{"title":"Patrick O'Brian","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePatrick O'Brian\u003c\/strong\u003e offers richly detailed tales of adventure and human experience, blending historical depth with compelling storytelling. His works, such as \u003cem\u003eMaster and Commander\u003c\/em\u003e, invite readers into immersive worlds where character and setting intertwine beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom maritime exploits to intimate personal narratives, O'Brian's fiction spans a broad emotional and thematic range, appealing to those who appreciate finely crafted general fiction with a strong sense of place and period.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"testimonies-by-patrick-obrian-9780008695477","title":"Testimonies","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBack in print and now in hardback, the deeply personal and ingenious literary first novel written under Patrick O’Brian’s own name, newly introduced by Nikolai Tolstoy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTestimonies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Aubrey Pugh, an Oxford don who has given up his teaching post and come to live in a secluded Welsh valley, falls in love with Bronwen Vaughan, the wife of a young farmer who is his neighbour. She is estranged from her husband, an admirable man in many ways, but one who has compelled her to submit to some brutal sexual perversion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen a famous preacher, whose advances Bronwen has rejected with contempt, persuades the entire community that she has committed adultery with Pugh, a reckoning is inevitable. The ill-fated consequences of their actions are recounted in the testimonies of Bronwen, Pugh, and the preacher’s cousin, Mr Lloyd.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePatrick O’Brian is world famous for his novels of nautical high adventure, but twenty years before readers were first introduced to Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, he wrote this intensely felt and evocative tale set in the beautiful but often unforgiving Welsh landscape he knew so well. With all the freshness and immediacy that have become hallmarks of O’Brian’s style, he conveys the hopes and fears, and tragedy, of his characters, demonstrating the flair and sheer humanity that have made him one of the twentieth century’s literary greats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis new edition of Patrick O'Brian's first adult novel includes a new introduction by the author's biographer and stepson, Nikolai Tolstoy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46671556346092,"sku":"9780008695477","price":41.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1788883482191.jpg?v=1752821317"},{"product_id":"the-catalans-by-patrick-obrian-9780008696566","title":"The Catalans","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSet amongst the rolling vineyards and gentle courtyards of a small seaside village in Catalonia, Patrick O'Brian's second novel is a poignant story of tumultuous love, complex faith, and one man's desperate bid to reclaim his humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSummoned from his medical practice in China by a bevy of anxious aunts, Alain Roig returns to his Catalan hometown to discover he has been nominated by family members with vested interests in the ancestral property to prevent an impending marriage between his cold, ascetic cousin Xavier and Madeleine, a quiet, introspective village girl of unusual beauty. As Alain seeks to understand his cousin's complex motivations for wooing the unhappy girl, he is slowly drawn into Xavier's dark crisis of faith, the well-worn pattern of the sleepy Catalan days, and the tight circle of village gossip that surrounds Madeleine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout, Patrick O'Brian's slow, seductive narrative lures the reader into the landscapes, rhythms, and passions of Catalonia, while his subtle, insightful characterisation paints a psychological portrait of a unique way of life and two very different men – one generous and impulsive, the other desperate to revive in his soul the dying flames of affection which he senses could be his salvation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith themes and characters that in many ways prefigure his enormously successful Aubrey\/Maturin series, \u003cem\u003eThe Catalans\u003c\/em\u003e demonstrates all the insight, lyricism, and psychological drama that made O'Brian one of the best storytellers of his generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46715769880812,"sku":"9780008696566","price":45.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1799773482191.jpg?v=1754411705"},{"product_id":"master-and-commander-by-patrick-obrian-9780393541588","title":"Master and Commander","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArdent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship \u003cem\u003eHMS Sophie\u003c\/em\u003e. Meanwhile—after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel—Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an unlikely rapport. On a whim, Aubrey invites Maturin to join his crew as the Sophie’s surgeon. And so begins the legendary friendship that anchors this beloved saga set against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough every ensuing adventure on which Aubrey and Maturin embark, from the witty parley of their lovers and enemies to the roar of broadsides as great ships close in battle around them, O’Brian “provides endlessly varying shocks and surprises—comic, grim, farcical and tragic.… [A] whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit” (A. S. Byatt).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47643049754860,"sku":"9780393541588","price":46.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/781ce17a2b750d22c814cbe145d30d09.jpg?v=1779170285"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/patrick-obrian.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}