Blue at the Mizzen (novel #20) ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author’s death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The three chapters left on O’Brian’s desk are presented here both in printed version-including his corrections to the typescript-and a facsimile of his manuscript, which goes several pages beyond the end of the typescript to include a duel between Stephen Maturin and an impertinent officer who is courting his fiancee. Of course we would rather have had the whole story; instead we have this proof that O’Brian’s powers of observation, his humor, and his understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end..

“Hay quienes ya planean el viaje de esta tarde a la libreria. Su unica reaccion es: Gracias a Dios, Patrick O’Brian sigue escribiendo. Para ti, te digo, ni un momento para perder.” –John Balzar, Los Angeles Times

La vida en tierra puede ser una vez mas la perdicion de Jack Aubrey en El almirante amarillo, la novela mas vendida de Patrick O’Brian y el decimoctavo volumen de la serie Aubrey/Maturin. Aubrey, ahora un terrateniente considerable aunque empobrecido, ha atenuado sus perspectivas en el Almirantazgo por su erratica votacion como diputado; esta peleando con su vecino, un hombre con fuertes conexiones de la Marina que quiere encerrar la tierra comun entre sus fincas; el esta en peores terminos con su esposa, Sophie, cuya madre ha hurgado un monton mas danino de cartas personales antiguas. Incluso las hazanas de Jack en el mar se vuelven agrias: en las aguas de la tormenta frente a Brest captura a un corsario frances cargado de oro y marfil, pero esto a expensas de perder una senal y abandonar su puesto. Lo peor de todo es que en la primavera de 1814 estalla la paz, y esto alimenta los temores privados de Jack por su carrera.

Afortunadamente, Jack no se deja a sus propios dispositivos. Stephen Maturin regresa de una mision en Francia con la noticia de que los chilenos, para asegurar su independencia, requieren una marina y el servicio de oficiales ingleses. Jack esta saboreando este aparente indulto por su carrera, asi como el perdon de Sophie, cuando recibe un envio urgente ordenandolo a Gibraltar: Napoleon ha escapado de Elba.

“El viejo maestro nos tiene de nuevo en la palma de su mano.” –Los Angeles Times

Napoleon ha sido derrotado en Waterloo, y la paz subsiguiente trae consigo tanto la desercion de casi la mitad de la tripulacion del capitan Aubrey como la repentina atenuacion de las perspectivas profesionales de Aubrey en una marina en tiempos de paz. Cuando la Sorpresa esta casi hundida en su camino a Sudamerica -donde Aubrey y Stephen Maturin van a ayudar a Chile a afirmar su independencia de Espana-, el retraso provocado por las reparaciones cosecha una cosecha de consecuencias extranas. La expedicion sudamericana es un asunto desesperado; y al final la audaz iniciativa de Jack de atacar a la flota espanola, muy superior, precipita una espectacular accion naval que determinara tanto el destino de Chile como el suyo propio.

In this, the twentieth installment of the Aubrey/Maturin series, Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace takes on an ugly complexion for Captain Jack Aubrey: the desertion of nearly half his crew; and the sudden dimming of his own career prospects in a peacetime navy. To cap it off, the Surprise is nearly sunk in a shattering night collision on the first leg of her journey to South America where Jack and Stephen are to help Chile assert her independence from Spain. In the end it is Jack’s bold initiative to strike at the vastly superior Spanish fleet that precipitates the spectacular naval action that will determine both Chile’s fate and his own.

With his swashbuckling adventures, best-selling novelist Patrick O’Brian transports you to the high seas of old where privateers lurk in the mist, and great ships fight to control the waterways. Blue at the Mizzen hoists the excitement to new heights as British frigate commander Jack Aubrey stakes everything on a desperate raid against the mighty Spanish fleet. Ever since Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, Captain Aubrey’s prospects in the new peacetime navy have looked dim. Even worse, his frigate Surprise was badly damaged in a nighttime collision. While Aubrey waits for repairs, ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin brings him intriguing information about the New World. Soon Aubrey is leading a bold expedition that will determine the fate of a rising South American nation – and his own. Critically-acclaimed author Patrick O’Brian blends authentic period atmosphere, rich humor, and elegant language in each of his seafaring yarns. You can almost hear the thunder of the waves and smell the salty sea air as you listen to Patrick Tull’s dramatic performance.

