The Unknown Shore, Patrick OBrian
The Unknown Shore, Patrick OBrian
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The Unknown Shore

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Patrick Tull

Unabridged: 11 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/11/2008


Synopsis

Inspired by the Wager disaster, The Unknown Shore is an immediate precursor to Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series that displays all the splendid prose and attention to detail that delight O'Brian's millions of fans.

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.

About Patrick O'Brian

Patrick O’Brian (1914–2000), a translator and author of biographies, was best known as the author of the highly acclaimed Aubrey–Maturin series of historical novels. Set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars ,this twenty-volume series centers on the enduring friendship between naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician and spy Stephen Maturin. The Far Side of the World, the tenth book in the series, was adapted into a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. The film was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture. He wrote acclaimed biographies of Pablo Picasso and Sir Joseph Banks. He also translated many works from the French, among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Lacouture’s biographies of Charles de Gaulle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clemens on December 15, 2021

Read this book in 2011, and its the 2nd of the two-part series about British Naval history in mid 18th Century. This book is dedicated to one of the ships that was part of Commodore Anson's Squadron, and this ship was called "the Wager", only to be parted from that squadron due to the fierce storms o......more

Goodreads review by Karl on December 27, 2022

This is a prequel to O'Brian's long series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures: here, Jack and Toby are junior members of the Wager's company on an extended, cross-ocean adventure. Jack and Toby morph into Aubrey and Maturin for the later books. Like the later series, this book is an adventure/saga, with r......more

Goodreads review by Robin on July 05, 2013

Before the storied friendship of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin was a gleam in Patrick O'Brian's eye, he gave the world this book featuring a very Aubrey-like young midshipman named Jack Byron and his boyhood friend, surgeon's mate Tobias Barrow—who is like Stephen in all ways short of being Irish.......more

Goodreads review by Hudson on March 21, 2016

The genesis of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, need I say more? Must read for any Master and Commander fans!......more

Goodreads review by Pat on July 17, 2009

I am probably like most readers of this book, a longtime fan of Patrick O'Brian, principally through the Aubrey-Maturin series. Like them, I think O'Brian died too young at 86; the twenty books in that series were not enough. In hopes of finding a bolt of lightning like the ones I had found in earli......more