<div>A revealing and insightful look at one of the modern world&rsquo;s most acclaimed historical novelists Patrick O&rsquo;Brian was well into his seventies when the world fell in love with his greatest creation: the maritime adventures of Royal Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and ship&rsquo;s surgeon Stephen Maturin. But despite his fame, little detail was available about the life of the reclusive author, whose mysterious past King uncovers in this groundbreaking biography. King traces O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s personal history, beginning as a London-born Protestant named Richard Patrick Russ, to his tortured relationship with his first wife and child, to his emergence from World War II with the entirely new identity under which he would publish twenty volumes in the Aubrey&ndash;Maturin series. What King unearths is a life no less thrilling than the seafaring world of O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s imagination.</div>

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Patrick O'Brian

<div>A guide to the British Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Age for fans of the Aubrey&ndash;Maturin series: &ldquo;A gem of a book&rdquo; (Minneapolis Star Tribune). What is a sand-grouse, and where does it live? What are the medical properties of lignum vitae, and how did Stephen Maturin use it to repair his viola? Who is Admiral Lord Keith, and why is his wife so friendly with Captain Jack Aubrey? More than any other contemporary author, Patrick O&rsquo;Brian knew the past. His twenty Aubrey&ndash;Maturin novels, beginning with 1969&rsquo;s Master and Commander, are distinguished by deep characterization, heart-stopping naval combat, and an attention to detail that enriches and enlivens his stories. In this revised edition of A Sea of Words, Dean King and his collaborators dive into Jack Aubrey&rsquo;s world. In addition to their invaluable glossary, the authors provide essays on the age&rsquo;s politics, naval medicine, and the many ships that Jack Aubrey sailed, sighted, and fought against. For both the curious fan and the O&rsquo;Brian aficionado, A Sea of Words is an invaluable tome on the British Royal Navy.</div>

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A Sea of Words

<div>This companion for fans of the Napoleonic sea sagas offers maps of the novels&rsquo; streets, seas, and coasts, and much more. The tall-masted sailing ships of the early nineteenth century were the technological miracles of their day, allowing their crews to traverse the seas with greater speed than had ever been possible before. Novelist Patrick O&rsquo;Brian captured the thrill of that era with his characters Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, who visited exotic locales in the service of the Royal Navy. From frigid Dieppe to balmy Batavia, they strolled the ports of the world as casually as most do the streets of their hometown. Packed with maps and illustrations from the greatest age of sail, this volume shows not just where Aubrey and Maturin went, but how they got there. An incomparable reference for devotees of O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s novels and anyone who has dreamed of climbing aboard a warship, Harbors and High Seas is a captivating portrait of life on the sea, when nothing stood between man and ocean but grit, daring, and a few creaking planks of wood.</div>

Harbors and High Seas

<div>Napoleonic-era accounts of life aboard Royal Navy warships: &ldquo;Readers of Patrick O&rsquo;Brian and C. S. Forester will enjoy this collection&rdquo; (Library Journal). At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the British Navy was the mightiest instrument of war the world had ever known. The Royal Navy patrolled the seas from India to the Caribbean, connecting an empire with footholds in every corner of the earth. Such a massive Navy required the service of more than 100,000 men&mdash;from officers to deckhands to surgeons. These are their stories. The inspiration for the bestselling novels by Patrick O&rsquo;Brian and C. S. Forester, these memoirs and diaries, edited by Dean King, provide a true portrait of life aboard British warships during one of the most significant eras of world history. Their tellers are officers and ordinary sailors, and their subjects range from barroom brawls to the legendary heroics of Lord Horatio Nelson himself. Though these &ldquo;iron men on wooden ships&rdquo; are long gone, their deeds echo through the centuries.</div>