“O’Brian was only 15 when [Caesar] was published, but he already possessed an instinct for deft plotting and uncomplicated narrative.”―The New York Times

A 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 character. “I did it in my bedroom, and a little when I should have been doing my homework,” he confessed in a note on the original dust-jacket.

Caesar tells the picaresque, enchanting, and quite bloodthirsty story of a creature whose father is a giant panda and whose mother is a snow leopard. Through the eyes and voice of this fabulous creature, we learn of his life as a cub, his first hunting exploits, his first encounters with man, his capture and taming.

Caesar was published in 1930, three months after O’Brian’s fifteenth birthday, but the dry wit and unsentimental precision O’Brian readers savor in the Aubrey/Maturin series is already in evidence. The book combines Stephen Maturin’s fascination and encyclopedic knowledge of natural history with the narrative charm of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. It was published in England and the United States, and in translation in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Japan.

Es el amanecer del siglo XIX; Gran Bretana esta en guerra con la Francia de Napoleon. Jack Aubrey, un joven teniente de la marina de Nelson, es ascendido al mando de H.M.S. Sophie?, un viejo y lento calabozo que es poco probable que haga su fortuna. Pero el capitan Aubrey es un marinero valiente y talentoso, su sed de aventura y victoria inmensa.Con la ayuda de su amigo Stephen Maturin, cirujano de la nave y agente de inteligencia secreto, Aubrey y su tripulacion participan en una emocionante batalla tras otra, su viaje culmino en un impresionante choque con una poderosa fragata espanola contra cuyas armas y mano de obra la pequena Sophie es irremediablemente superada.

La emocion continua en Post Captain, la segunda entrega de la aclamada serie Aubrey-Maturin de Patrick O’Brian, despues de Master and Commander.

En 1803, Napoleon destroza la Paz de Amiens, y el capitan Jack Aubrey, refugiandose en Francia de sus acreedores, esta internado. Escapa de Francia, de la prision del deudor, y de un posible motin y persigue su cantera directamente en la desembocadura de un puerto controlado por Francia. Las luchas de Stephen Maturin, consigo mismo tanto como con una mujer orgullosa e inteligente, se tejen en la de Aubrey, tensando su amistad a veces hasta el punto de quiebre.

-El verdadero amor
La decimoquinta entrega de la muy afirmada serie de novelas de Aubrey/Maturin de Patrick O’Brian esta en partes iguales de misterio, aventura y drama psicologico.

Un ballenero britanico ha sido capturado por un ambicioso jefe en las islas de sandwiches en la instigacion francesa, y el capitan Aubrey, R. N., es enviado con la sorpresa para restaurar el orden. Pero guardada en el nivel de cable es una convicta fugada. Para los oficiales, Clarissa Harvill es objeto de torpes cortesias y celos peligrosos. Aubrey mismo esta conquistado y de hecho fuertemente atraido por esta mujer que no hablara de su pasado. Pero solo el amigo de Aubrey, el Dr. Stephen Maturin, puede comprender los secretos de Clarissa: su crimen, su personalidad y una pista que identifica a un espia ingles altamente colocado en el pago del servicio de inteligencia de Napoleon.

En un emocionante final, Patrick O’Brian ofrece toda la emocion que sus muchos lectores esperan: Aubrey y la tripulacion de la Surprise imponen una brutal pax Britannica a los islenos en una batalla campal contra una banda de canibales que cazan cabezas.

-Clarissa Oakes
El capitan Jack Aubrey navega lejos de las odiadas colonias carceladas australianas en su barco favorito the Surprise, reflexionando sobre la mediana edad y la frustracion sexual. Pronto se da cuenta de que esta fuera de contacto con el estado de animo de su barco – para su asombro se encuentra con que a pesar de la experiencia de toda una vida no sabe lo que las manos mas importantes o incluso sus propios oficiales estan pensando. Saben, como no lo hace, que la Sorpresa tiene un extrano a bordo y lo que ellos, por su parte, no saben es que el extrano es potencialmente tan peligroso como una luz en la propia revista de polvora.

Jack’s prize money has set the household accounts aright, but if he continues frittering it on naive extravagances, it will be gone in a fortnight. Fortunately he gets a commission aboard the Leopard, bound for Australia to rescue the hated and captive Captain Bligh.

Sent to rescue Governor Bligh, former captain of HMS Bounty, Jack Aubrey sets off for Australia in the Leopold with his friend Stephen Maturin and a hold full of convicts in this fifth of the Aubrey/Maturin series.

