Reading List

ISBN:

0393307050

Format:

Publish Date:

Publisher:

41

Other Format(s):

Hardcover, Audiobook, MP3

This, the first in the splendid series of historical novels depicting the Age of Fighting Sail, establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, and Stephen Maturin, ship’s surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war 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 roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the 19th century; Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson’s navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS 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 intrepid friend Maturin, 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 is a literary icon, and this book, which serves as the launch for all the other (also recommended) adventures in this well-loved series, establishes what is at the core of the character’s appeal: He has all the qualities of naval leadership to which any officer in any navy would aspire.