he has not committed. With Aubrey is his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also an unofficial British intelligence agent.

Captain Bligh, of Bounty fame, is now governor of New South Wales and facing mutiny anew, having lost the support of local settlers. Jack Aubrey is commissioned to come to his rescue. With a beautiful but dangerous spy on board, along with an unwelcome hold full of convicts, and war with America brewing, can Captain Jack Aubrey reach Australia in one piece?