Showing results for "brian patrick"

The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times).Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship HMS Sophie. Meanwhile—after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel—Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an un...

"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it." —Helen Lucy Burke, Irish PressIn 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 voyage aboard a Royal Nav...

The end times have arrived. The skies are breaking. And humanity’s last line of defense rides on the wings of dragons.Gunnersmate Petty Officer (GM2) Chris Jensen thought he knew what it meant to fight for survival. But nothing in his military training could prepare him for the day the world fractured. When he is Emberlinked to Dravanyx—a powerful purple dragon—Chris is thrust from the modern battlefield into an ancient, apocalyptic war.Hellish portals are tearing open all ov...

“If Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian.” —TimeIt’s 1802. The Treaty of Amiens has brought an end to the hostilities between Great Britain and France. Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, are enjoying the respite in the English countryside, besotted with two beautiful cousins, Sophie Williams and Diana Villiers—until Aubrey loses his fortune an...

“The best historical novels ever written.”—Richard Snow, New York Times Book ReviewPatrick O’Brian’s twenty-one-volume Aubrey/Maturin series has delighted generations of devoted fans, inspired a blockbuster film, and sold millions of copies in twenty-four languages. These five omnibus volumes, beautifully produced and boxed, contain 7,000 pages of what has often been described as a single, continuous narrative. They are a perfect tribute for such a literar...

"O'Brian was only 15 when [Caesar] was published, but he already possessed an instinct for deft plotting and uncomplicated narrative."—The New York TimesA stark tale encompassing the cruelty and beauty of the natural world, and a clear demonstration of the storytelling gift that would later flower in the Aubrey/Maturin series. When he was fourteen years old and beset by chronic ill health, Patrick O'Brian began creating his first fictional charact...

In these articles Professor McGuire explores the riches of the Cistercian exemplum tradition. These texts are made up of brief stories, often with a miraculous content, which provided moral support for novices and monks in Cistercian abbeys all over Europe in the High Middle Ages. The Cistercians have been seen mainly in terms of their great writers like Bernard of Clairvaux and the impressive buildings they left behind. But Cistercian literature also provides us with more humble insights ...

"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, NewsweekThe year is 1810 and Great Britain is again at war with France. British naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, living in domestic bliss with his young family—until his friend Stephen Matu...

The tenth installment in the beloved, epic Aubrey/Maturin series and inspiration for the major motion picture 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 wreak havoc with the British whaling trade. Meanwhile, Stephen Maturin has a mission of his own in the world of secret intelligence and comes face to face with the har...

The Iditarod may be the only race that awards a prize for last place. But then how many people can even complete a course that ranges across 1,000 miles of Alaska's ice fields, mountains, and canyons at temperatures that sometimes plunges to 100 degrees below zero? In conditions like these, anything can go wrong. For Brian Patrick O'Donoghue, nearly everything did.In My Lead Dog Was a Lesbian, his reporter and intrepid novice musher tells what happened when he entered the ...

"Every [Aubrey-Maturin] book is packed to absolute straining with erudition, wit, history, and thunderous action." —Joe HillStranded in Malta, Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin must be careful, for the salons and dockyards are infested with Napoleon’s spies, and there is a traitor in the British intelligence network. This installment of Patrick O’Brian’s “20-volume masterpiece” (Christopher Hitchens) takes Aubrey and Maturin sailing on the pirate-plag...

"The relationship [between Aubrey and Maturin]...is about the best thing afloat....For Conradian power of description and sheer excitement there is nothing in naval fiction to beat the stern chase as the outgunned Leopard staggers through mountain waves in icy latitudes to escape the Dutch seventy-four." —Stephen Vaughan, ObserverCommissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen M...