The Far Side of the World
Historical Fiction Adventure Fiction Military Fiction Naval Fiction Sea Story Exploration & Travel
Collector-grade 1984 first edition of Patrick O'Brian’s tenth Aubrey–Maturin adventure, The Far Side of the World, in the rare Collins hard-back binding and its original colour dust-jacket. Published a decade before the series became a world-wide phenomenon and the inspiration for the Academy-Award–winning film Master and Commander, this copy captures the novel at the moment it quietly expanded O’Brian’s naval saga into the Pacific theatre, pairing Captain Jack Aubrey’s frigate with the exotic Galápagos archipelago and delivering what many fans call the high-water mark of nautical fiction: equal parts sea battles, natural philosophy, and psychological intrigue.
For enthusiasts searching an investment-grade copy, this 1st/1st Collins imprint predates the later American Norton reprints, sports the original UK spelling, and is already scarce in the marketplace. The jacket’s dramatic clipper-ship artwork is bright and unfaded, while the hard boards remain tight and square despite ex-library handling. All pages are present and readable; minor cosmetic issues—library stamps, edge speckling typical of 1980s paper stock, and a gentle spine tilt—are noted, making this an affordable entry point into first-state collecting without the four-figure price tag of pristine examples.
Whether you are building an Aubrey–Maturin shelf, sourcing reading copies that retain collectible value, or hunting for the specific volume dramatized on screen, this Far Side of the World offers authentic first-edition DNA, provenance traceable to 1984, and the original dust jacket art that later printings lack.
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