Naval fiction: books tagged “naval fiction” @ BookFinder.com

ISBN 9780316289412 (0-316-28941-8, 0316289418)

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316289418 (0-316-28941-8)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:

Horatio Hornblower, now Admiral, sails over seas as challenging as any in his victorious career. As admiral in charge of His Britannic Majesty's West Indies Station he is as gallant, daring, implosive as ever. In this tense time after Napoleon's defeat, all kinds of vagabonds, revolutionaries, Imperial Guards. and pirates come sailing into the waters where Hornblower is working his small contingent of naval vessels to preserve the peace and eliminate piracy. With intrepid daring and brilliant strategies, Hornblower wins his victories. With this series of adventures, Volume 11, Hornblower's professional life as a British naval officer reaches its climax, not in a battle against men, but against nature. Here the inner Hornblower shows his colors. [via]

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ISBN 9780316289320 (0-316-28932-9, 0316289329)

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Beat to Quarters

by C. S. Forester

ISBN 0316289329 (0-316-28932-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and "to take, sink, burn or destroy" the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad or face court-martial. A daunting enough set of orders-even if the happily married captain were not woefully distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley. [via]

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ISBN 9780393321074 (0-393-32107-X, 039332107X)

Blue at the Mizzen

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039332107X (0-393-32107-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Almost three decades after commencing his maritime epic with Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian is still at it. The 20th episode, Blue at the Mizzen, is another swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, complete with romantic escapades from smoggy London to Sierra Leone, diplomacy, espionage, the intricacies of warfare, and imperial brinksmanship. As always, these events are bound up in the ongoing friendship between two officers of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is the naval captain, bold yet compassionate, innovative yet cautious, as fearless in war as he is bumbling in affairs of the heart and household. His boon companion Stephen Maturin is the ship's surgeon--and additionally a spy for the British government, a wealthy Catalonian aristocrat, a doting Irish father, and an avid naturalist.

That may sound like a lot to keep track of. However, it's not necessary to carry around a scorecard or ship's roster while reading Blue at the Mizzen. The ostensible issue is whether Jack will finally be promoted to Admiral of the Blue. But long before he hears any word from the Napoleonic era's equivalent of Personnel, he loses half his crew to desertion, his ship undergoes a disastrous collision, and the entire company comes close to perishing in the ice-choked seas off Cape Horn. Meanwhile, the widowed Maturin issues a surprising proposal of marriage to a beautiful, mud-bespattered fellow naturalist while trekking through an African mangrove swamp. (The two lovebirds happen to be searching for a rare variant of Caprimulgus longipennis, the long-tailed nightjar, which they hope to surprise in full mating plumage.)

Still, this is hardly a plot-driven novel. O'Brian takes time to get anywhere, and invariably enjoys the journey more than the arrival. So even as we get constant hints of the climax to come--Jack's spectacular naval action on behalf of the infant Republic of Chile--we don't mind hearing about the nuances of shipboard existence or the secret life of the white-faced tree duck. We're treated, for example, to this snippet about managed care, circa 1816:

Poll, Maggie and a horse-leech from the starboard watch have been administering enemas to the many, many cases of gross surfeit that have now replaced the frostbites, torsions, and debility of the recent past, the very recent past. Strong, fresh, seal-meat has not its equal for upsetting the seaman's metabolism: he is much better kept on biscuits, Essex cheese, and a very little well-seethed salt pork--kept on short commons.

And we're grateful! We can only hope that the elderly author will favor us with at least one more novel, so that his avid followers can avoid their own form of short commons. Life without Aubrey and Maturin would be a deprivation indeed. --Andrew Himes [via]

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The Commodore

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1568952716 (1-56895-271-6)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:

The seventeenth novel in the best-selling 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 and 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 is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.

Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.

The subtle interweaving of these disparate themes is an achievement of pure storytelling by one of our greatest living novelists.
[via]

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ISBN 9780316289382 (0-316-28938-8, 0316289388)

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Commodore Hornblower

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316289388 (0-316-28938-8)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:

These thrilling tales of high-seas adventure in the Napoleonic era, which Winston Churchill found "vastly entertaining" and Ernest Hemingway recommended to "every literate I know", are being eagerly embraced by a new generation of readers. Back Bay takes pleasure in reissuing these classic tales in handsome new trade paperback editions.
-- The Hornblower renaissance is in full sail with a nearly tenfold increase in sales: more than I5O, OOO Hornblower books sold in the first six months of 1999.
-- The A&E television network's series of original movies based on Hornblower's adventures have been tremendously successful -- praised by critics, enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of viewers, and winner of the Emmy Award for best miniseries.
-- Two new movies will be premiering in the spring on A&E.
-- Readers and booksellers who admire Patrick O'Brian's novels delight in discovering this "new" series of nautical adventure stories. [via]

