| A Book of Voyages Contributor(s): O'Brian, Patrick (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0393089584 ISBN-13: 9780393089585 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $23.36 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2013 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Travel | Essays & Travelogues - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 910.41 |
| LCCN: 2013008669 |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.86" W x 8.48" (1.11 lbs) 336 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Never previously published in this country, A Book of Voyages presents writings by various travelers, annotated and introduced by Patrick O'Brian. Most are taken from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; O'Brian felt that, unlike Elizabethan or Victorian accounts, these writings were relatively unknown in our time. On her journey through the Crimea, Lady Craven witnesses barbaric entertainments in the court of the Tartar Khan. John Bell tells us of his day's hunting with the Manchu emperor in 1721 outside Peking. An English woman in Madras gives us a detailed description of the extraordinary costume and body decoration of a high-born Indian woman, wife of a nabob. These and other selections are glimpses of a world, now gone forever, that few readers would ever see for themselves. They are also quite possibly the inspiration for the travels and adventures of O'Brian's own fictional heroes Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. |
Contributor Bio(s): O'Brian, Patrick: - Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series of historical novels has been described as "a masterpiece" (David Mamet, New York Times), "addictively readable" (Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago Tribune), and "the best historical novels ever written" (Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review), which "should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century" (George Will).Set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, O'Brian's twenty-volume series centers on the enduring friendship between naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician (and spy) Stephen Maturin. The Far Side of the World, the tenth book in the series, was adapted into a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. The film was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture. The books are now available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book format.In addition to the Aubrey/Maturin novels, Patrick O'Brian wrote several books including the novels Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, and The Unknown Shore, as well as biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He translated many works from French into English, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir, the first volume of Jean Lacouture's biography of Charles de Gaulle, and famed fugitive Henri Cherrière's memoir Papillon. O'Brian died in January 2000. |