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

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?

As war with Napoleon seemingly draws to a close, opportunities for advancement are limited and Jack Aubrey faces the ultimate indignity – the possibility of being ‘yellowed’, or retired, and set aside with no squadron of his own. But the blockade of Brest presents dangers to equal those of the furthest shores.

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.

The war is over, the armies dispersed, and the former Emperor of the French has been consigned to a Mediterranean island, yet now he is marching again on Paris with an ever-growing army. Commodore Jack Aubrey and his convoy are tasked with destroying enemy shipyards along the Adriatic coast and cutting off the financial support from that quarter, in a fast and furious race to stop the Corsican from regaining all he’s lost.

With rumours of peace running rampant, Captain Jack Aubrey chances his luck on the stock exchange. However, when his plans go awry, Marshalsea prison awaits. Can Stephen Maturin rescue his friend from a politically motivated trial and the enormity of being stricken from the Navy Lists? When the world has turned its back against you, friendship is all.

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.

Three previously unpublished short stories by the great Patrick O'Brian - Noughts and Crosses, Two's Company and No Pirates Nowadays. Noughts and Crosses: When Sullivan and Ross decide to go shark fishing among the atolls of the Great Barrier Reef little do they know what awaits them. With their schooner beached for cleaning they take a small whaler out to sea, but when the very devil of a storm turns the whole of the sea white, it drives them to the nearest atoll for shelter.

Persa la "Sophie", Jack Aubrey e Stephen Maturin si ritrovano senza una nave, ma ben provvisti di quattrini grazie alle numerose prede catturate durante la navigazione nel Mediterraneo dalla gloriosa corvetta. D'intesa, i due amici decidono di ritirarsi per qualche tempo in campagna... dimenticando però che la terraferma riserva spesso brutte sorprese agli uomini di mare. E infatti la parentesi idilliaca viene bruscamente interrotta; raggirato dal proprio contabile, Jack si ritrova pieno di debiti ed è costretto alla fuga verso la Spagna.

The first ever collection of poems by the acclaimed author of the Aubrey/Maturin series of Napoleonic naval adventures. As we have stood with Jack and Stephen on the deck of the Surprise and other ships, listeners around the world have been transported to a place and time at once familiar and exotic, routine and dramatic. At all times, Patrick O’Brian’s deep knowledge of the period and profound empathy with the landscape of the sea has ensured there is always a firm hand on the tiller.

Leaving behind them a Europe still taking stock after the definitive battle of Waterloo, Jack Aubrey and his friend Stephen Maturin set sail for Chile. But even with the newly minted peace, life at sea remains beset with danger and imminent disaster, and the political turmoil of the South American continent is equal to any threat they have yet faced.

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.

Essere al comando di una nave, dare la caccia a brigantini nell'Adriatico, a tartane nel golfo del Leone, a sciabecchi e saettie lungo la costa spagnola, vivere in prima persona arrembaggi e duelli: questi sono gli orizzonti di Jack Aubrey, uomo di mare temerario e irruente, figlio orgoglioso di una nazione (l'Inghilterra del diciannovesimo secolo) simile a lui nell'inestinguibile sete di dominio che la pervade e nell'intima inquietudine che la tormenta.

Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin, veteranos ahora de muchas batallas, regresan en esta novela a los mares donde navegaron por primera vez como compañeros de barco. Pero Jack es ahora un capitán de alto rango que comanda un barco de línea de batalla en el bloqueo de toulon de la Royal Navy, y esta es una guerra más larga, más dura y fría que las acciones de fragata de sus primeros días.

La decimoséptima novela de la amplia serie de cuentos navales aubrey-maturin, que el New York Times Book Review ha descrito como "las mejores novelas históricas jamás escritas". Después de haber sobrevivido a una larga y desesperada aventura en el Gran Mar del Sur, el Capitán Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin regresan a Inglaterra a circunstancias muy diferentes.

Napoleón, escapado de Elba, persigue a sus enemigos por Toda Europa como un fénix vengativo. Si puede acorralar a los británicos y prusianos antes de que lleguen sus aliados rusos y austriacos, su genio llevará a los ejércitos franceses a triunfar en Waterloo. En los Balcanes, preparando un empuje hacia el norte hacia Europa Central para bloquear a los rusos y austríacos, se está reuniendo una horda de mercenarios musulmanes.

Napoleón ha sido derrotado en Waterloo, y la paz subsiguiente trae consigo tanto la deserción de casi la mitad de la tripulación del capitán Aubrey como la repentina atenuación de las perspectivas profesionales de Aubrey en una marina en tiempos de paz. Cuando la Sorpresa está casi hundida en su camino a Sudamérica -donde Aubrey y Stephen Maturin van a ayudar a Chile a afirmar su independencia de España-, el retraso provocado por las reparaciones cosecha una cosecha de consecuencias extrañas.

Naufragó en una remota isla en las Indias Orientales Holandesas, el capitán Aubrey, el cirujano y agente de inteligencia secreto Stephen Maturin, y la tripulación de la diane moda una goleta del naufragio. Un ataque vicioso de piratas malayos es rechazado, pero la nave improvisada arde, y son verdaderamente abandonados. Su huida de este predicamento es una que sólo el capricho y el ingenio de Patrick O'Brian -o Stephen Maturin- podrían idear.

El decimosexto volumen de la serie Aubrey Maturin, y el primer bestseller de Patrick O'Brian en los Estados Unidos. Al comienzo de esta aventura llena de desastre y deleite, Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin persiguen a un corsaria estadounidense a través del Gran Mar del Sur. El extraño color del océano recuerda a Stephen la famosa descripción de Homero, y augura una erupción volcánica submarina que creará una nueva isla durante la noche y dejará una impresión indeleble en la imaginación del lector.