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ISBN 9780393308129 (0-393-30812-X, 039330812X)

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Desolation Island

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330812X (0-393-30812-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

Captain Bligh (yes, the guy from the Bounty) needs to be rescued, and the Royal Navy has the perfect man for the job: Captain Jack Aubrey. With his friend and cloak-and-dagger expert Stephen Maturin in tow, Aubrey sets off for Australia. Several factors, including an attractive spy and a small-scale epidemic, conspire to change his plans, and before long his frigate is being pursued into Antarctic waters by a Dutch man-of-war. Five installments into the series, the Aubrey-Maturin story remains (to quote The Observer) "the best thing afloat since Horatio Hornblower." [via]

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ISBN 9780393308624 (0-393-30862-6, 0393308626)

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The Far Side of the World

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308626 (0-393-30862-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

The inspiration for the major new motion picture starring Russell Crowe.

The war of 1812 continues, and 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 fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Disaster in various guises awaits them in the Great South Sea and in the far reaches of the Pacific: typhoons, castaways, shipwrecks, murder, and criminal insanity. [via]

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ISBN 9780393308136 (0-393-30813-8, 0393308138)

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The Fortune of War

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308138 (0-393-30813-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"A marvellously full-flavoured, engrossing book, which towers over its current rivals in the genre like a three-decker over a ship's longboat."Times Literary Supplement

Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He 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 actions precipitate them both into new and unexpected scenes where Stephen's past activities as a secret agent return on him with a vengeance.
[via]

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ISBN 9780393307610 (0-393-30761-1, 0393307611)

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H.M.S Surprise: Library Edition

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307611 (0-393-30761-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it."Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press

Third in the series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures, this book is set among the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy enjoying overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could make him rich beyond his wildest dream: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet... [via]

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ISBN 9780316289290 (0-316-28929-9, 0316289299)

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Hornblower and the Atropos

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316289299 (0-316-28929-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:

Hodder Headline Audiobooks presents abridged readings of some of the finest in drama, classic literature, popular fiction, poetry, children's stories, and religious and inspirational works. Among Hodder Headline's outstanding cast of readers and performers are Juliet Stevenson, Anna Massey, Simon Callow, Stephen Fry, and Dame Judi Dench. Each set of cassettes is attractively packaged and shrink-wrapped. [via]

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ISBN 9780316290463 (0-316-29046-7, 0316290467)

Hornblower and the Hotspur

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316290467 (0-316-29046-7)
Softcover, Back Bay Books

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Book summary:

April 1803. The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building ships and amassing an army just across the Channel. Horatio Hornblower-who, at age twenty-seven, has already distinguished himself as one of the most daring and resourceful officers in the Royal Navy-commands the three-masted Hotspur on a dangerous reconnaissance mission that evolves, as war breaks out, into a series of spectacular confrontations. All the while, the introspective young commander struggles to understand his new bride and mother-in-law, his officers and crew, and his own "accursed unhappy temperament"-matters that trouble him more, perhaps, than any of Bonaparte's cannonballs. [via]

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ISBN 9780523421100 (0-523-42110-9, 0523421109)

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Hornblower During the Crisis

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0523421109 (0-523-42110-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:

This last-written adventure of Horatio Hornblower finds him still a captain; the Napoleonic Wars rage on. Though the tale was incomplete at Forester's death, it offers a full measure of action at sea. [via]

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Hornblower During the Crisis: ISBN 0523421109 (0-523-42110-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

ISBN 9780316289153 (0-316-28915-9, 0316289159)

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Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316289159 (0-316-28915-9)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:

This last-written adventure of Horatio Hornblower finds him still a captain; the Napoleonic Wars rage on. Though the tale was incomplete at Forester's death, it offers a full measure of action at sea. [via]

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Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories: ISBN 0316289159 (0-316-28915-9)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co

Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounter

by C. S. Forester

ISBN 0316289442 (0-316-28944-2)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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More editions of Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounter:

Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounter: ISBN 0316289442 (0-316-28944-2)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

ISBN 9780393319798 (0-393-31979-2, 0393319792)

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The Hundred Days

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393319792 (0-393-31979-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

The year is 1815, and Europe's most unpopular (not to mention tiniest) empire-builder has escaped from Elba. In The Hundred Days, it's up to Jack Aubrey--and surgeon-cum-spymaster Stephen Maturin--to stop Napoleon in his tracks. How? For starters, Aubrey and his squadron have been dispatched to the Adriatic coast, to keep Bonapartist shipbuilders from beefing up the French navy. Meanwhile, one Sheik Ibn Hazm is fomenting an Islamic uprising against the Allies. The only way to halt this maneuver is to intercept the sheik's shipment of gold--because in the Napoleonic era, as in our own, even the most ardent of mercenaries requires a salary.

