The film was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture. The Far Side of the World, the tenth book in the series, was adapted into a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.

Set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, O'Brian's twenty-volume series centers on the enduring friendship between naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician (and spy) Stephen Maturin. Reardon, Chicago Tribune), and 'the best historical novels ever written' (Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review), which 'should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century' (George Will). Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin series of historical novels has been described as 'a masterpiece' (David Mamet, New York Times), 'addictively readable' (Patrick T. This collection proves that O'Brian is not simply the master of a genre, but an author who will long be honored as one of our most eminent literary figures.

The setting may be the marshes of western Ireland, the Pyrenees, or the claustrophobic confines of a clockmender's house, but each story is a showcase for Patrick O'Brian's fresh and meticulous prose each story reaffirms his sympathetic understanding of human passion and suffering. The threatened chaos may be psychological, as in 'On the Wolfsberg,' or it may be lurking in the natural world, as in 'A Passage of the Frontier,' or, as in the dark masterpiece 'The Chian Wine,' it is suddenly discovered in the ancient, irrational impulses of human nature.

Collected here are twenty-seven stories that O'Brian wished to preserve: stories of uncommon lyricism and beauty that will confirm his rightful place in the front rank of short-story writers as well as of novelists.Īlthough the tone of this collection ranges effortlessly from the humorous to the dramatic, the most characteristic and memorable stories often have to do with a glimpse of savage, destructive forces through the fragile shell of human civilization. His fame rests mainly on the achievement of the epic Aubrey/Maturin novels, but few readers know that O'Brian first made his reputation as a writer of short fiction. Patrick O'Brian has emerged, in the opinion of many, as one of the greatest novelists in English.

The rendezvous and other stories