Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow
Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's bestselling novel and eighteenth volume in
the Aubrey/Maturin series.
Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his
prospects at the admiralty by his erratic voting as a member of
Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong navy
connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates;
he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has
ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's
exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a
French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of
missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of
1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his
career.
Fortunately Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns
from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure
their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers.
Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career as well as
Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him
to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.