A beautiful and dangerous spy lurks among these prisoners, as does an even more lethal traveling companion, gaol fever, a treacherous disease that decimates the crew. With a Dutch man-of-war to windward, the under-manned, outgunned Leopold sails for her life into the freezing waters of the Antarctic. There in mountainous seas, the Dutchman closes.

“Good history, espionage, romance and an action at sea that for sheer descriptive power can match anything in fiction.” (The Guardian)

Los dias de Stephen Maturin en la inteligencia britanica lo han metido en un lio de problemas en The Surgeon’s Mate, septimo libro de la serie de aventuras ‘Aubrey-Maturin’ de Patrick O’Brian.

Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin son ordenados a casa por el buque de despacho para llevar la noticia de su ultima victoria al gobierno. Pero Maturin es un hombre marcado por los estragos que ha causado en la red de inteligencia francesa en el Nuevo Mundo, y la atencion de dos corsarias pronto se vuelve amenazante. La persecucion que sigue a traves de las nieblas y las aguas poco profundas de los Grandes Bancos es tensa -e inesperada en su culminacion-.

Aubrey y Maturin deben soportar un barco fundador, capturado por los franceses, y una estancia menos que agradable en la infame prision del templo de Paris. Mientras tanto, en Paris, Diana Villiers espera ansiosamente el regreso seguro de Maturin.

La decimoseptima novela de la amplia serie de cuentos navales aubrey-maturin, que el New York Times Book Review ha descrito como “las mejores novelas historicas jamas escritas”.

Despues de haber sobrevivido a una larga y desesperada aventura en el Gran Mar del Sur, el Capitan Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin regresan a Inglaterra a circunstancias muy diferentes. Para Jack es un feliz regreso a casa, al menos inicialmente, pero para Esteban es desastroso: su hija pequena parece ser autista, incapaz de hablar o contactar, mientras que su esposa, Diana, incapaz de soportar esta situacion, ha desaparecido, su casa esta siendo cuidada por la viuda Clarissa Oakes.

Gran parte de The Commodore tiene lugar en tierra, en salas de estar y en castillos de redaccion, pero el rugido de las grandes armas nunca esta lejos de nuestra audicion. Aubrey y Maturin son enviados en una extrana mision senuelo a las lagunas llenas de fiebre del Golfo de Guinea para reprimir el comercio de esclavos. Pero su destino final es Irlanda, donde los franceses estan montando una invasion que pondra a prueba la navegabilidad de Aubrey y la ingeniosidad de Maturin como agente secreto de inteligencia.

El sutil entrelazamiento de estos temas dispares es un logro de la narracion pura por uno de nuestros mas grandes novelistas vivos.

“Cada libro [aubrey-maturin] esta lleno de tension absoluta con erudicion, ingenio, historia y accion atronadora.” –Joe Hill

Todas las fortalezas de Patrick O’Brian estan desfilando en esta novela de accion e intriga, ambientada en parte en Malta, en parte en las traicioneras aguas infestadas de piratas del Mar Rojo. Mientras que el capitan Aubrey se preocupa por las reparaciones de su barco, Stephen Maturin asume que el centro del escenario para los astilleros y salones de Malta estan vivos con los agentes de Napoleon, y la red de inteligencia del almirantazgo esta comprometida. La astucia de Maturin es el unico baluarte contra el sabotaje de la audaz mision de Aubrey.

“Una novela abrumadora y excepcional!” –Irish Times

El capitan Jack Aubrey, R. N., en tierra despues de un exitoso crucero, es persuadido por un conocido casual para hacer ciertas inversiones en la ciudad. Esta decision inocente lo atrapa en la clandestinidad criminal de Londres y en el espionaje del gobierno, la provincia de su amigo Stephen Maturin.?Es la humillacion de Aubrey y la ruina amenazada de su carrera un complot deliberado? Esta oscura historia es un telon de fondo apropiado para la caracterizacion brillante y el dialogo brillante que los lectores de O’Brian han llegado a esperar.

“Un libro maravillosamente lleno de sabor, fascinante, que se eleva sobre sus rivales actuales en el genero como un tres pisos sobre el barco largo de un barco.” –Times Literary Supplement

El capitan Jack Aubrey, R. N., llega a las Indias Orientales Holandesas para encontrarse a si mismo nombrado al mando de la fragata mas rapida y mejor armada de la Armada. El y su amigo Stephen Maturin toman el paso a Inglaterra en un barco de despacho. Pero la Guerra de 1812 estalla mientras estan en camino. Las acciones sangrientas los precipitan en escenas nuevas e inesperadas donde las actividades pasadas de Stephen como agente secreto regresan sobre el con una venganza.

