The Letter of Marque

This naval novel finds Jack Aubrey struck off the Royal Navy list after a stock-exchange fraud engineered by enemies. Stephen Maturin, now owner of the frigate Surprise, obtains a letter of marque so that Aubrey can take her to sea as a private man-of-war. They sail against French shipping, attempt a cutting-out, and work for Aubrey's restoration to the list. Shipboard routine, intelligence, and prize money share the plot with Maturin's natural history and a strained marriage at home. The book is one episode in a long Napoleonic sea sequence, not a treatise on privateering law.

Bound in dark bue buckram, cover blocked in gilt and colour with a design by Neil Gower. 12 pages of colour and black & white plates, and 6 black & white tailpieces. Map endpapers printed dark grey on light blue. Blue slipcase.