About the Author

One of our greatest contemporary novelists, Patrick O’Brian is the author of the twenty volumes of the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series, as well as many other books, including Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore, and biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.

Reviews

"You're in for a wonderful voyage."
*People*

"O'Brian is a novelist, pure and simple, one of the best that we have."
*Los Angeles Times Book Review*

"If there were seventeen more novels, I'd start today."
*Donald Graham - Wall Street Journal*

"Patrick O'Brian can put a spark of character into the sawdust of time."
*Observer*

"Taken as a whole, the Aubrey-Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind... they are uniquely excellent."
*Terry Teachout - New York Times Book Review*

"The best historical novels ever written."
*Richard Snow - New York Times Book Review*

"One does not get many pages into the Aubrey-Maturin sequence before falling under the spell of O'Brian's prose, which is... elegantly paced, quietly witty."
*Katherine A. Powers - Atlantic Monthly*

"If Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian."
*Time*

"A world of enchanting fictional surfaces."
*John Bayley - New York Review of Books*

"You're in for a wonderful voyage." -- People
"O'Brian is a novelist, pure and simple, one of the best that we have." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"If there were seventeen more novels, I'd start today." -- Donald Graham - Wall Street Journal
"Patrick O'Brian can put a spark of character into the sawdust of time." -- Observer
"Taken as a whole, the Aubrey-Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind... they are uniquely excellent." -- Terry Teachout - New York Times Book Review
"The best historical novels ever written." -- Richard Snow - New York Times Book Review
"One does not get many pages into the Aubrey-Maturin sequence before falling under the spell of O'Brian's prose, which is... elegantly paced, quietly witty." -- Katherine A. Powers - Atlantic Monthly
"If Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian." -- Time
"A world of enchanting fictional surfaces." -- John Bayley - New York Review of Books