H.M.S. Surprise, Volume 5

Front Cover
HarperCollins, 1996 - Fiction - 388 pages
How far will a man go in the name of revenge, honour, love or simple survival?

Far from familiar seas, Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew must test themselves to the very limits of human endurance.

Following a daring rescue, Jack Aubrey accepts a new command and a new commission to a far-flung destination. Ahead of him and his crew are the new sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and the terrifying hazards of an archipelago of islands in the East Indies, where their French enemies have near overwhelming superiority.

'Combines adventure and the art of the novel with an astonishing finesse.'

FRANCIS SPUFFORD

'Few, very few, books have made my heart thump with excitement. HMS Surprise managed it.'

HELEN LUCY BURKE, Irish Times

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About the author (1996)

Patrick O'Brian, until his death in 2000, was one of our greatest contemporary novelists. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He is the author of many other books including Testimonies, and his Collected Short Stories. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to literature. In the same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin. He lived for many years in South West France and he died in Dublin in January 2000.

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