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Master and Commander
 
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Master and Commander [Audiobook] [CD] (Audio CD)

by Patrick O'Brian (Author), Robert Hardy (Reader)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.98
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Product details

  • Audio CD
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Audio; Film tie-in edition edition (1 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007160852
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007160853
  • Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 11.8 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 305,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #56 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > O > O'Brian, Patrick

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Product Description

Review

"Treat yourself: buy the tapes" Irish Times 7/6/97 '...full of the energy that comes from a writer having struck a vein... Patrick O'Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.' James Hamilton- Paterson 'You are in for the treat of your lives. Thank God for Patrick O'Brian: his genius illuminates the literature of the English language, and lightens the lives of those who read him.' Kevin Myers, Irish Times


Product Description

Tie-in edition to the major film coming next Spring from Fox. Starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey and Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) as Stephen Maturin. Directed by Peter Weir. Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O'Brian's now famous Aubrey/Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship's surgeon and an intelligence agent. It contains all the action and excitement which could possibly be hoped for in a historical novel, but it also displays the qualities which have put O'Brian far ahead of any of his competitors: his depiction of the detail of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war, of weapons, food, conversation and ambience, of the landscape and of the sea. O'Brian's portrayal of each of these is faultless and the sense of period throughout is acute. His power of characterisation is above all masterly. This brilliant historical novel marked the debut of a writer who grew into one of our greatest novelists ever.
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Does justice to the book, 14 Jan 2004
By TONY "Hotvalve" (Lancashire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Firstly, for those new to O'Brian's oeuvre, regardless of the title this is not the audio book of the film. 'Master and Commander' is the first in the series of Aubrey/Maturin novels, charting the first meeting between the two men and their adventures in the Mediterranean aboard the brig 'Sophie'.

After reading the entire Aubrey/Maturin series, I came to this, my first encounter with an audio version, with trepidation. Would it spoil my 'inner vision' of the remarkable naval world created by O'Brian?

However my fears were unfounded. Robert Hardy conveys the multi-faceted pleasures of O'Brian's writing with real enthusiasm, and his excellent vocal characterisations endow the Sophie's Captain and crew with an extra dimension (his Maturin is much better than my imagined one). I found myself enjoying the story almost as though I were experiencing it for the first time.

At 4.5 hours this is a long audio book, good value even if you have already read the book and a superb introduction to the series for anyone venturing aboard for the first time.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Sloppy treatment of a great novel, 16 Jan 2009
By JF (London, England) - See all my reviews
Despite having listened to this recording several times, I am very disappointed with it. If I'd read the novel first, it would have made a lot more sense. But it put me off reading the novel for a long time because I found the plot desultory and difficult to follow, with many details in the story unexplained.

Robert Hardy reads with gusto but he sounds like he has indigestion and can't wait to get out of the recording studio to draw breath and have a good belch. His characterisation is good but the narrative bowls along at a reckless pace that I could follow only with intense concentration and regular use of the rewind button.

It's a bravura performance and he gets the emphasis right most of the time but too often he stumbles over simple words. He has particular trouble with the Spanish place names and it's quite funny to hear the different ways he pronounces them each time, sometimes drawing them out with such meandering uncertainty that you feel he's keeping all his options open right up until the last syllable, which he delivers with a triumphant flourish.

But even he pulls up short at one point, audibly perplexed by an abrupt narrative transition. It is a feature of O'Brian's style to make abrupt transitions, but he does so in the unabridged novel with craft and cunning. In this abridgement the transitions are arbitrary and brutal and you are left not knowing what happened at key moments. A lot of the original humour has gone, as have the all-important incidents and conversations that shape the relationships that are the real subject of the story.

Some of the original vigour remains, however, and it was this vestige of greatness that led me, finally, to seek out the complete text and a full, unabridged, sensitive recording of it by Christopher Kay. I am very glad I did. The unabridged novel is a work of enduring fascination that can stand comparison with any literary masterpiece of the last three hundred years.
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