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 dreams: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet…

“La relacion [entre Aubrey y Maturin]… es lo mejor a flote…. Para el poder conradiano de la descripcion y la pura emocion no hay nada en la ficcion naval para vencer la persecucion severa como el leopardo superado en armas se tambalea a traves de las olas de montana en latitudes heladas para escapar de los setenta y cuatro holandeses.” –Stephen Vaughan, Observador

Comisionado para rescatar al gobernador Bligh de la fama de Bounty, el capitan Jack Aubrey y su amigo y cirujano Stephen Maturin navegan el Leopard a Australia con un reten lleno de convictos. Entre ellos hay un espia hermoso y peligroso, y una enfermedad traicionera que diezma a la tripulacion. Con un hombre de guerra holandes a barlovento, el leopardo descarnado y con armas de fuego navega por su vida hacia las gelidas aguas de la Antartida, donde, en los mares de montana, el holandes cierra.

Jack Aubrey recibe ordenes de interceptar a los barcos estadounidenses que estan acosando a los balleneros britanicos en aguas americanas, lo que supone una doble mision: llevar a cabo una investigacion al respecto y poner fin al problema mediante los metodos que considere mas oportunos. Es probablemente, la mejor novela de la serie.

El titulo no se escoge al azar. La fragata Surprise narra sobre todo la vida en un barco, los lazos de union, de solidaridad y de amistad que van estableciendose a bordo de una nave y como estos vinculos hacen que el barco acabe por cobrar vida propia y sea capaz de superar las adversidades mas terribles. Las reflexiones sobre las cualidades que debe tener un buen capitan (o cualquier persona que quiera ejercer una autoridad de forma efectiva y eficaz, y al mismo tiempo ser respetado por los subordinados), las observaciones sobre temas tan variados como el dinero, el sexo o el amor y la profundizacion en los aspectos mas humanos de los personajes son algunos de los puntos fuertes de esta novela. Sin embargo, como no podia ser de otra manera, no carece de accion, sino mas bien al contario: Durante un viaje a las Indias Orientales, Aubrey debera enfrentarse a los navios enviados por Napoleon para aniquilar la flota inglesa que opera en Francia. Y el enfrentamiento no solo se produce en el mar, tambien resultara decisiva la informacion secreta que se pueda conseguir en tierra.

“[La serie muestra] una alegria en el lenguaje que salta de cada pagina…. Estas en un viaje maravilloso.” –Cutler Durkee, Personas

Naufrago en una remota isla en las Indias Orientales Holandesas, el capitan Aubrey, el cirujano y agente de inteligencia secreto Stephen Maturin, y la tripulacion 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 solo el capricho y el ingenio de Patrick O’Brian –o Stephen Maturin– podrian idear.

Al mando ahora de una nueva nave, la Nuez moscada, Aubrey persigue su mision interrumpida. La terrible colonia penal de Nueva Gales del Sur, descrita desgarradoramente, es el telon de fondo de una crisis diplomatica provocada por el temperamento irlandes de Maturin, y a un encuentro casi fatal con la vida silvestre del outback australiano.

“Buena ubicacion… [La carta de Marque] deja al devoto de la ficcion naval ansioso por secuelas.” –Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

El capitan Jack Aubrey, un oficial brillante y experimentado, ha sido eliminado de la lista de post-capitanes por un crimen que no cometio. Su viejo amigo Stephen Maturin, generalmente elegido como cirujano de un barco para enmascarar sus actividades discretas en nombre de la Inteligencia Britanica, ha comprado para Aubrey su antigua nave la Sorpresa para comandar como corsaria, mas educadamente llamado una carta de marca. Juntos navegan en una mision desesperada contra los franceses, que, si tiene exito, puede redimir a Aubrey de la privado infierno de su desgracia.

