The Mauritius Command

Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Reunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains -- Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny. "O'Brian's sheer brilliance as a writer constantly dazzles." -- Irish Times Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) was born Richard Patrick Russ in England. During WWII he and his wife were involved in British secret-service activities. After the war he changed his name to Patrick O'Brian. He began his career as a novelist, biographer, and translator. Starting in the 1990s, Mr. O'Brian, then in his seventies, achieved the critical and popular recognition that was his due. Simon Vance, winner of Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award in 2006, was born in England and worked for ten years for the BBC as a radio news announcer and as a narrator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Besides narrating, he is involved in numerous stage-acting projects in the United States and Europe.