Master and Commander Audio Book CDs Unabridged

Master and Commander
Author: Patrick O'Brian
Reader: Simon Vance

This first in the spectacular series establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. The Oscar-winning Russell Crowe movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, is based on a novel in this series. First in the series. "The best historical novels ever written."—The New York Times » Read More

Available Audio Book Editions:

N9B629

UNABRIDGED

Audio CDs ( 11 )

Price:

$49.95

Publish Date: 03/12/2004
ISBN: 9780786186297

A9B736	Unabridged	Cassettes (10)	$44.95	More Info >
A1B713	Unabridged	MP3-CD (1)	$24.95	More Info >
AP8621	Unabridged	Playaway (1)	$74.99	More Info >
A4R522	Abridged	Cassettes (3)	~~$22.00~~ $14.30	More Info >

Synopsis:

MASTER AND COMMANDER is the first volume in the O'Brian's delightful series about the English Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Jack Aubrey (a captain in the Royal Navy) and Stephen Maturin (who will become his ship's surgeon and closest friend) first meet, in April 1800 at a performance of Locatelli's C-major Quartet at a concert in Minorca. This first installment is a beautifully written and observed novel of war, friendship, love, and--not incidentally--natural history, amateur music-making, the British intelligence network, and 18th-century life in general. The book was the basis for the successful and critically acclaimed 2003 movie.

Author Bio:

Born in England as Richard Patrick Russ, the eighth of nine children, O'Brian changed his name and cut himself off from his family at the age of 29, for reasons unknown. He published a book at the age of 15, called CAESAR: THE LIFE STORY OF A PANDA LEOPARD. A doctor recommended sea air for his weak lungs, and he learned to sail--a lifelong interest that is a vital part of his Aubrey-Maturin novels, his popular and critically acclaimed novels of the English navy during the Napoleonic Wars. O'Brian married young, had a son and a daughter (who died in childhood), and was divorced before World War II. In 1945, he married Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy (who when he met her was married to Count Dmitri Tolstoy). O'Brian was unfit for active duty in World War II; instead, he drove an ambulance and worked for the British secret service. After the war, he and Mary moved to Wales under his new name, and he began to write, but eventually they relocated to the more congenial climate of the small village of Collioure, in the south of France, where O'Brian lived in determined obscurity. The first of the Aubrey-Maturin novels, MASTER AND COMMANDER, was published in 1969; the last, BLUE AT THE MIZZEN, appeared in 1999. He claimed that his chief influence was not Conrad or Melville or any other master of the sea novel, but Jane Austen, whom he revered above all other writers and re-read constantly. In addition to the Aubrey-Maturin series, O'Brian wrote biographies (of Picasso, among others) and translated many works from French. Like his character Stephen Maturin, he was a dedicated naturalist. He was also an amateur astronomer, knew several languages well (including Spanish and Catalan), and had a small vineyard behind his house. He died in Dublin, where he worked for the last two years of his life as an honored guest of Trinity College.

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Master and Commander Audio Book

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