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Master and Commander (Aubrey-Maturin)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House Audio (1998-08-04)
ISBN: 0375405224
EAN: 9780375405228
Dewy Decimal #: 823.914
Audio Cassette
Edition: Abridged
Release Date: 1998-08-04
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
3 Cassettes, 4 1/2 hours
Read by Robert Hardy
Abridged
AudioBook contains an illustration of the sails of a square-rigged ship.
The 1st installment in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series
"The best historical novels ever written..."
-The New York Times Book Review
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly 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 road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
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Amazon.com Review
Since Patrick O'Brian launched his series of historical novels with Master and Commander in 1970, millions of readers have enjoyed the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, surgeon Stephen Maturin. O'Brian's prose, so immediate and yet so distinctly capturing the language and culture of the English navy in the first moments of the 19th century, rolls effortlessly off the tongue of actor Robert Hardy. Never for a second do we doubt that this is the way an English naval officer would have expressed himself in 1800, and that these are the sights, sounds, and emotions he encountered. As Aubrey sails his ship into battle, we don't need the sounds of cannon to share this moment with him; Hardy's voice is the ideal instrument. (Running time: 4.5 hours, three cassettes) --Lou Schuler
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Customer Reviews
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Exciting sea adventures
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-23
I was expecting an exciting adventure on the high seas. This book delivers that, as well as well-drawn, nuanced characters, sly wit, and tremendously detailed and thoroughly researched descriptions of life at sea in the Napoleonic Wars. Rarely do I return to a book once I've read it, but I've revisited these novels again and again, and they never fail to entertain me.
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Captain Jack Aubrey is a warts-and-all hero
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-10-14
Surprisingly adult sea story--at least based on my expectation that it was going to be geared to young boys--that is the first of a long series and was the basis for a major Hollywood production in 2003. Captain Jack Aubrey is a warts-and-all hero who is heroic not in spite of but because of his quirks. Ship's Surgeon Stephen Maturin is his land-hugging friend and confidante who goes to sea to eat (he's unemployed and broke) and proves a fun foil for Aubrey and crew with his incredible naivete about the ways of the sea and the British Navy.
The plot, such as it is, meanders through the career of the ship Sophie as manned by Aubrey and crew. They have mostly successes, attributed to Aubrey's good luck, and one really bad encounter when Aubrey is surprised. Should he have noticed the trap coming up and escaped it? To O'Brian's credit, it isn't so clear. He makes no effort to white wash his hero.
Second in the series: Post Captain
If you intend to sail with Aubrey through the series, here are two reference books that can help you chart the course:
Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Third Edition
A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales
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Master and Commander
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-09-23
Patrick O'Brian's series of seafaring novels is simply the best body of fictional work of the late 20th Century. Great clattering naval battles alternate with reflective passages. The humor which runs throughout the series is infectious. Highly recommended.
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Addicted to Aubrey - Maturin
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-08
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I have lost count of the number of times I have read and re-read all 20 books in the Aubrey/Maturin canon (about 7000 pages) in recent years. O'Brian is a master storyteller with an unbounded imagination and razor wit. The action is fast paced, and his characters are richly drawn, compelling, amusing, heroic and flawed. O'Brian is 20th century Charles Dickens.
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Fantastic read
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-05-14
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I have read the entire series four times. I have several companion books including one w/maps of the various adventures and so on. I highly recommend that every reader give this series a try... you won't regret it.
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Retail Price: $22.00
Amazon.com's Price:$3.99
That's 82% Off!
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