Items related to English Passengers

Kneale, Matthew English Passengers ISBN 13: 9780241140680

English Passengers - Hardcover

 
9780241140680: English Passengers
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Determined to prove the literal truth of the Bible, the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson sets out from England, in the summer of 1857, to find the Garden of Eden, convinced it lies on the island of Tasmania. Unknown to him, others in his party have very different agendas, notably the surgeon, Dr Potter, who is developing a sinister thesis on the races of men. To complicate matters further, the ship Wilson had hurriedly chartered is in fact an ill-starred smuggling vessel, crewed by a group of secretiveManxmen. Meanwhile, in Tasmania itself an Aborigine named Peevay recounts his people's struggle against the invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as their cruelty... A stunningly original, unforgettable novel.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Christopher Columbus was looking for a passage to India when he ran full-tilt into the Americas. One of the narrators of Matthew Kneale's ambitious historical novel English Passengers has more modest aspirations: Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley wants only to smuggle a little tobacco, brandy and French pornography from the Isle of Mann to a secluded beach in England. Yet somehow in the process he and his crew end up weighing anchor for Australia. Worse, they are forced to carry three temperamental Englishmen bound for Tasmania on a mission to discover the exact location of the Garden of Eden. The year is 1857, and the study of geology is beginning to make serious inroads into areas of religious doctrine; when the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson runs across a scientific treatise that puts the age of Silurian Limestone somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100,000 years, he is scandalised: "This was despite the fact that the Bible tells, and with great clarity, that the earth was created a mere six thousand years ago". His many attempts to prove the Bible's accuracy lead, eventually, to a scientific expedition comprising himself, Timothy Renshaw, a dilettante botanist, and Dr Thomas Potter.

Now jump back 30 years, to 1828, when a revolution of sorts is stirring on the island of Tasmania. Over the years white settlers have been encroaching on aboriginal land and relations have deteriorated into violence. At the heart of the action is Peevay, a young man abandoned by his aborigine mother, who had been kidnapped and raped by a white escaped convict. Now his vengeful mother is leading a war against the whites, and Peevay, desperate to win her love, has joined her. Chapters from the past narrated by Peevay and augmented by letters and dispatches from white settlers alternate with the sections told by Kewley, Wilson, Renshaw and Potter. Eventually, of course, the two timelines intersect with momentous results.

War, mutiny, shipwreck and not a little farce make English Passengers a gripping read, but it is Matthew Kneale's literary ventriloquism that renders it remarkable. In a novel with so many different points of view, the individuality of each voice stands out. There is, for instance, the mutinous Dr Potter, whose descent into paranoia and egomania results in diary entries reminiscent of a 19th-century psychotic Bridget Jones: "Manxmen = treacherous even to v. last. Self heard Brew (lashed to mainmast as per usual) instructing helmsman to steer N.N.W. when self questioned he re. this he claiming we = carried into Bay of Biscay by difficult sea currents + must set course to avoid Breton Peninsular. He pointing to distant point of land to N.N.E. claiming this = Brittany. Self = doubtful".

Perhaps the most compelling voice in English Passengers belongs to Peevay, who paints a vivid picture of aboriginal life in a foreign tongue he nonetheless makes his own:

When we sat so in the dark, after our eating, Tartoyen told us stories--secret stories that I will not say even now--about the moon and sun, and how everyone got made, from men and wallaby to seal and kangaroo rat and so. Also he told who was in those rocks and mountains and stars, and how they went there. Until, by and by, I could hear stories as we walked across the world, and divine how it got so, till I knew the world as if he was some family fellow of mine.
By the close of this epic tale, the world Peevay knew has gone forever, and the lives of the Manx sailors and English passengers have been irrevocably changed. Based on real events in Tasmanian history, Matthew Kneale's novel delivers a home truth about Australia's brutal colonial past, even as it conveys the wonder and allure of the age of exploration. --Alix Wilber
Review:
"'A big, ambitious novel with a rich historical sweep and a host of narrative voices. Its subject is a vicar's ludicrous expedition in 1857 to the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, [as] meanwhile, in Tasmania itself, the British settlers are alternately trying to civilise and eliminate the Aboriginal population... The sort of novel that few contemporary writers have either the imagination or the stamina to sustain' - Daily Telegraph"

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherHamish Hamilton
  • Publication date2000
  • ISBN 10 0241140684
  • ISBN 13 9780241140680
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages480
  • Rating

Shipping: £ 18.63
From Australia to U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780140285215: English Passengers

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780140285215
Publisher: Penguin, 2001
Softcover

  • 9780385497442: English Passengers

    Anchor..., 2001
    Softcover

  • 9780385497435: English Passengers

    Doubleday, 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9780385259491: English Passengers

    Double..., 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9780141034973: English Passengers (Penguin Celebrations)

    Penguin, 2007
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Kneale, Matthew
Published by Hamish Hamilton, London (2000)
ISBN 10: 0241140684 ISBN 13: 9780241140680
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
BOOK COLLECTORS GALLERY
(SUMMER HILL, NSW, Australia)

Book Description Cloth. Condition: Very Good ++. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good ++. First Edition. Seller Inventory # 015363

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 11.72
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 18.63
From Australia to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kneale, Matthew
Published by Hamish Hamilton (2000)
ISBN 10: 0241140684 ISBN 13: 9780241140680
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
The Book Spot
(Sioux Falls, SD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks66261

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 48.17
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds