Captain Jack Aubrey's ship Bellona has been assigned to the fleet blockading the port of Brest, but what had promised to be a dull routine command acquires a very different character when animosities which Jack has aroused in his shore life as lord of the manor and Member of Parliament – in particular his opposition to local plans to enclose common land – follow him to sea and poison relations with his admiral, Lord Stranraer. Jack is also dogged by serious doubts about his prospects for further promotion until the influence of Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor, occasional intelligence agent, Jack's closest friend, offers a fresh challenge.

Reviews

“Robert Hardy has a consummate knack of giving timbre and atmosphere to everything he reads. That’s not to dimiss O’Brian’s skilfully constructed adventures, where the dialogue and politics are of a very high order of authenticity.”
Time Out 5/2/97

'… full of the energy that comes from a writer having struck a vein… Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.' James Hamilton-Paterson

‘If O’Brian’s novels have become a cult, this is because they are truly addictive… They are, quite magnificently, adventure yarns whose superb authenticity never distracts from the sheer thrill of the action.’
Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph

‘This is no mere sea story. It is history as it must have felt… Take up these books and you will share their dangers, taste their food and wine, tremble through their terrible battles, and understand for the first time the exacting and harsh nature of life in the Napoleonic era… Perhaps best of all is O’Brian’s mastery of the English language. He plays it like an orchestra, somehow bringing the rich, powerful speech of the period back to life.’
Peter Hitchens, Daily Express