Rating: 5/5
Review:
Fascinating, gripping and revealing
I enjoyed this book very much. It is an account of the real-life expedition
of discovery by the two ships Astrolabe and Boussole, commanded by Lapérouse, which
set out from France
in 1785. It is written in a series of
episodes, each from a different person's perspective. It is largely narrated in the third person
but with some first-person narratives, some letters and so on. We get the thoughts and experiences of a wide
range of people who took part in the expedition and others who were affected by
it in different ways.
This is not so much a novel of the sea as a novel of
character and of the Enlightenment. There
are some echoes of writers like Patrick O`Brian but we get almost no shipboard
narrative, and certainly no details of the operation of a sailing ship. The accounts are of the preparations, relationships
on board, events ashore and so on, and we get a very good feel of what a voyage
of discovery really meant and how hazardous it really was.
I thought it was all very well done. The different voices
were convincing and gave a fascinating perspective on the effects of the voyage
and on the attitudes of the time, both among the French protagonists and among
those they encountered, including natives of the places they visited and
Spanish conquerors in Chile
and California. Naomi Williams has plainly done deep and
thorough research and seems to be thoroughly steeped in the period. It is an impressive achievement to bring a genuine
historical event to life so convincingly and the personal stories are very
recognisable and convincing, from the burdens and sometimes guilt of command to
the simple human grief for a lost comrade, for example, or the way in which a
respect for scientific endeavour overrode animosity between governments.
I found the whole thing very gripping and a fascinating,
revealing portrait of what aspects of the Enlightenment meant at an individual,
human level. It's a really good read and
a book which will live in the memory. Very warmly recommended.
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