Buy used:

$9.94

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery May 16 - 18 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery May 14 - 16

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by The BAP Goods

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (69) from $1.56 + $3.98 shipping

Follow the author

Patrick O'Brian

Follow

The Commodore (Aubrey/Maturin Novels, 17) (Book 17) Paperback – April 17, 1996

by Patrick O'Brian (Author)

4.7 130 ratings

See all formats and editions

The seventeenth novel in the sweeping Aubrey-Maturin series of naval tales, which the New York Times Book Review has described as "the best historical novels ever written."

Having survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.

Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.

The subtle interweaving of these disparate themes is an achievement of pure storytelling by one of our greatest living novelists.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

April 17, 1996
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393314596
ISBN-13

978-0393314595
See all details

Patrick O'Brian
2,260
Paperback
45 offers from $10.95
Patrick O'Brian
8,584
Paperback
93 offers from $3.47
Patrick O'Brian
2,438
Paperback
42 offers from $10.89
Patrick O'Brian
2,201
Paperback
21 offers from $11.90
Patrick O'Brian
138
Paperback
102 offers from $1.29
Patrick O'Brian
1,893
Paperback
39 offers from $10.95

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After several installments of gallivanting around the South Seas, Aubrey and Maturin return home to England, where the surgeon-cum-intelligence-agent discovers that his wife has disappeared. As if such a domestic crisis weren't enough, the intrepid pair are also dispatched to the Gulf of Guinea (to suppress the slave trade) and to Ireland (to rebuff an impending French invasion.) O'Brian's stunning range, coupled with his mind-bending command of minutiae, explain why James Hamilton-Paterson has called him "the Homer of the Napoleonic Wars."

From Publishers Weekly

This 17th installment in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of historical naval tales spent two weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop."
― E. O. Wilson, Boston Globe

"The Commodore is so satisfying...because it is crowded with so many different kinds of pleasures. O'Brian's genius is in his ability to arrange all this material upon the well-constructed frame of an adventure plot....A lyric poet working in the epic form."
― John Ferguson, Boston Sunday Globe

"The best historical novels ever written… On every page Mr. O’Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don’t, 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."
― Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review

"It has been something of a shock to find myself―an inveterate reader of girl books―obsessed with Patrick O’Brian’s Napoleonic-era historical novels… What keeps me hooked are the evolving relationships between Jack and Stephen and the women they love."
― Tamar Lewin, New York Times

"I devoured Patrick O’Brian’s 20-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog."
― Christopher Hitchens, Slate

"I fell in love with his writing straightaway, at first with Master and Commander. It wasn’t primarily the Nelson and Napoleonic period, more the human relationships. …And of course having characters isolated in the middle of the goddamn sea gives more scope. …It’s about friendship, camaraderie. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin always remind me a bit of Mick and me."
― Keith Richards

"[O’Brian’s] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today’s putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade."
― David Mamet, New York Times

"The Aubrey-Maturin series… far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart."
― Ken Ringle, Washington Post

"O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin volumes actually constitute a single 6,443-page novel, one that should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century."
― George Will

"Gripping and vivid… a whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit."
― A. S. Byatt

"There is not a writer alive whose work I value over his."
― Stephen Becker, Chicago Sun-Times

"Patrick O’Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars."
― James Hamilton-Paterson, New Republic

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (April 17, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393314596
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393314595
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #734,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #898 in Sea Adventures Fiction (Books)
- #2,127 in Sea Stories
- #14,676 in Science Fiction Adventures

Customer Reviews:
4.7 130 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Patrick O'Brian

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

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

4.7 out of 5

130 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Amazon Customer

When ordering books from Amazon they are almost always in excellent condition.

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2024

Verified Purchase

Just a book and it is in good condition.

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is my second time through the 20-book series. It's a frequent companion and an alternative train of thought that stays with me to fill the dull moments. O'Brian offers a singularly personable and detailed perspective of people and times in the Napoleonic Era of waning British imperialism. He must have used the navy logs for colloquial and logistical details. This is as close to time travel as I'll get in my time.

Amazon's delivery is wonderfully prompt and well-packaged. If you intend to read them all, then the best savings are clearly by getting the entire series in one buy. Beware that different Norton series cover art is offered at different times -- what is offered now does not match the series images offered 18 months ago. WYSIWYG. You may have to hunt in other places to get matching cover art if the series is bought over a lengthy period.

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2020

Magnificent!

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

My husband started reading the series but did not have the complete set. I purchased several books to complete the set for him. He has really enjoyed reading them and has shared them with family members.

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

I now own all the books by Patrict O'brian. Addictive. I could not stop reading until I finished all the books. Will start over to see what I may have missed in the the first time through.

Helpful

Basso Bill

This series is the gold standard of this genre; ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

This series is the gold standard of this genre; although I admit it's challenging to read O'Brian's 18th century nautical English.

Helpful

Dave in California

Another wonderful O'Brian novel

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2007

Verified Purchase

I am slowly reading my way through the entire set of Aubrey-Maturin novels. It has been one of the most enjoyable reading experiences of my life. The stories are compelling, the characters are extremely well developed, and the prose is vivid. Recommended to anyone who likes to read.

Helpful

Larry L.

Delivered before the delivery date

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

Book was in better condition than I expected. Have not begun to read it yet but if it is like the rest of them it will be intriguing

Helpful