The Yellow Admiral - Hardcover

O'Brian, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393040445 ISBN 13: 9780393040449

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996

Synopsis

"There are those already planning this afternoon's trip to the bookstore. Their only reaction is: Thank god, Patrick O'Brian is still writing. To you, I say, not a moment to lose."―John Balzar, Los Angeles Times

Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his career.

Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.

About this title

About the Author

One of our greatest contemporary novelists, Patrick O’Brian is the author of the twenty volumes of the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series, as well as many other books, including Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore, and biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.

From the Back Cover

Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's long-awaited sequel to his bestseller The Commodore. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the admiralty by his erratic voting as a member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: In the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fear about his career: the prospect of being "yellowed", or nominally promoted to the rank of admiral without any squadron to command. Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.

Reviews

As befits a popular and enduring fictional hero, Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy is besieged on all sides in the 18th installment of O'Brian's splendid 19th-century historical adventure series (The Commodore, etc.). Jack is fighting expensive, possibly ruinous, legal battles with slavers, as well as with rich landowners trying to enclose common lands around his family estate. He must also deal with a Navy superior with a financial interest in the enclosure, who is trying to wreck Jack's career. (If a captain becomes an admiral without a command he is "in the cant phrase... yellowed"). Jack, on blockade duty off Brittany, frets that the impending peace will indeed yellow him; and he's also in for some rough marital weather with his wife, Sophie. Meanwhile, the series' other hero, Irish-Catalan physician Stephen Maturin, who's Jack's best friend, connects in "the dark of the moon" with Chilean independence leaders who may hire Jack to head their own young navy. O'Brian is at the top of his elegant form here. He offers a wealth of sly humor (Navy officers' talk is "really not fit for mixed company because of its profoundly nautical character"), some splendid set pieces (a bare-knuckle boxing match, lively sea actions), characters who are palpably real and, as always, lapidary prose. This is splendid storytelling from a true master. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this intriguing sequel to his best-seller The Commodore, O'Brian once again reunites Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, surgeon Stephen Maturin. As the novel opens, Maturin returns from the Continent on an intelligence mission to find Aubrey in trouble on several fronts. Now a member of Parliament, Aubrey is resented by former friends who have been disappointed with votes he has cast. Debts and a land squabble nag at him. But his worst difficulties concern a possible promotion. Past exploits have made him a sailor of note, but naval politics and the threat of imminent peace may work to make him a dreaded "yellowed" admiral: he'll hold the rank but won't actually command a ship. Meanwhile, he and Maturin are sent out to battle the French, at which point a new round of personal and professional troubles descends. Fans of O'Brian's previous novels will find themselves well rewarded. Brian McCombie

In this sequel to The Commodore, Jack Aubrey gratefully leaves behind his messy life ashore to pursue Napoleon, who has escaped from Gibraltar.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393040445
• ISBN 13: 9780393040449
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272