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Overview
"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...
Synopsis
"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it."—Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press
Irish Press
Few, very few, books have made my heart thud with excitement H.M.S Surprise managed it.
Editorials
Slate
I devoured Patrick O’Brian’s 20-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog.— Christopher HitchensBoston Globe
I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop.— E. O. WilsonChicago Sun-Times
There is not a writer alive whose work I value over his.— Stephen BeckerNew Republic
Patrick O’Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.New York Times
[O’Brian’s] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today’s putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade.— David MametNew York Times Book Review
The best historical novels ever written… On every page Mr. O’Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don’t, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives.— Richard SnowTimes [London]
O'Brian is astonishingly good.Washington Post
The Aubrey-Maturin series… far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart.— Ken RingleIrish Press
Few, very few, books have made my heart thud with excitement H.M.S Surprise managed it.Publishers Weekly
This long-out-of-print naval adventure in the series that started with Master and Commander (see The Mauritius Command below) finds Captain Jack Aubrey in charge of the H.M.S. Surprise. His ship's surgeon and friend, Stephen Maturin, sidelines in espionage and natural science. Through Maturin's eyes we see the environment in great detail--down to the species of beetle that inhabits an area. The Surprise is commissioned to deliver an English envoy to India. It is the early 19th century, when England fought for supremacy over France and Napoleon's navy, and Aubrey itches for an engagement with the crafty old French admiralpk Linois. He hopes to capture the French ship and earn the prize money that would clear his debt and allow him to marry Sophie, his true love. O'Brian knows his history and sailing, as is evident in the rich particulars--sometimes overwhelming. Those who don't know their foretopsail from their maintopsail will at times be as lost as landlubbers on a stormy sea. Stretching its genre but never escaping it, the novel will impress those who enjoy swashbucklers. (May)Library Journal
These two selections represent a series of abridged audiobook versions of O'Brian's works narrated by Robert Hardy, that most blustery and unstudied of British actors. Hardy reads the stories cold, but here it works. He uses his voice to evoke everything from brutality to mannered drawing-room excesses to the physical threat of a storm at sea. The stories are superb depictions of life on a British man-of-war and incorporate O'Brian's exquisitely accurate historical detail (Testimonies, Audio Reviews, LJ 7/96). The friendship of protagonists Capt. Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin plays out against an expanse of ocean, from India to the Atlantic, with a full complement of battles and adventures at sea for devotees of naval fiction. Highly recommended.--Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NCHelen Lucy Burk
"Few, very few, books have made my heart sag with excitement. 'H.M.S. Surprise' managed it. I read it cruizing through the tame Adriatic, in Silver Ponds found myself forced to pace about the deck to calm my pulse....Patrick O'Brian's erudition is phenomenal, as is his capacity for creating another completely believable world. He convices that his total accuracy even in tiny detail."Richard Snow
"The best historical novel ever written." - New York Times Book ReviewBook Details
Published
May 1, 1991
Publisher
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Pages
416
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780393307610