The Hundred Days »

Patrick O'Brian's historic naval adventure novels were solely the pleasure of British readers until the late '80s; but for Americans, it's better late than never. The appearance of the author's Aubrey-Maturin series in the States, with its compelling protagonists and rich period detail from the Napoleonic Wars, earned thousands of fans including Iris Murdoch, Eudora Welty and Tom Stoppard.

Patrick O'Brian is far and away the best of the Napoleonic storytellers, and his new book, The Hundred Days, is the 19th in a series telling of the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin. It is also one of the best of the series; a classic naval adventure, crammed with incident, superbly plotted and utterly gripping. In our exclusive feature, Bernard Cornwell, author of the celebrated Richard Sharpe novels (and a fair Napoleonic storyteller himself) reviews the penultimate book in the celebrated Aubrey-Maturin series.

New Yorker

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.