Patrick O'Brian

"This story begins with a sloop in the South China Sea barely surviving a killer typhoon. The time is the 1930s, and the protagonist is a teenaged American boy whose missionary parents have just died. In the company of his rough seafaring uncle and an elderly English cousin, an eminent archaeologist, Derrick sets off in search of ancient treasures in Central Asia." -- back cover.

Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and fearless Captain in Nelson's navy, accepts a mission that will test his abilities to the limit: he is to set sail immediately for Cape Horn, to intercept a powerful frigate intent on wreaking havoc among British whalers. Aubrey's beloved ship, H.M.S. Surprise, is up to the task, butht e ranks of her crew have been thinned, and many of her sialors are untried. Aubrey's confidant, ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, has orders of his own in the world of secret intelligence. As the Surprise and her crew draw closer to the enemy, their journey grows ever more dangerous: murder, shipwreck, and a desperate rescue attempt await them in the far reaches of the Pacific.

Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail to Australia with a hold full of convicts. On board is a beautiful and dangerous spy, and a treacherous disease which decimates the crew.

In The Letter of Marque, Jack is once again aboard his beloved Surprise but stripped of his post captaincy for a crime he did not commit. Bought by Stephen, the Surprise has become a privateer. Sailing into French waters, the two concoct a desperate mission which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from his state of disgrace. A nighttime battle with an unusual climax, a jewel of great value and Stephen's fondness for opium make this segment of O'Brian's masterful series both original and profoundly exciting.

First edition in Polish.

In this book the characters of Clarrisa Oakes, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin emerge more complex, sophisticated and wholly mature beings than ever before as they reflect on the past and try to divine the future - supported by the author's sense of human possibility.

This is book 1 in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Here is the maiden voyage of O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin series, which follows the unique friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. O'Brian renders in riveting detail the life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. - Publisher.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. All twenty books are being re-issued by Harper Perennial with stunning new jackets.

"Hussein is a story about a young mahout - or elephant handler - with his childhood and life in India, his relationship and adventures with elephants all rendered in rich detail. As a boy, Hussein falls in love with a beautiful and elusive girl, Sashiya, and arranges for another of her suitors to be murdered with a fakir's curse. The dead man's relatives vow vengeance. Hussein escapes and his adventures begin: snake-charming, sword-fighting, spying, stealing a fortune, and returning triumphantly to claim his bride. All of this is set against an evocatively exotic India, full of bazaars, temples, and beautiful women."--BOOK JACKET.

Sixième épisode des aventures maritimes du capitaine Jack Aubrey.

Presents the continuation of Jack Aubrey's life as the Peace of Amiens docks the Commander onshore, to France, and back to sea.