The Hundred Days is the 19th (and, we are told, the penultimate) installment of O'Brian's epic. Like many of its predecessors, it features a fairly swashbuckling plot, complete with cannon fire, exotic disguises, and Aubrey's suspenseful, slow-motion pursuit of an Algerian xebek. Yet it never turns into a mere exercise in Hornblowerism. Partly this is due to O'Brian's delicate touch with character--the relationship between extroverted Aubrey and introverted Maturin has deepened with each book, and even Aubrey's reunion with his childhood companion Queenie Keith is full of novelistic nuance: "They sat smiling at one another. An odd pair: handsome creatures both, but they might have been of the same sex or neither." Nor does the author focus too exclusively on his dynamic duo. Indeed, The Hundred Days is very much a chronicle of a floating community, which Maturin describes as "his own village, his own ship's company, that complex entity so much more easily sensed than described: part of his natural habitat."

Finally, O'Brian shows his usual expertise in balancing the great events with the most minuscule ones. Other authors have written about battles at sea, and still others have recorded the rapid rise and fall of Napoleon's fortunes after his escape from confinement. But who else would give equal time--and an equal charge of delight--to Maturin's discovery of an anomalous nuthatch? --James Marcus [via]

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ISBN 9780393308211 (0-393-30821-9, 0393308219)

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The Ionian Mission

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308219 (0-393-30821-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

Aubrey and Maturin return to the choppy Mediterranean waters where they first served together, enforcing the Royal Navy's blockade of Toulon. Then the two companions are sent to the Greek Islands, where another series of maritime cliff-hangers awaits them. O'Brian performs his peculiar narrative magic as adeptly as ever, putting (as The Observer would have it) the "spark of character into the sawdust of time." [via]

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ISBN 9780393309058 (0-393-30905-3, 0393309053)

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The Letter of Marque

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393309053 (0-393-30905-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"Fine stuff...[The Letter of Marque] leaves the devotee of naval fiction eager for sequels."Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

Captain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship's surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of British Intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his former ship the Surprise to command as a privateer, more politely termed a letter of marque. Together they sail on a desperate mission against the French, which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from the private hell of his disgrace. [via]

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ISBN 9780316290630 (0-316-29063-7, 0316290637)

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Lieutenant Hornblower

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316290637 (0-316-29063-7)
Softcover, Back Bay Books

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The nineteenth century dawns and the Napoleonic Wars rage as Horatio Hornblower faces the fury of the French and Spanish fleets combined. Amidst the hissing of wet wads, the stifling heat of white-hot cannonshot and the clamour of a mutinous crew, new Lieutenant Hornblower will need all of his seafaring cunning to overcome his first challenge in independent command on the high seas. And while blood and violence flow thick and fast aboard a beleaguered HMS Renown, the aftermath of war promises intrigue of an entirely different order: Maria, a young senorita, who might just soften the steely resolve of a young lieutenant. This is the second of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower. [via]

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ISBN 9780393307054 (0-393-30705-0, 0393307050)

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Master and Commander

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307050 (0-393-30705-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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An attractive movie-tie-in jacket for the release of the motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe: "The best sea story I have ever read."--Sir Francis Chichester This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are faultless 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 roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the nineteenth century; Britain is at war with Napoleon's France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson's navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie , an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and secret intelligence agent, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched. [via]

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ISBN 9780393307627 (0-393-30762-X, 039330762X)

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The Mauritius Command

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330762X (0-393-30762-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still..."Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek

Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a commanduntil Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there 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 captainsLord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.
[via]

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ISBN 9780316289122 (0-316-28912-4, 0316289124)

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Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

by Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0316289124 (0-316-28912-4)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:

Horatio Hornblower was born in C.S. Forester's fertile imagination and became arguably more famous, certainly more personal, than Nelson, Cook and Drake combined. He fought in a dozen major campaigns during the Napoleonic wars, and it was in these pages that we first got a glimmer of just how much Bonaparte was hated, and why.

