496 pages
English language
Published Nov. 23, 1990 by W. W. Norton & Company.
I really enjoy Post Captain, maybe my favorite single book. Starts with the end of the war and our heroes spend time on the land but it does not last. Rival, friendship, love and war all are covered and it is just an amazing book.
For me, there is no better summer reading than the Aubrey/Maturin series of Age of Sail adventures from Patrick O'Brian. Mix equal parts Jane Austen and geeked out historical descriptions of sailing, life in the English Navy during the Napoleonic wars on land and at sea all in O'Brian's enviable prose and you get broadsides of narrative firing off every 2 minutes.
Seriously, if you've never considered reading these do yourself a favor and give them a try. The stories are entertaining, the characters are as engaging as any in literature, and did I mention O'Brian's writing? The books are often undersold as adventures at sea but don't let the entertaining stories throw you, these books are indelibly crafted and very worth your time.
Aubrey and Maturin are more fully developed in this 2nd book of the series. In some ways, this book reads like a nautical Jane Austen. Fun stuff!
Repeated from review of Book 1
That Patrick O'Brian chose to place his characters on the sea in the not so distant past just raised the hurdle I had to leap to get to know this wonderful author.
I had never been enamored with sea stories, didn't much care for European history, and yet was wonderfully taken with this series. The sea is a major character, but history is not greatly illuminated, almost a backdrop to the specific circumstance the characters find themselves in. Which perhaps reflects the author's view, while the wide sweep of Europe's history progresses, men are left to deal with far smaller local problems.
And it is in men that O'Brian shines. O'Brian creates characters flawed enough to be human, without becoming base. Not the best of men, but rising to better as circumstance demands.
And while the author leaves the great sweep of history largely …
Repeated from review of Book 1
That Patrick O'Brian chose to place his characters on the sea in the not so distant past just raised the hurdle I had to leap to get to know this wonderful author.
I had never been enamored with sea stories, didn't much care for European history, and yet was wonderfully taken with this series. The sea is a major character, but history is not greatly illuminated, almost a backdrop to the specific circumstance the characters find themselves in. Which perhaps reflects the author's view, while the wide sweep of Europe's history progresses, men are left to deal with far smaller local problems.
And it is in men that O'Brian shines. O'Brian creates characters flawed enough to be human, without becoming base. Not the best of men, but rising to better as circumstance demands.
And while the author leaves the great sweep of history largely aside, the detailed history of these men's lives, the sacrifices, the conditions of life at sea are truly fascinating.
