Product Description

A handsomely bound omnibus edition of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring classics, including three chapters of the unfinished twenty-first novel.

These five volumes, beautifully produced and boxed, contain over 7,000 pages of what has often been described as a single, continuous narrative. They are a perfect tribute to such a literary achievement, and a perfect gift for the serious O'Brian enthusiast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11027 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 5
• Binding: Hardcover
• 6980 pages

About the Author
In addition to twenty volumes in the highly respected Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's many books include Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, and The Unknown Shore. O'Brian also wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks and translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture's biographies of Charles de Gaulle. He passed away in January 2000 at the age of 85.

Customer Reviews

Satisfyingly complete
How satisfying to have all the Aubrey/Maturin books in a nicely printed, hardcover edition. While volumes which contain multiple books are often unwieldy and difficult to hold, these are quite pleasant in the hand. If you are fascinated by Patrick O'Brian's recreation of early 19th. century life at sea (and on land as well), these are a must.

Wonderful writing, bad edition
I feel conflicted about giving this set of books only three stars.

On one hand, O'Brian's writing is brilliant. Speaking purely in terms of the literature, I would give his work five stars rather than three. I would describe this work as a combination of Herman Melville and Jane Austen. This set really consists of one long novel, not 25 short ones. For that reason, it makes sense to purchase all of the volumes at once.

Unfortunately, the publisher of this set did a distressingly careless job of proofreading the layout. (Had the editors been aboard one of Jack Aubrey's ships, they would have gotten flogged for their slovenly ways.) There are errors every couple of pages: stray punctuation marks, letters out of place, and even some sentences that seem to be cut in half or spliced in the wrong spot. While the frequent errors seldom prevent one from understanding the text, they are endlessly annoying, particularly in books that otherwise have the look and feel of a luxury edition. O'Brian's work deserves better than this.

Great Gift
My husband wanted this set and they were all he had hoped. It's a beautifully packaged compilation and there was no damage during shipping. A+++!