‘Art is despair with dignity’

Collected Short Stories

Collected Short Stories

Patrick O’Brian

Patrick O’Brian emerged, in the opinion of many, as the greatest historical novelist writing in English. He is best known for the astonishing ‘roman fleuve’ of the Aubrey/Maturin tales, but it is often forgotten that he first made his reputation as a writer of short stories.

Collected here is a definitive selection of all the stories O’Brian wished to preserve. They exhibit an effortless variety of mood and tone: some stories are enchantingly funny, others exciting, terrifying or passionate. And as O’Brian’s admirers know, his prose is always fresh and meticulous, his sympathy with frivolity, passion and suffering, unfailing.

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