Patrick O'Brian's Complete Bookshelf
With Reviews and Reader Comments Here

 

For Patrick O'Brian the golden years have truly lived up to their name. His novels have sold millions of copies around the world and won the praise of leading literary critics and the adoration of countless readers. The author's childhood, however, was not smooth sailing. When he was 5, poor health and his mother's untimely passing forced him to be shuttled back and forth between England and Ireland. His illness made going to grammar school and university impossible, so he was tutored privately. Even though he was physically unable to attend class, he spent time at sea on an oceangoing yacht, where he learned the basics of sailing.

Although O'Brian has been writing for more than 40 years--compiling an impressive roster of books from translations and short stories to historical fiction and biographies--it wasn't until the late 1980s that his work became popular in the United States. He is best known for the Aubrey/Maturin series, a highly detailed, fictional account of two seamen, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin (think good cop/bad cop), who sail the high seas during the Napoleonic Wars. Attention to detail, meticulous research, and elegant, descriptive prose have earned the veteran author critical praise and cult devotion.

He began writing about the sea in the early 1950s after he had finished two difficult novels and decided to write one for fun. In a newsletter to fans, O'Brian explains how the draft of The Golden Ocean, a precursor to the first Aubrey/Maturin book, Master and Commander, came about: "In the usual novel of today you have to invent everything, from the names of your characters onwards, which can be very wearing. But in the present case the names were provided for me, together with the whole sequence of events, just as they were for Homer, Virgil and many others; since the tale I had in mind was that of Anson's voyage round the world.... Since what I wanted to write was a book for readers of no particular age (after all one can delight in David Copperfield or Kidnapped at twelve or seventy-two) all I had to do was put a boy, an ingenious youth from Connemara, aboard the commodore's ship as a midshipman and raise the anchor."

O'Brian spends much of his time in the south of France, in the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees. There with his wife, Mary, he keeps a modest vineyard, enjoys the peaceful countryside, and continues to write.

Patrick O'Brian's Complete BOOKSHELF Here

The Aubrey/Maturin Series
The Hundred Days (1998)
The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Series (18 volumes) (1996)
The Yellow Admiral (1996)
The Commodore (1994)
The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
The Truelove (1992)
The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
The Thirteen Gun Salute (1989)
The Letter of Marque (1988)
The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
The Far Side of the World (1984)
Treason's Harbour (1983)

Patrick O'Brian's Complete BOOKSHELF Here

The Ionian Mission (1981)
The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
The Fortune of War (1979)
Desolation Island (1978)
The Mauritius Command (1977)
H.M.S. Surprise (1973)
Post Captain (1972)
Master and Commander (1969)
Joseph Banks: A Life (1987)
Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography (1976)
The Chian Wine and Other Stories (1974)
The Unknown Shore (1959)
The Golden Ocean (1956)
The Walker and Other Stories (1955)
Testimonies (1952)

Patrick O'Brian's Complete BOOKSHELF Here

 

 

 

 

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