The Wine-Dark Sea

By: Patrick O'Brian

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

At the opening of a voyage filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are in pursuit of a privateer sailing under American colours through the Great South Sea. Stephen's objective is to set the revolutionary tinder of South America ablaze to relieve the pressure on the British government which has blundered into war with the young and uncomfortably vigorous United States. The shock and barbarity of hand-to-hand fighting are sharpened by O'Brian's exact sense of period, his eye for landscape and his feel for a ship under sail.

©1993 The Estate of the late Patrick O'Brian CBE (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

4th book, still on same voyage.

Would you listen to The Wine-Dark Sea again? Why?

Just relistened the whole series this far, to get a better picture of the whole.

Any additional comments?

And it's still great. Best series ever, with not a hint of quality drop.

Always an enjoyable listen... great narrator

I love this series. the narrator is thebonly man for the job as far as I'm concerned... great all around

Jack, Stephen, a French Utopian, Prizes, and Peru

“A purple ocean, vast under the sky and devoid of all visible life, apart from two minute ships racing across its immensity. They were as close-hauled to the somewhat irregular north-east trades as ever they could be, with every sail they could safely carry and even more, their bowlines twanging taut: they had been running like this day after day, sometimes so far apart that each saw only the other’s top sails above the horizon, sometimes within gunshot; and when this was the case, they fired at one another with their chasers.”

The War of 1812 is ongoing. The Surprise (an obsolete British privateer owned and captained by Jack Aubrey) is chasing the Franklin (a smart American privateer owned by a French utopian aristocrat called Dutourd) towards Peru, where the intelligence-agent (don't call him spy) and Jack’s close friend Stephen Maturin is supposed to help foment rebellion against Spanish rule. Stephen is a hater of tyranny, especially that of Bonaparte (while for some reason finding England a force for autonomy and independence) but also that of Castilian Spain against his Catalan home.

A chewer of coca leaves “as a relief from mental or spiritual distress and physical or intellectual weariness as well as a source of benignity and general well-being,” Stephen is looking forward to getting a fresh supply (his previous one having been completely eaten by rats!). An accomplished naturalist, he is also looking forward to seeing South American flora and fauna (like the condor) and geographical features like the Andes.

O'Brian efficiently brings readers new to the series up to speed on naval and intelligence matters, as well as on Stephen's wife at home, Diana. He also uses the convenient presence of Stephen's friend and fellow landlubber Martin (ship's chaplain and sub-surgeon after Stephen) to explain age-of-sail nautical matters to the uninformed reader (like this one!).

There will be plenty of action in this one: sea pursuits and battles, an underwater volcano eruption, an Andes snowstorm. There will be medical interventions. Vivid descriptions of flora and fauna in varied marine and exotic land settings. Political maneuverings. Informative letter writing (especially by Stephen to Diana), and good violin and cello playing. All quite absorbing and entertaining.

It's just always so good to spend some time with the best bosom buddies Jack and Stephen: “Tell me brother, has no one told you what is afoot?” and “God love you Jack, what things you tell me,” and—

“Will I confess a grave sin?” he asked.
“Do, by all means,” said Jack, looking at him kindly. “But if you managed to commit a grave sin between the gunroom and here, you have a wonderful capacity for evil.”
Stephen took a piece of biscuit, tapping at it mechanically, brushed away the weevil frass, and said, “I was in a wicked vile temper, so I was too, and I flew out at Dutourd and Rousseau.”

And the supporting characters like the shrewish Killick and Jack’s natural son Sam and the two Melanesian girls Sarah and Emily are appealing. Dutourd (an educated man with money to fund his utopian dreams) is complex enough for an antagonist: naïve, passionate, idealistic, and loose-tongued.

And there’s just so much prime writing throughout! Like--

The Andes:
“He reached the top, but only just, and stood there controlling or trying to control his violent gasps while Eduardo named the great shining snowy peaks that soared on either hand and in front, all rising like islands from an orange belt of cloud, one behind the other, all brilliant in the cold transparent air.”

A whale:
“To windward there was a vast expiring sigh as a sperm whale surfaced, black in a coruscation of green light, an enormous solitary bull. His spout drifted across the launch itself, and he could be heard drawing in the air, breathing for quite some time; then easily, smoothly, he shouldered over and dived, showing his flukes in a final blaze.”

A sudden pitch of the ship:
“He was in the act of pouring a glass when the ship pitched with such extraordinary violence, pitched as though she had fallen into a hole, that he very nearly fell, and the glass left the wine in the air, a coherent body for a moment.”

The series is sinking slowly

Too ponderous by far, the series has run out of wind and totally becalmed. The writer is just milking the series and probably should have ceased a few books ago.