“Una de las mejores novelistas desde Jane Austen… Los Cien Dias puede ser la mejor entrega hasta la fecha.” –Philadelphia Inquirer

Napoleon, escapado de Elba, persigue a sus enemigos por Toda Europa como un fenix vengativo. Si puede acorralar a los britanicos y prusianos antes de que lleguen sus aliados rusos y austriacos, su genio llevara a los ejercitos franceses a triunfar en Waterloo. En los Balcanes, preparando un empuje hacia el norte hacia Europa Central para bloquear a los rusos y austriacos, se esta reuniendo una horda de mercenarios musulmanes. Estan inclinados hacia Napoleon debido a su conversion al Islam durante la campana egipcia, pero no se moveran sin un cargamento de lingotes de oro del jeque Ibn Hazm que, segun la inteligencia britanica, esta en camino a traves de una caravana de camellos a la costa del norte de Africa. Es este oro que Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin deben interceptar a toda costa. El destino de Europa depende de su mision desesperada.

It is the dawn of the nineteenth century; Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson’s navy, is promoted to command of H.M.S. 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.

Jack Aubrey y Stephen Maturin, veteranos ahora de muchas batallas, regresan en esta novela a los mares donde navegaron por primera vez como companeros de barco. Pero Jack es ahora un capitan de alto rango que comanda un barco de linea de batalla en el bloqueo de toulon de la Royal Navy, y esta es una guerra mas larga, mas dura y fria que las acciones de fragata de sus primeros dias. Un giro repentino de los acontecimientos lo lleva a el y a Stephen en una peligrosa mision a las islas griegas, donde todas sus viejas habilidades de navegabilidad y su proverbial suerte al luchar contra las probabilidades entran triunfalmente en las suyas.

“La asignacion de Jack: capturar las islas del Oceano Indico de Reunion y Mauricio de los franceses. Esa campana forma el hilo narrativo de esta saga de mar. Pero su sustancia es aun mas cautivadora.” –Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek

El capitan Jack Aubrey esta en tierra con medio sueldo sin mando, hasta que Stephen Maturin llega con ordenes secretas para que Aubrey lleve una fragata al Cabo de buena Esperanza bajo el banderin de un comodoro, alli para montar una expedicion contra las islas francesas de Mauricio y La Reunion. Pero las dificultades para llevar a cabo sus ordenes se agravan por dos de sus propios capitanes: Lord Clonfert, un diletante que busca placer, y el capitan Corbett, cuya severidad empuja a su tripulacion al borde del motin.

For years, critics have hailed Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventure series as “the best historical novels ever written”
(New York Times). With elegant language, eccentric characters, and authentic period atmosphere, the series transports
you to the high seas of the Napoleonic era.

After a dangerous tour of duty in the Great South Sea, Jack and Stephen return to their families in England. For
Jack, the homecoming is joyful, but for Stephen, it is heartbreaking. His wife, Diana, has left for parts unknown, and
his young daughter has all the symptoms of autism. To escape these painful circumstances, Stephen joins Jack on a
bizarre decoy mission to the lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea. There surprises lurk in various guises: risky confrontations
with slave traders, secret battle plans for a French invasion, and, possibly, word of Diana’s whereabouts.

The South Seas are a paradise for battle-weary Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin. But their peace is disturbed when Stephen’s fancy for a peculiar marine organism lands him overboard. Acting in his usual headstrong fashion, Jack dives in to the rescue, unfortunately failing to plan what will happen once they are both in the water watching the sails of the Surprise disappear in the mist.

The 10th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series

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.

En route home, Aubrey and Maturin find themselves in deep trouble when their ship engages the U.S.S. Constitution in battle-and loses. Aubrey, now a POW in Boston, waits for word of a prisoner exchange, while Maturin renews a most cherished friendship.

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.

“They’re funny, they’re exciting, they’re informative. There are legions of us who gladly ship out time and time and time again under Captain Aubrey.” –The New Yorker

This is the first novel Patrick O’Brian ever wrote about the sea, a precursor to the Aubrey-Maturin series that the New York Times has hailed as “the best historical novels ever written.” The Golden Ocean shares the high-seas adventure and rich humor of this triumphant series, invoking the eloquent style and authentic historic atmosphere that O’Brian fans love so much. In 1740, two young Irishmen-lifelong friends Peter and Sean-join Commodore Anson and his crew on their quest for fortune and fame on the golden ocean.

