The Unknown Shore (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393038590)

Patrick O'Brian's first novel about the sea, The Golden Ocean, took inspiration from Commodore George Anson's fateful circumnavigation of the globe in 1740. In The Unknown Shore, O'Brian returns to this rich source and mines it brilliantly for another, quite different tale of exploration and adventure.

The Wager was parted from Anson's squadron in the fierce storms off Cape Horn and struggled alone up the coast of Chile until she was driven against the rocks and sank. The survivors were soon involved in trouble of every kind. A surplus of rum, a disappearing stock of food, and a hard, detested captain soon drove them into drunkenness, mutiny, and bloodshed. After many months of privation, a handful of men made their way northward under the guidance of a band of Indians, at last finding safety in Valparaiso.

This saga of survival is the background to the adventures of two young men aboard the Wager: midshipman Jack Byron and his friend Tobias Barrow, an alarmingly naive surgeon's mate. Patrick O'Brian's many devoted readers will take particular interest in this story, as Jack and Toby form a kind of blueprint for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the famed heroes of the great Aubrey/Maturin series to come.


Author: Patrick O'Brian
ISBN-10: 0393038599
ISBN-13: 9780393038590
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 11/17/1995
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 8.53h x 5.90w x 1.18d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 07/01/1995 pg. 56
Publishers Weekly 10/02/1995 pg. 55
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/1995 pg. 1303
Library Journal 12/01/1995 pg. 165
New York Times 12/17/1995 pg. 22