Master and Commander [UNABRIDGED]
buy new, used books, rare books for sale at half price
|
![Master and Commander [UNABRIDGED]](/pictures/Master:Commander:y.jpg) |
List Price: $49.95
Our Price:
$32.97
You Save: $16.98
Features
• Unabridged |
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] |
Book : Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
Master and Commander [UNABRIDGED] Customer Reviews
|
|
|
|
♥♥♥♥♥
|
Wonderful revelation
|
I came late to this table, intrigued by the excellent Russell Crowe movie. (A note for new readers arriving by the same route: the movie is an amalgam of several of the books in the series, then modified even further by the supposed needs of Hollywood.)
When I bought this 13A hour CD reading of the first book, I was delighted but also somewhat baffled: the language is extremely challenging, even to one with years of sailing experience. How could this series have sold millions? Another Amazon reviewer set me straight: the books are written so that they could be understood and enjoyed by the characters themselves, and describe the harsh sensibilities of the times without apology or explanation.
An extremely difficult feat to pull off, writing in the 1970s. Being a rather proud writer myself, at first my anachronism police came out in full force, looking for missteps. Oh they are there, if you want to get curmudgeonly, but instead, why not just enjoy the author's magnificent accomplishment? The book has become my nightcap: one chapter per night, with a rewind each morning to the point I fell asleep. It has also become my traveling companion: I ripped all 11 CDs down to one mp3 disk, and traffic jams immediately stopped annoying me. (For people wishing to do the same, it can be encoded at a generous 256bps and still fit on one CD). And there are still another 21 novels to go...
To the meat: You will have to put up with sometimes excruciating detail: is it really necessary to have an unbroken five-minute naming of parts? The top mizzens, each and every backstay, the exact length of each spar? But perhaps it is. The internal voice of Aubrey: a sympathetic man whose company I would nonetheless not enjoy, the utter callousness towards human suffering displayed. We wouldn't judge Jane Austen for having archaic sensibilities; Patrick O'Brien should be given the same leeway.
But with your investment in place, the rewards are enormous. The battles, the tactics, the seamanship displayed and the characters involved are described at close to the level of Conrad. It is impossible to read (or listen) without trying to imagine your reaction to being hauled off a side-street, impressed into the Navy, given your 14" of hammock-space and sixteen hours of daily work, with the lash readily available if you ever care to demur. And as a reminder, the monthly reading of the Articles of War, with almost every infraction being followed by: "...and shall suffer death." O'Brian probably accurately describes this monthly litany as comforting and reassuring to the men.
The reader, Simon Vance, does an excellent job. He trips up occasionally by repeating himself, and his occasional Scottish accent is strictly from the James Doohan Hollywood school, but those are hardly gripes: his friendly voice is accurate and his personality is quite invisible, as it should be.
"Aubrey! May I trouble you for the salt?"
|
|
Master and Commander [UNABRIDGED] Used Books New.