Every Man Will Do His Duty

<div>Four volumes of history and biography for fans of the Aubrey-Maturin novels, with lore on the Royal Navy and much more. What is a sandgrouse, and where does it live? What are the medical properties of lignum vitae, and how did Stephen Maturin use it to repair his viola? Who is Adm. Lord Keith, and why is his wife so friendly with Capt. Jack Aubrey? More than any other contemporary author, Patrick O&rsquo;Brian knew the past. His twenty Aubrey&ndash;Maturin novels, beginning with Master and Commander (1969), are distinguished by deep characterization, heart-stopping naval combat, and an attention to detail that enriches and enlivens his stories. In the revised edition of A Sea of Words, Dean King and his collaborators dive into Jack Aubrey&rsquo;s world. In the revised edition of Harbors and High Seas, King details not just where Aubrey and Maturin went, but how they got there. Packed with maps and illustrations from the greatest age of sail, it is an incomparable reference for devotees of O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s novels and anyone who has dreamed of climbing aboard a warship, as well as a captivating portrait of life on the sea during a time when nothing stood between man and ocean but grit, daring, and a few creaking planks of wood. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the British navy was the mightiest instrument of war the world had ever known. The Royal Navy patrolled the seas from India to the Caribbean, connecting an empire with footholds in every corner of the earth. Such a massive navy required the service of more than 100,000 men&mdash;from officers to deckhands to surgeons. Their stories are collected in Every Man Will Do His Duty. The inspiration for the bestselling novels of Patrick O&rsquo;Brian and C. S. Forester, these twenty-two memoirs and diaries, edited by Dean King, provide a true portrait of life aboard British warships during one of the most significant eras of world history. Patrick O&rsquo;Brian was well into his seventies when the world fell in love with his greatest creation: the maritime adventures of Royal Navy Capt. Jack Aubrey and ship&rsquo;s surgeon Stephen Maturin. But despite his fame, little detail was available about the life of the reclusive author, whose mysterious past King uncovers in this groundbreaking biography. King traces O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s personal history from his beginnings as a London-born Protestant named Richard Patrick Russ to his tortured relationship with his first wife and child to his emergence from World War II with the entirely new identity under which he would publish twenty volumes in the Aubrey&ndash;Maturin series. What King unearths is a life no less thrilling than the seafaring world of O&rsquo;Brian&rsquo;s imagination. Patrick O&rsquo;Brian: A Life Revealed is a penetrating and insightful examination of one of the modern world&rsquo;s most acclaimed historical novelists. </div>

The World of Patrick O'Brian

<div>The desert explorer and author of Khartoum recounts the disastrous nineteenth century French expedition to establish a Trans-Saharan Railway. In 1880, the French government ordered a surveying expedition for a railway that would transport the fabulous wealth of Timbuktu to Paris&mdash;and spread French culture and morality among the Sahara Desert&rsquo;s nomadic tribes. Expecting to find riches for his country and immortal glory for himself, French Army veteran Paul Flatters led a crew of a hundred men into a horrifyingly deadly fiasco. Under-armed in hostile territory, and foolishly employing the enemy as guides, the expedition was ambushed and stranded without camels or supplies in the deserts of southern Algeria. Many were killed outright, and for four months the survivors were menaced by the Tuareg, the &ldquo;lords of the desert,&rdquo; robbed, starved, and tricked into eating poisoned fruit. To escape, the men hid in the wastelands of the Sahara with little hope of finding food or water. They were finally forced to eat their own dead, or, worse, the merely weak. Only a dozen malnourished men lived to tell their tale of their harrowing, one-thousand-mile journey. With a &ldquo;superb grip of narrative and uncanny ability to evoke battle scenes,&rdquo; historian and desert explorer Michael Asher has written an amazing true story that is as dramatic as it is frightening (The Guardian).</div>

Death in the Sahara

<div>“The first American bestseller, with over a million copies purchased. Its portrayal of human bondage gave fuel to the growing abolitionist cause.” —CT Post Listed by Abraham Lincoln, alongside the Bible and Pilgrims Progress, as one of the books that most influenced his life, few true tales of adventure and survival are as astonishing as this one. Shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in August of 1815, James Riley and his crew had no idea of the trials awaiting them as they gathered their beached belongings. They would be captured by a band of nomadic Arabs, herded across the Sahara Desert, beaten, forced to witness astounding brutalities, sold into slavery, and starved. Riley watched most of his crew die one by one, killed off by cruelty or caprice, as his own weight dropped from 240 pounds to a mere 90 at his rescue. First published in 1817, this dramatic saga soon became a national bestseller with over a million copies sold. Even today, it is rare to find a narrative that illuminates the degradations of slave existence with such brutal honesty. One of five books that “vividly capture[s] the long history of America’s encounters with the Arab world.” —The Wall Street Journal “Riley’s descriptions of the Sahara and of Muslims and Arabs offers some fascinating insight into the times and locations . . . definitely worth a read.” —CTMQ “A simple, personal account of an evil that was done, which increased rather than diminished its powerful impact on a future world leader.” —Ethics &amp; Culture</div>

Dean King
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Books By Dean King (5 Books)

Patrick O'Brian

A Sea of Words

Harbors and High Seas

Every Man Will Do His Duty

The World of Patrick O'Brian

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© 2023 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Dean KingFollow this author

Books By Dean King (5 Books)

Patrick O'Brian

A Sea of Words

Harbors and High Seas

Every Man Will Do His Duty

The World of Patrick O'Brian

RELATED POSTS ABOUT DEAN KING

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More from

Corporate

© 2023 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Dean King
Follow this author