Cancel

The Unknown Shore

by Patrick O'Brian Patrick O'Brian

View All Available Formats & Editions >

eBook

$10.99 $15.95 | Save 31%

Customer Reviews

ISBN-13:

9780393344424

Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 05/21/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 85,847
File size: 1 MB

Patrick O’Brian was one of our greatest contemporary novelists. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey–Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He lived for many years in south west France and he died in Dublin in January 2000.

Brief Biography

Date of Birth:: December 12, 1914
Date of Death:: January 2, 2000

Place of Birth:: Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire
Place of Death:: Dublin, Ireland

Education:: Shebbear College, Devon
Website:: http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm

What People are Saying About This

Stephen Becker

Immediately and unmistakably O'Brian, with humor both slapstick and subtle, the sea implacably neutral, and his heroes bold rough sketches of Aubrey and Maturin. This and The Golden Ocean are fine forerunners of the grand series, and meeting them now is like being suddenly young again.

Available on NOOK devices and apps

NOOK eReaders
NOOK GlowLight 4 Plus
NOOK GlowLight 4e
NOOK GlowLight 4
NOOK GlowLight Plus 7.8"
NOOK GlowLight 3
NOOK GlowLight Plus 6"

NOOK Tablets
NOOK 9" Lenovo Tablet (Arctic Grey and Frost Blue)
NOOK 10" HD Lenovo Tablet
NOOK Tablet 7" & 10.1"
NOOK by Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 [Tab A and Tab 4]
NOOK by Samsung [Tab 4 10.1, S2 & E]

Free NOOK Reading Apps
NOOK for iOS
NOOK for Android

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

An immediate precursor to Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series, displaying all the splendid prose and attention to detail that O'Brian's readers expect.

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.

The Golden Ocean

by Patrick O'Brian

Average rating: 3.3 Average rating:
Flashman and the Mountain of…

by George MacDonald Fraser

Average rating: 4.3 Average rating:
The White Company and Sir…

by Arthur Conan DoyleDoug Elliott

Average rating: 4.0 Average rating:
Beneath the Aurora: #12 A…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 5.0 Average rating:
The Shadow of the Eagle: #13 A…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 0.0 Average rating:
The Wine-Dark Sea…

by Patrick O'Brian

Average rating: 4.5 Average rating:
Baltic Mission: #7 A Nathaniel…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 5.0 Average rating:
The Flying Squadron: #11 A…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 0.0 Average rating:
Ebb Tide: #14 A Nathaniel…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 0.0 Average rating:
Flashman's Lady

by George MacDonald Fraser

Average rating: 4.5 Average rating:
1805: #6 A Nathanial…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 0.0 Average rating:
An Eye of the Fleet: A…

by Richard Woodman

Average rating: 5.0 Average rating:
Flash for Freedom!

by George MacDonald Fraser

Average rating: 4.6 Average rating:
The Sea Beggars: A Novel

by Cecelia Holland

Average rating: 0.0 Average rating:
Arena: Revenge (Part Four of…

by Simon ScarrowT. J. Andrews

Average rating: 4.5 Average rating:

Recently Viewed

The Unknown Shore

Average rating: 3.8 Average rating:

Stephen Becker

Immediately and unmistakably O'Brian, with humor both slapstick and subtle, the sea implacably neutral, and his heroes bold rough sketches of Aubrey and Maturin. This and The Golden Ocean are fine forerunners of the grand series, and meeting them now is like being suddenly young again.”

New York Times Book Review

Here is an unexpected bonus: a precursor to the Aubrey/Maturin series...with all the charm of the author's mature works. And for those who have been daunted by the prospect of embarking on a 17-volume series, here is the perfect way to test the waters...It has the same elements that mark Mr. O'Brian's more recent works: the wealth of social detail, the quiet humor, the harrowing shipwrecks, the swashbuckling adventures in foreign parts... .From a cozy, well-lighted 20th century home, [Jack and Toby's] travails could not be more delightful to contemplate.

E. O. Wilson - Boston Globe

I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop.

Tamar Lewin - New York Times Book Review

Here is an unexpected bonus: a precursor to the Aubrey/Maturin series...with all the charm of the author's mature works. And for those who have been daunted by the prospect of embarking on a 17-volume series, here is the perfect way to test the waters...It has the same elements that mark Mr. O'Brian's more recent works: the wealth of social detail, the quiet humor, the harrowing shipwrecks, the swashbuckling adventures in foreign parts.... From a cozy, well-lighted 20th century home, [Jack and Toby's] travails could not be more delightful to contemplate.

Boston Globe

I haven’t read novels [in the past ten years] except for all of the Patrick O’Brian series. It was, unfortunately, like tripping on heroin. I started on those books and couldn’t stop.— E. O. Wilson

< > ×