The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times).

Praise for the Aubrey/Maturin Series and Patrick O’Brian

“The best historical novels ever written.”
—Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review

“I love these books.… [They offer] the same sense of lived experience as Hilary Mantel.… They will sweep you away and return you delighted, increased and stunned. If the phrase ‘Napoleonic war fiction’ fills you with anticipation, then you don’t need me to convince you to read [Patrick] O’Brian. But for the rest of you.… [P]lease, just trust me.”
—Nicola Griffith, NPR

“A few books work their way… onto [bestseller] lists by genuine, lasting excellence—witness The Lord of the Rings, or Patrick O’Brian’s sea stories.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin

“Like John LeCarré, [O’Brian] has erased the boundary separating a debased genre from ‘serious’ fiction. O’Brian is a novelist, pure and simple, one of the best we have.”
—Mark Horowitz, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“[Patrick O’Brian has] the power of bringing near to the reader… savagery and tenderness, beauty and mystery and boldness and dignity.”
—Eudora Welty

“O’Brian’s eloquent admirers include not merely distinguished critics and reviewers but… thousands upon thousands of fervent readers who thank the gods for him.… [H]is work accomplishes nobly the three grand purposes of art: to entertain, to edify, and to awe.”
—Stephen Becker, Paris Review

“For escapist reading, I especially like the sea novels of Patrick O’Brian.”
—Bill Bryson

“O’Brian’s narrative… provides endlessly varying shocks and surprises—comic, grim, farcical and tragic. An essential of the truly gripping book for the narrative addict is the creation of a whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit, and O’Brian does this with prodigal specificity and generosity.”
—A. S. Byatt

“I prefer the Aubrey-Maturin series to all others.… Every book is packed to absolute straining with erudition, wit, history, and thunderous action.”
—Joe Hill

“All of the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian [is on my shelves].”
—Mindy Kaling, New York Times

Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship HMS Sophie. Meanwhile—after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel—Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an unlikely rapport. On a whim, Aubrey invites Maturin to join his crew as the Sophie’s surgeon. And so begins the legendary friendship that anchors this beloved saga set against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.

Through every ensuing adventure on which Aubrey and Maturin embark, from the witty parley of their lovers and enemies to the roar of broadsides as great ships close in battle around them, O’Brian “provides endlessly varying shocks and surprises—comic, grim, farcical and tragic.… [A] whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit” (A. S. Byatt).