The Unknown Shore (Paperback)

~ (Author) "MR EDWARD CHAWORTH OF MEDENHAM WAS A WELL-DISposed, good-natured man with an adequate fortune, an amiable wife and a numerous family: he thought the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: list slippers, store tent, Captain Cheap, Juan Fernandez, Moses Lewis (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Unknown Shore, a sort-of sequel to The Golden Ocean, is a fascinating blue-print for the Aubrey-Maturin series. We follow Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow, two unlikely neighbors and fast friends in whom we catch glimpses of the heroes of the epic series to come. They set off to sea in 1740 as part of Commodore Anson's fleet to circumnavigate the globe. Byron, a romantic, forceful lad, signs on as a midshipman; Barrow, a strangely educated, scientifically brilliant boy, is running away from his father and wins a commission as a surgeon's mate. Set up in the Wager, which is parted from Anson's squadron and sinks somewhere along the desolate coast of Chile, Byron and Barrow are left to struggle for survival by wits alone, facing mutiny, famine, indifferent natives and lingering infighting. A fully realized hint of the fictional magic to come.

From Publishers Weekly

O'Brian's loyal following for the Aubrey/Maturin historical nautical adventure novels (The Wine-Dark Sea, etc.) has swelled from a cult to a legion of readers; thus there are many who will welcome this predecessor to that well-received series. Originally published in England in 1959 and based on British Commodore Anson's 1740 circumnavigation of the world (as was O'Brian's The Golden Ocean), this is the story of HMS Wager, a ship separated from Anson's squadron while sailing around Cape Horn. The Wager is shipwrecked off Patagonia, and the largest part of the narrative details the hardships of the diminishing band of survivors on that inhospitable shore. Daily shipboard routine, smoky 1740 London and the Indian community in Chile are all finely detailed. What will set devotees of O'Brian's better-known books positively aquiver, though, are the two chief characters: Jack Byron, an enthusiastic midshipman with "gaudy" family connections, and his best boyhood friend, Tobias Barrow, an unworldly budding doctor and naturalist. Their later counterparts are, of course, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and O'Brian loyalists will have a field day comparing the four characters. Though this novel isn't quite as polished or stylish as the author's later work, it's a most honorable ancestor. Maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (October 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039331538X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393315387
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #157,792 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Typical Patrick O'Brian: Outstanding, July 15, 1998

By	Doug Briggs (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

In O'Brian's first novel of the sea, The Golden Ocean, which is factual in its essential details, Commodore Anson set out in 1740 to circumnavigate the globe. Of his small fleet, only Anson's flagship survives to return to England loaded with gold and silver taken from a Spanish galleon. (Spain has every right to take great pride in its role of financing the Royal Navy for the good part of a century.)

One of the ships that began that fateful but historic voyage, the Wager, is driven by a fierce storm onto the rocky coast of Chile and wrecked. The Unknown Shore is the story of the travails of those who survived the disaster only to experience new tragedies, some of their own making, ashore. Only a few of those who made it ashore survive. Guided and otherwise given aid by natives, those few reach safety in Valparaiso, Chile.

As in all of O'Brian's remarkably well-written stories, his narrative of The Unknown Shore is rich, delightful, flawless. His attention to detai! ! l is splendid, and splendidly set down. The central characters in this book are a midshipman named Jack Byron and a surgeon's mate named Tobias Barrow. Barrow is totally inept with any of the demands of survival in the rough, but Byron provides him with the inspiration to persevere.

A fine story of depravation and wild adventure, told with O'Brian's top-notch craftsmanship. Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow are credible stand-ins for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, yet to come in O'Brian's much more famous Aubrey/Maturin sagas, fans of which will be delighted with this precursor to that 18-book series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars ... plus., February 26, 2000

By	anthony colin (hendersonville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unknown Shore (Hardcover)

Jack and Toby: Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in ye merrie olde England. Great! When you've finished this, go on to the follow-up Aubrey/Maturin series, without a doubt the best written seafaring tales in all of literature. Mr. O'Brian died in January at age 85, leaving behind a legacy unmatched by few contemporary writers in the English language.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not My Favorite, July 30, 2005

By	SereneNight (California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The Unknown Shore is the story of Tobias and Jack, two unlikely companions who, after enlisting in the royal navy are subject to so many trials and tribulations at the end of the novel I was surprised that they survived with their sanity intact. The novel starts off mildly enough, but after they are castaway, things begin to go rapidly downhill. As if the gruesome descriptions of scurvy were not enough, the reader is treated to watching characters starve to death slowly, under the iron fist of a stupid, and selfish captain.

Frankly, my greatest disappointment was that O'Brian did not show us what happened to the cruel and heavy-handed captain Cheap, who deserved to be eaten by cannibals at the very least.

Good, but not great, and not something I would want to read again.