For years, critics have celebrated best-selling author Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures for their magnificent blend of swashbuckling excitement and historical accuracy. With The Hundred Days, he transports you to the high seas of the Napoleonic era when the French demagogue is making a desperate attempt to control the European world. While Napoleon pursues the British across Europe, rumors fly about him forging a secret link with the forces of Islam. Soon an ominous horde of Muslim mercenaries gather. In a desperate attempt to avert disaster, ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin navigates oriental politics to uncover the truth. And blustery Commodore Jack Aubrey launches a daring mission to destroy the growing French-Muslim menace. Patrick O’Brian packs this brilliantly executed tale with elegant language, rich humor, and authentic period atmosphere. With his deep, rumbling voice, narrator Patrick Tull brings storm-tossed seas and gallant navy warships colorfully to life. For other entertaining yarns, sail through: Master and Commander and The Yellow Admiral.

The 8th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin Series.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans now of many battles, return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now senior captain commanding a line-of-battleship in the Royal Navy’s blockage of toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate action of his early days. A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands, where all his old skills of seamanship and his proverbial luck when fighting against all odds come triumphantly into their own.

Shoved into a temporary command in “that rotten old Worcester,” Aubrey is off to the Mediterranean to join the Royal Navy’s blockade of the French port of Toulon, where he will be dispatched by Admiral Harte (unfortunately the same Admiral Harte he cuckolded years ago) on a secret mission that promises to embroil Aubrey in political conflict. His friend Stephen’s help notwithstanding, Aubrey faces some of the choppiest waters of his career.

The 12th installment in the Aubrey/ Maturin series.

The time is the early 1800s, and the British Navy stands as the only bulwark against the militant fanaticism of Napoleonic France.  Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime his has not committed.  His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually acting as the ship’s surgeon to cover his activities on behalf of British intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his old ship The Surprise to command as a privateer.  Together they sail on a desperate mission against the French which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from the private hell of his disgrace.

From these familiar Patrick O’Brian has created a tale of great narrative power that rivals C.S. Forester for suspense, and surpasses him in its perception of character.

In The Letter of Marque, Jack is once again aboard his beloved Surprise but stripped of his post captaincy for a crime he did not commit. Bought by Stephen, the Surprise has become a privateer. Sailing into French waters, the two concoct a desperate mission which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from his state of disgrace. A nighttime battle with an unusual climax, a jewel of great value and Stephen’s fondness for opium make this segment of O’Brian’s masterful series both original and profoundly exciting.

The fourth of the Aubrey/Maturin series opens with Captain Jack Aubrey gloomily ashore on half-pay until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore’s pennant. Once there he is to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his 0rders are compounded by two of his own captains – Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.

Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command – until 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 REunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains – Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.

When last seen, Jack and Stephen had been shipwrecked on a desert island in the glittering South China Sea. The Nutmeg of Consolation opens as the castaways fashion a makeshift vessel from the wreckage, only to have it destroyed in a fiery attack by Malay pirates. Only the wondrous ingenuity of Stephen, along with the unexpected appearance of one of Jack’s oldest allies, leads them to escape-and to dubious safety in a penal colony at New South Wales.

We join Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, captain in the Royal Navy and surgeon/intelligence agent respectively, where we left them at the end of The Thirteen Gun Salute: shipwrecked on a remote Dutch East Indies island.

Employing great enterprise, Aubrey secures a new ship and sails for Australia. A penal colony by charter, in fact a grim outpost of legalized slavery, conditions there exacerbate Maturin’s Irish temper and nearly provoke a diplomatic crisis. And an excursion into the bush ends in a close encounter of the final kind.

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 espionage-the 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.

The 11th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

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 espionage–the 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 readers and listeners have come to expect.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch 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 attention of two privateers soon becomes menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as tense, and as unexpected in its culmination, as anything Patrick O’Brian has written.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home to bring news of their latest victory. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he caused to the French intelligence network in the New World and the British packet carrying them is shadowed by two American privateers.

The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as tense, and as unexpected in its culmination of this seventh Aubrey/Maturin adventure, as anything Patrick O’Brian has ever written.

“Vividly detailed 19th-century settings and dramatic tension punctuated with flashes of wry humor make O’Brian’s nautical adventure a splendid treat.” (Publishers Weekly)

The 13th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy (on 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 Maturin–his friend, ship’s surgeon and sometimes intelligence agent–on a diplomatic mission to prevent 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.

“O’Brian infuses his novels with so much energy, texture and drollery that it’s easy to be swept along for the voyage. Add to this the superb reading of actor Tim Pigott-Smith and you have something approaching audiobook heaven.”
—The Express-Times

Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin set sail aboard the Diane for the South China Sea, shepherding a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes. If their mission fails, English merchant shipping in the area will be threatened. At the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang, the stage is set for a duel of intelligence agents, pitting the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin against the French envoys-who are already entrenched in the Sultan’s favor.

