The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey

Front Cover
HarperCollins, 2004 - Fiction - 136 pages
Blue at the Mizzen (novel #20) ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author's death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The three chapters left on O'Brian's desk at the time of his death are presented here both in printed version-including his corrections to the typescript-and a facsimile of his manuscript, which goes several pages beyond the end of the typescript to include a duel between Stephen Maturin and an impertinent officer who is courting his fiancee. Of course we would rather have had the whole story; instead we have this proof that O'Brian's powers of observation, his humor, and his understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end.

From inside the book

Contents

Section 1
2
Section 2
21
Section 3
44
Copyright

7 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2004)

Patrick O'Brian, was until his death in 2000, one of our greatest contemporary novelists and widely regarded as one of the greatest storytellers of the English language. He is the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin novels and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso. He has also written other novels including Testimonies, and many short stories. In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to literature. In the same year he was awarded the CBE. In 1997 he received an honorary doctorate of letters from Trinity College, Dublin. In 2003, his Aubrey novels were taken to the big screen by the film director Peter Weir with the blockbuster and critically acclaimed Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He died in Dublin in January 2000.

Bibliographic information