GREAT LINE:

“For a moment Jack felt the strongest inclination to snatch up his little gilt chair and beat the white-faced man down with it…”

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That quote from Master and Commander is in the first chapter, and seems an unlikely start to a friendship that is one of the most interesting in fiction. When Jack Aubrey meets Stephen Maturin at a concert, they have a rather violent disagreement about music. The two are such opposites: Jack, a straightforward, blunt captain in the Royal Navy and Stephen a naturalist and physician with a tendency towards secrecy. In this opening volume Jack is a lieutenant desperate for his first real ship to command. When he does finally get his ship, he rather impulsively asks Stephen along as ship’s doctor. Set in the Napoleonic era, the book is full of nautical slang and ship’s jargon, but somehow that all fades into the background as the reader is swept into a vivid picture of a time, and a gripping series of adventures on the high seas.

Check the BPL catalog for this title: Master and Commander