In
the spring of 1785, Captain de Laperouse leaves France with
two ships on a voyage of discovery. This is going to take
four years as the ships traverse the oceans on their scientific
mission from the icy vastness of Russia to sunny Australia.
But it won’t be plain sailing, and everybody on board
will discover more about themselves while they make discoveries
for their King.
Firstly, although it sounds like it, this is not primarily
a sea story. If Hornblower and Patrick O’Brien etc.
are not your bag, then don’t discard this novel, as
it is not that type of thing despite being about a long sea
voyage. You won’t be reading about how a frigate is
sailed or accounts of typical naval battles; essentially this
is very much a book about people as individuals. The story
is told from the points of view of everybody involved, from
the Captain downwards and also of those that the travellers
meet and those left behind. There are accounts of romances,
species discovered, terrible hardships, hostile natives, exotic
landscapes and shipboard relationships of all kinds, as well
as the travellers’ relationship with their home country.
The Enlightenment sent them, but as they travel France is
undergoing the Revolution and those who make it home will
find a country as alien as the ones they have voyaged to discover.
This is a very well written story of the type that stays in
the mind long afterwards and, despite involving the sort of
voyage that could best be descried as ill-fated, it is not
a tragedy. One to be read slowly and savored for the literary,
but highly readable, treat that it is.
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