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Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780006499176 ISBN: 0006499171 Label: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Number Of Pages: 432 Publication Date: September 02, 1996 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Studio: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: The stakes are high as HMS Surprise opens, and actor Robert Hardy's sterling reading never lets you forget them. Hardy makes Patrick O'Brian's third novel of high-seas adventure--written in 1973 and set mainly in 1805 on the waters surrounding India and the Orient--seem as immediate as an overdrawn checking account. Money plays a big role, and Captain Jack Aubrey stands to make a lot of it. All he has to do is find Napoleon's fleet--and take their gold away from them. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --Lou Schuler Product Description: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. All eighteen books are being re-issued in hardback by HarperCollins with stunning new jackets to coincide with a new film based on the adventures and to introduce these modern classics to a new generation. H.M.S. Surprise follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey's career in Nelson's navy as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals, colleagues and the enemy, accepting a mission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage takes him and his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights and smells of the Indian sub-continent, and through the archipelago of spice islands where the French have a near-overwhelming superiority. Rarely has a novel managed to convey more vividly the fragility of a sailing ship in a wild sea. Rarely has a historical novelist combined action and lyricism of style in the way that O' Brian does. His superb sense of place, brilliant characterisation, and a vigour and joy of writing lift O'Brian above any but the most exalted of comparisons. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - HMS SurpiseI was in heaven from the first page, shipboard lingo, characters that you can almost see Patrick O'brian is the author I have longed for all of my life. I have an Admiral in my family tree and feel it is where I get my love for sea stories. This is a novel that every boy should read and I will again with pleasure. I can't wait to indulge myself with all the others. Cheers J.HMS Surprise Rating:  - O'Brian paints a world that shrinks to the deck and rigging of a ridiculously small ship on a vast deserted oceanThird in the series, with Cap'n Jack Aubrey captaining his own ship to the Far East, planning his wedding with Sophie, and rescuing his friend Maturin. Good action is trumped by a better vision of non-action, as O'Brian portrays the long shipbound trip to the East. The inclusion of a diagram of the masts and sails of a sailing ship, but not of a map of the travels of the Surprise is no mere coincidence--O'Brian paints a world that shrinks to the deck and rigging of a ridiculously small ... Read More Rating: - Good Solid Addition to the SeriesPicks up where Post Captain left off. jack and Stephen are back in England. Jack needs cash to marry his sweetheart Sophie. Stephen is unsure which he loves more, Science or Sophies Cousin Diana. Jack is given command of HMS Surprise and is to deliver an ambassadore to an Indonesian Sultanate on the other side of the world. They have many stops and adventures on the way. Finally they land in Mumbai. Stephen finds that Diana is there and gets in an affair of honor with Diana's ... Read More Rating: - One of the best of the seriesThis book, third in the wonderful series, is the first that makes one think that perhaps some of the usual descriptions are missing something. If you read the story and reflect upon it, do you possibly come to think that perhaps, in reality, the story of Jack Aubrey's career is mostly a peg on which to hang the complex life-story of Stephen Maturin? So instead of the sea-captain being the central figure, and Maturin his interesting companion, the books are about a wonderfully rich ... Read More Rating: - Patrick O'Brian Fan...I will need to have the whole series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures to listen to as I work. Nothing like vacuming, cleaning the house, watering the plants etc, etc and listening to these stories. |
