Patrick O'Brian

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Now these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback by Harper Perennial with stunning new jackets.

The Far Side of the World

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Russell Crowe. The war of 1812 continues, and Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. Stephen Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Disaster in various guises awaits them in the Great South Sea and in the far reaches of the Pacific: typhoons, castaways, shipwrecks, murder, and criminal insanity.

The Far Side of the World (Vol. Book 10) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)

Gavin

“I was only wondering whether the hands about to be discharged from hospital were those my surgeon saw in the – how shall I put it? – in the rigorous confinement ward.’
‘Yes,’ said the Admiral, ‘they are. But it don’t really signify, you know. Most lunatics are only shamming Abraham to get out of work; and these are not the dangerous raving kind. They don’t bite: they would not be discharged else. It stands to reason. All you have to do is put ’em in chains and flog ’em hearty in their fits, just as they do at Bedlam. Was you ever at Bedlam, Aubrey?’
‘No, sir.’
‘My father often used to take us. It was better than a play.’ The Admiral chuckled at the recollection and then went on.

‘Pray tell the Captain that it will not do,’ said Stephen, ‘and that he will be obliged to bear up, bear down, bear away for that noble stream the São Francisco and fill our casks from its limpid, health-giving billows as they flow between banks covered with a luxuriant vegetation of choice exotics, echoing to the cries of the toucan, the jaguar, various apes, a hundred species of parrots, and they flying among gorgeous orchids, while huge butterflies of unparalleled splendour float over a ground strewn with Brazil nuts and boa-constrictors.’
‘He was afraid you would say that’.

...he had the feeling that the man’s chief emotion, now that the first shock and dismay were over, was anger – anger against the world in general and anger against her too, for being ill. It did not surprise him very much: in the course of his professional career by land he had seen many and many a husband, and even some lovers, angry at a woman’s sickness, impatient, full of blame: quite devoid of pity, and angry that it should be expected of them.

The Far Side of the World

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