Forester's genius was not tidy, and so this story, which sets Hornblower on course at age 17, is Forester's sixth book about him, though it should have been the first. LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER, which follows it, carries the intrepid young man another step forward in his career. [via]

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ISBN 9780194230414 (0-19-423041-4, 0194230414)

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Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

by Rosemary Border, Cecil Scott Forester

ISBN 0194230414 (0-19-423041-4)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:

'Hornblower fired. There was a small cloud of smoke, but no bang. This is death, he thought. My pistol was the unloaded one.' But Horatio Hornblower does not die. He survives the duel with Simpson, learns to overcome his seasickness, and goes on to risk his life many times over. It is 1793, Britain is at war with France, and life on a sailing ship of war is hard and dangerous. But the hardest battles are fought by Hornblower within himself. [via]

More editions of Mr. Midshipman Hornblower:

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower: ISBN 0194230414 (0-19-423041-4)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

Nutmeg of Consolation

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393309061 (0-393-30906-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

"[The series shows] a joy in language that jumps from every page....You're in for a wonderful voyage."Cutler Durkee, People

Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O'Brianor Stephen Maturincould devise.

In command now of a new ship, the Nutmeg, Aubrey pursues his interrupted mission. The dreadful penal colony in New South Wales, harrowingly described, is the backdrop to a diplomatic crisis provoked by Maturin's Irish temper, and to a near-fatal encounter with the wildlife of the Australian outback. [via]

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Post Captain

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307069 (0-393-30706-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

As the first sentences of Post Captain roll off actor Robert Hardy's tongue, you know you're somewhere you've never been before: the high seas in the early 19th century. Hardy's rich rendition of Patrick O'Brian's 1972 novel, a follow-up to Master and Commander, starts with series heroes Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin enjoying a brief period of peace. Soon enough, though, the Napoleonic Wars resume, and the seafaring adventures continue. (Running time: 4.5 hours, three cassettes) --Lou Schuler [via]

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The Reverse of the Medal

by Patrick O'Brien

ISBN 0393309606 (0-393-30960-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"An overwhelming, outstanding novel...!"Irish Times

Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., ashore after a successful cruise, 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 espionagethe province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey's humiliation and the threatened ruin of his career a deliberate plot? This dark tale is a fitting backdrop to the brilliant characterization and sparkling dialogue which O'Brian's readers have come to expect.
[via]

More editions of The Reverse of the Medal:

ISBN 9780393308204 (0-393-30820-0, 0393308200)

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The Surgeon's Mate

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308200 (0-393-30820-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch 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 attentions of two privateers soon become menacing. [via]

More editions of The Surgeon's Mate:

ISBN 9780393309072 (0-393-30907-X, 039330907X)

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The Thirteen Gun Salute

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330907X (0-393-30907-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"In length the series is unique; in qualityand there is not a weak link in the chainit cannot but be ranked with the best of twentieth century historical novels."T. J. Binyon, Independent

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy (a false accusation), he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer, brilliantly chronicled in The Letter of Marque. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturinhis friend, ship's surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agenton a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes which would put English merchant shipping at risk.

The journey of the Diane encompasses a great and satisfying diversity of adventures. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef; and in the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang a classic duel of intelligence agents unfolds: the French envoys, well entrenched in the Sultan's good graces, against the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin. [via]

More editions of The Thirteen Gun Salute:

ISBN 9780393308631 (0-393-30863-4, 0393308634)

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Treason's Harbour

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308634 (0-393-30863-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"The finest writer of sea-stories in the English language."J. de Courcy Ireland

All Patrick 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 Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission. [via]

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The Truelove

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1560545224 (1-56054-522-4)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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Book summary:

The fifteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's widely claimed series of Aubrey/Maturin novels is in equal parts mystery, adventure, and psychological drama.

A British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the sandwich islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R. N., Is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies. Aubrey himself is won over and indeed strongly attracted to this woman who will not speak of her past. But only Aubrey's friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin, can fathom Clarissa's secrets: her crime, her personality, and a clue identifying a highly placed English spy in the pay of Napoleon's intelligence service.

In a thrilling finale, Patrick O'Brian delivers all the excitement his many readers expect: Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise impose a brutal pax Britannica upon the islanders in a pitched battle against a band of headhunting cannibals. [via]

More editions of The Truelove:

ISBN 9780393312447 (0-393-31244-5, 0393312445)

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The Wine Dark Sea

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393312445 (0-393-31244-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:

The sixteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series, and Patrick O'Brian's first bestseller in the United States.

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.

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. 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.
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More editions of The Wine Dark Sea:

ISBN 9781568954301 (1-56895-430-1, 1568954301)

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The Yellow Admiral: Library Edition

by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1568954301 (1-56895-430-1)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:

"There are those already planning this afternoon's trip to the bookstore. Their only reaction is: Thank god, Patrick O'Brian is still writing. To you, I say, not a moment to lose."John Balzar, Los Angeles Times

Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his career.

Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba. [via]

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