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

The 15th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

This splendid installment in Patrick O’Brian’s widely acclaimed 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 Friendly Isles (Tonga) at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R.N., is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cabletier 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 hightly 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 on the islanders in a pitched battle against a band of headhunting cannibals

Best-selling author Patrick O’Brian turns to Commodore Anson’s famous 1740 voyage for this rich tale of exploration and adventure. In The Unknown Shore, the inspiration for and immediate precursor to the acclaimed and immensely popular Aubrey/Maturin series, O’Brian’s splendid prose and enthralling attention to detail launches listeners-spellbound-into the Age of Discovery.

Large in body and spirit, Jack Aubrey throws his heavy frame up main-masts as if he were a boy of ten. Tendentiously traditional, Aubrey spends his evenings with ship’s surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a brilliant naturalist and occasional spy for the British government. In the quiet of Aubrey’s cabin, the two work on their Corelli; after numerous voyages their friendship has mellowed into a touching, if occasionally tempestuous, marriage. Devotees can expect a number of spectacular battle scenes, ship-board jests, and the historical mimicry for which O’Brian is so famous. Maturin’s efforts to persuade Peruvians to revolt against the Spanish crown will send him on a perilous journey across the Andes, while Aubrey will be reunited briefly with his illegitimate black son, and suffer dreadfully under the blustery politics of a Rousseauian.

In their 16th outing, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a prize into the Great Southern Ocean.

The story takes Maturin to South America. Caught up in a failed coup, he flees across the Andes. Aubrey makes a desperate voyage in a open boat, but both survive and are reunited.

“The best chapter yet in the continuing saga of life in Nelson’s navy.” (Publishers Weekly)

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.

The 9th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series

All of 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 saloons 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.

The espionage activities of cunning ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin have kept him at odds with the most important French agent in the Mediterranean, Lesueur-a man with a long memory and a taste for revenge. When that revenge takes the shape of the delicate and distracting Mrs. Fielding, who also attracts the ever-wandering eye of Jack Aubrey, Stephen’s sensibilities are severely tested.

“En longitud la serie es unica; en calidad, y no hay un eslabon debil en la cadena, no puede sino clasificarse con lo mejor de las novelas historicas del siglo XX”. –T. J. Binyon, Independiente

El capitan Jack Aubrey zarpa hacia el Mar del Sur de China con un nuevo contrato de vida. Despues de su despido de la Royal Navy (una acusacion falsa), se ha ganado el restablecimiento a traves de sus atrevidas hazanas como corsarado, brillantemente narrado en La carta de Marque. Ahora va a guiar a Stephen Maturin -su amigo, cirujano de la nave y a veces agente de inteligencia- en una mision diplomatica para evitar vinculos entre Bonaparte y los principes malayos que pondrian en riesgo el transporte maritimo comercial ingles.

El viaje de la Diane abarca una gran y satisfactoria diversidad de aventuras. Maturin sube los Mil Pasos del crater sagrado de los orangutanes; un tifon asesino atrapa a Aubrey y su tripulacion tratando de trabajar la Diane fuera de un arrecife; y en la corte barbara de Pulo Prabang se desarrolla un duelo clasico de agentes de inteligencia: los enviados franceses, bien atrincherados en las buenas gracias del sultan, contra la salvaje astucia de Stephen Maturin.

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 traves del Gran Mar del Sur. El extrano color del oceano recuerda a Stephen la famosa descripcion de Homero, y augura una erupcion volcanica submarina que creara una nueva isla durante la noche y dejara una impresion indeleble en la imaginacion del lector.

Su barco, el Surprise, es ahora tambien un corsario, mejor para escapar de las complicaciones diplomaticas de la mision de Stephen, que es encender la yesca revolucionaria de America del Sur. Jack sobrevivira a un viaje desesperado en barco abierto y se encontrara cara a cara con su hijo negro ilegitimo; Esteban, atrapado tras su fallido golpe de Estado, huira por su vida a los altos desechos congelados de los Andes; y la narrativa brillantemente detallada de Patrick O’Brian los reunira por fin en un impresionante persecucion a traves de mares tormentosos y icebergs al sur de Cabo de Hornos, donde los cazadores de repente se convierten en los cazados.