The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'brian
Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's long-awaited sequel to his bestseller The Commodore. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the admiralty by his erratic voting as a member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: In the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fear about his career: the prospect of being yellowed, or nominally promoted to the rank of admiral without any squadron to command. Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.
"I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian seriesIt was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop." -- E. O. Wilson - Boston Globe
"Aubrey and Maturin are the most enjoyable literary companions since Holmes and Watson." -- Detroit Free Press
"Taken as a whole, the Aubrey/Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind, so much better than the competition that comparisons long ago ceased to be relevant: they are uniquely excellent." -- New York Times Book Review
"Aubrey and Maturin are the most enjoyable literary companions since Holmes and Watson." -- Detroit Free Press
"Taken as a whole, the Aubrey/Maturin novels are by a long shot the best things of their kind, so much better than the competition that comparisons long ago ceased to be relevant: they are uniquely excellent." -- New York Times Book Review
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.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393040449 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393040445 |
| Title | The Yellow Admiral |
| Author | Patrick O'brian |
| Series | Aubrey Maturin Novels |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 1996-12-04 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |