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by: Patrick O'Brian
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780393307054
ISBN: 0393307050
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 411
Publication Date: 1990-11
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Sales Rank: 37320
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Editorial Review:
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.
Amazon.com:
The opening salvo of the Aubrey-Maturin epic, in which the surgeon introduces himself to the captain by driving an elbow into his ribs during a chamber-music recital. Fortunately for millions of readers, the two quickly make up. Then they commence one of the great literary voyages of our century, set against an immaculately-detailed backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. This is the place to start--and in all likelihood, you won't be able to stop.
Amazon.com Audiobook 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Addicted to Aubrey - Maturin
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.
Rating: - Fantastic read
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.
Rating: - Worthy of reading again and again ...
Master and Commander introduces the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin seafaring series, which takes place during the Napoleanic Wars. It tells the story of the developing friendship between Jack and Stephen. It portrays life aboard a war ship, describing the conditions, expectations, hardships and attitudes in the kind of detail a landlubber such as Stephen would need. While there are a couple of battles, particularly toward the end, most of the action comprises setting the stage for what will come.
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Rating:  - A Good Introduction (an Introduction Nevertheless)
This is where it begins. Jack Aubrey becomes captain of the Sophie. He hires as his ship's physician Stephen Maturin. The two of them sail across the Mediterranean. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Ursula LeGuin recommends this book in Steering the Craft, a good manual for aspiring writers. I took her advice even if I had already seen the movie based on the book (and disliked it very much). I have to admit the book is nothing like the movie. The book makes the heroes, ... Read More
Rating: - Same book, different cover
I purchased this "Movie Tie-In Edition" of Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander to complete my collection of the 20-odd volumes that O'Brian wrote on the partnership of Jack Aubrey and Stephan Maturin during the Napoleonic wars and after.
I had read the original and was concerned that this volume might have more to do with the movie version than on the actual book. This an unfounded concern. Although the cover (and price) reflect the recent movie, the text is true to the original, except for ... Read More
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