Blue at the Mizzen - Tapa blanda

O'Brian has presented his readers with a shining jewel...an intricate, multifaceted work.

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

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

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

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

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

Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.--James Hamilton-Paterson

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

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

Now that the Napoleonic Wars are over, frigate captain Jack Aubrey faces desertion, near sinking, and brawls with British sailors--all before he reaches his next destination, Chile--where he will help the fledgling country break free of Spain and takes on some notable passengers. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.