The Wine-Dark Sea [Paperback]

At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean reminds Stephen of Homer's famous description, and portends an underwater volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader's imagination.I havent read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick OBrian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldnt stop.Addictively readable.They're funny, they're exciting, they're informative. . . there are legions of us who gladly ship out time and time again under Captain Aubrey.lf Jane Austen had written rousing sea yarns, she would have produced something very close to the prose of Patrick O'Brian.The best historical novels ever written& On every page Mr. OBrian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people dont, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives.It has been something of a shock to find myselfan inveterate reader of girl booksobsessed with Patrick OBrians Napoleonic-era historical novels& What keeps me hooked are the evolving relationships between Jack and Stephen and the women they love.I devoured Patrick OBrians 20-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog.I fell in love with his writing straightaway, at first with[OBrians] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of todays putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade.The Aubrey-Maturin series& far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart.OBrians Aubrey-Maturin volumesl“w