Patrick O'Brian's Navy
Subtitle: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World
Contributors: Chris Chant (Contributor); David Miller (Contributor); Clive Wilkinson (Contributor); Richard O'Neill (Editor)
Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
Published: March 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9780762415403
Subjects: Literary reference works; Maritime history; Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -; Military - Naval; History; History - Military / War; English; Military
First sentence: Hardly a breeze was stirring off the French naval base of Brest on January 2nd, 1793 as Captain Robert Barlow (captain by courtesy-he was a "Master and Commander," like Jack Aubrey in the Sophie) allowed the flood tide to carry his brig-sloop HMS Childers, armed with 14 or 16 guns according to different sources, toward the harbor.
Description: "From the moment that Master and Commander, the first of Patrick O'Brian's sequence of 20 novels about the 19th century British Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and his surgeon colleague Stephen Maturin, was published in 1970, critics hailed his work as a masterpiece of historical recreation. Called "the best historical novels ever written" by the New York Times, the books have sold millions of copies. This first full-color illustrated companion to the Aubrey-Maturin series, timed to coincide with the release of the blockbuster Twentieth-Century Fox film adaptation starring Russell Crowe, explains the fascinating physical details of Jack Aubrey's fictional world. An in-depth historical reference, it brings to life the political, cultural, and physical setting of O'Brian's novels. Annotated drawings, paintings, and diagrams reveal the complex parts of a ship and its rigging, weaponry, crew quarters and duties, below-deck conditions, and fighting tactics, while maps illustrate the location featured in each novel."--Publisher's website.