The WineDark Sea Author:Patrick O'Brian Pure gold...O'Brian truly shows us what it was like; how people talked; what they belied' what they knew and did not know. But I would go further. I think O'Brian, partly by the very scale and consistency of his achievement, has gone further than just classic storytelling intertwined with high scholarship. I think he has shown that late on in... more » our literary silver age, the authentic gold can still be mined. He has things to say about the nature of friendship about mankind's relationship to the natural word' about the animal spirits of a nation in its prime; and about the dark side, as well as the strengths of a close community represented by a ship at sea.« less