English Passengers (Paperback)
| Author: Matthew Kneale |
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Product Details:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
ISBN-10: 038549744X
ISBN-13: 9780385497442
Sku: 30689565
Publish Date: 4/10/2007
Dimensions:
(in Inches) 8H x 5.25L x 1T
Pages:
464
Age Range:
NA
See more in Historical
| In 1857 when Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his band of rum smugglers from the Isle of Man have most of their contraband confiscated by British Customs, they are forced to put their ship up for charter. The only takers are two eccentric Englishmen who want to embark for the other side of the globe. The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson believes the Garden of Eden was on the island of Tasmania. His traveling partner, Dr. Thomas Potter, unbeknownst to Wilson, is developing a sinister thesis about the races of men. <br><br>Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people’s struggles against the invading British, a story that begins in 1824, moves into the present with approach of the English passengers in 1857, and extends into the future in 1870. These characters and many others come together in a storm of voices that vividly bring a past age to life. |
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From the Publisher:
While two Englishmen head for Tasmania on a confiscated pirate ship in search of the Garden of Eden, the British continue their violent "civilization" of the natives in this "paradise." Reprint. |
Annotation:
In 1857, two dotty Englishmen hire a smuggler to transport them to the Garden of Eden, which they believe to be in Tasmania--an island where the representatives of British colonialism are busily engaged in displacing the aboriginal tribes. When the two forces meet, the conflict between civilization and "the primitive" acquires new meaning. Nominated for the Booker Prize, the novel received a Whitebread Award for best book of the year. It was also a New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000.
In 1857, two dotty Englishmen hire a smuggler to transport them to the Garden of Eden, which they believe to be in Tasmania--an island where the representatives of British colonialism are busily engaged in displacing the aboriginal tribes. When the two forces meet, the conflict between civilization and "the primitive" acquires new meaning. Nominated for the Booker Prize, the novel received a Whitebread Award for best book of the year. It was also a New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000.
Praise
New York Times Book Review
"As a whole, ENGLISH PASSENGERS feels a bit too much like two separate novels, because one stream of its action is essentially foreordained and tragic, the other unpredictable and comic. The two streams do ultimately flow together. Then they separate and conclude....But Captain Kewley alone is worth the price of admission, as he bribes and connives his way around the world...." - Adam Hochschild 05/28/2000 Entertainment Weekly
"This is an old-fashioned book in the best sense: epic in scale, crammed with outsize characters, set in a long-ago time...and a faraway place....Both popular entertainment and serious fiction...." 03/17/2000 Salon
"[ENGLISH PASSENGERS is] an alchemical mix of the epic and the intimate, the hilarious and the heartbreaking--elements that can seldom be successfully combined. It's also more fun than we've found between book covers in quite some time....Kneale balances the novel exquisitely; it takes up such momentously painful subjects as colonization and racism, but it never sinks under the weight....At their worst, the English, as Kneale suggests, have been a heavy load for many people to carry, but this novel, for all its intellectual and moral heft, feels as light as a feather." - Laura Miller 02/21/2001
"As a whole, ENGLISH PASSENGERS feels a bit too much like two separate novels, because one stream of its action is essentially foreordained and tragic, the other unpredictable and comic. The two streams do ultimately flow together. Then they separate and conclude....But Captain Kewley alone is worth the price of admission, as he bribes and connives his way around the world...." - Adam Hochschild 05/28/2000 Entertainment Weekly
"This is an old-fashioned book in the best sense: epic in scale, crammed with outsize characters, set in a long-ago time...and a faraway place....Both popular entertainment and serious fiction...." 03/17/2000 Salon
"[ENGLISH PASSENGERS is] an alchemical mix of the epic and the intimate, the hilarious and the heartbreaking--elements that can seldom be successfully combined. It's also more fun than we've found between book covers in quite some time....Kneale balances the novel exquisitely; it takes up such momentously painful subjects as colonization and racism, but it never sinks under the weight....At their worst, the English, as Kneale suggests, have been a heavy load for many people to carry, but this novel, for all its intellectual and moral heft, feels as light as a feather." - Laura Miller 02/21/2001
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