PATRICK O’BRIAN FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959. First edition : in the primary binding, lettered in silver. HMS Wager, one of Commodore Anson’s squadron, wrecked on the coast of Chile in 1741. “Drunkenness, mutiny and bloodshed” and the fictionalised tale of two young men – midshipman Jack Byron, secret poet (and real-life grandfather of Lord Byron) and his eccentric protégé Toby Barrow, surgeon’s mate – evidently precursors of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
Post 8vo (21cm). 256pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in silver; some spotting, mainly of prelims and edges; endpapers a touch tanned, but otherwise a very good and sound copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket lightly sunned, with some light rubbing and wear, but complete and attractive still.

SOLD

London : HarperCollins, (1993). First edition. Maturin, “charged with setting the revolutionary tinder of South America ablaze to relieve the pressure on a British government which, already engaged in a death-struggle with a Europe dominated by Napoleon, has blundered into a war with the young but uncomfortably vigorous United States” – “This saga ... adds up to one of the great achievements of contemporary fiction” (Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph, 27th June 1993).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(262),[iv]pp. Original purple boards, blocked and lettered in gilt. A very good copy in the Geoff Hunt dust-jacket – the jacket just a touch sunned and with the faintest of creases, but also very good. Loosely inserted is a contemporary (1993) press-cutting recording an extensive and interesting interview with the author.

SOLD

London : HarperCollins, (1998). First edition. Aging and in need of action, Aubery and Maturin are in pursuit of Napoleon after his escape from Elba.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(282)pp. Diagram. Original navy boards, blocked and lettered in gilt. Text lightly tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in the Geoff Hunt dust-jacket – the jacket also very good. Two related press-cuttings loosely inserted.

SOLD