Word: masterful
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...real Russell Crowe is not quite Aubrey, the unambiguously heroic fellow he plays in Peter Weir's splendidly bracing sea epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Sometimes, the actor comes off as a brute, a primitive: Crowe Magnon Man. So we gladly cede to others the honor of carousing or canoodling with him. We might lock up our daughters at his approach. We would not care to be within striking distance of his coiled wrath...
Fame and wealth came late for Patrick O'Brian. He was already 55 in 1970 when he published Master and Commander, the first of what would be 20 volumes in his irresistible naval saga set in the time of the Napoleonic wars. But by the time the last volume appeared in 1999, O'Brian's tales of Captain Jack Aubrey and his shipmate Dr. Stephen Maturin had become Harry Potter for grownups. Each new book was a heavily anticipated publishing event among not only weekend sailors but also people whose only prior encounter with seafaring had been Sloop John...
...these futtock-plates at the rim here hold the dead-eyes for the topmast shrouds"). The books are action-adventures, true, but also peerless novels of 19th century manners, detailing the mores of Regency England while instructing in the finer points of how to cannonade a French corsair or master seas that can body slam mere frigates into splinters...
...past. But a biography by Dean King published just after O'Brian's death revealed that despite O'Brian's claims, he was never a pilot in the Royal Air Force or a student at Oxford. What we know for sure is that he was a minor master of 20th century literature. His books will sail...
...small print of a public-security order she issued last Friday ordering the army to deploy across the island's 25 districts. If carried out to the letter, this would effectively mean a new army offensive on LTTE territory. "That would result in some problems," was Tiger spokesman Daya Master's dry comment...