4th Estate

Patrick O’Brian

Post Captain, the second novel in Patrick O’Brian’s remarkable Aubrey/Maturin series, led Mary Renault to write: ‘Master and Commander raised dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them.’

Jack Aubrey arrives home from his exploits in the Mediterranean to find England at peace following the Treaty of Amiens. He and his friend Stephen Maturin, surgeon and secret agent, begin to live the lives of country gentlemen, hunting, entertaining and enjoying more amorous adventures. But their comfortable existence is cut short when, seemingly overnight, Jack is reduced to a pauper with enough debts to keep him in prison for life. He flees to the continent to seek refuge, but instead finds himself a hunted fugitive because Napoleon has ordered the internment of all Englishmen in France.

Aubrey’s adventures in escaping from France and the debtors’ prison will grip the reader as fast as his unequalled actions at sea.

Reviews of Post Captain

‘Full of the energy that comes from a writer having struck a vein…Patrick O’Brian is unquestionably the Homer of the Napoleonic wars.’ James Hamilton-Paterson

‘You are in for the treat of your lives. Thank God for Patrick O’Brian: his genius illuminates the literature of the English language, and lightens the lives of those who read him.’ Kevin Myers, Irish Times

‘Written with most engaging enthusiasm that can’t fail to give pleasure to anybody who enjoys historical adventure flavoured with more than a dash of realism.’ Sunday Times

‘Liveliness and expertise…the hero is vigorous flesh and blood.’ Observer

‘This book sets him at the very top of his genre.’ Mary Renault