This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson October 15, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackback
This book brings the scientific discoveries which led to that mind-shifting change to life, describing the voyage of the Beagle and the friendship, and later enmity, between its captain, Robert FitzRoy and the young Charles Darwin who he takes on board as natural scientist and companion. It’s done as faction – a fictional account heavily drawing on fact – with the conversations between the two and their daily life on board the ship at extremely close quarters dramatised, but with the details of the voyage itself drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle and other factual sources.
By no means does it concentrate on Darwin alone. This is as much a novelised biography of the brilliant but flawed Captain Fitzroy as it is the story of Darwin’s rise. Fitzroy’s contribution to modern meterology, and the shortsightedness of the Admiralty who cut it off just when it might have made Britain a leader in the subject is a poignant chapter and his brief sojourn in New Zealand a sorry but interesting one. His bravery, and his struggle with what appears to be manic-depression , come through strongly.
Normally if I take a beach holiday on my own, I’ll get through 2 or 3 paperbacks in a day, so the fact that this took nearly three days when I was in Crete in June gives an idea of the sheer size and detail of the novel. This one would bear re-reading, so I’ll have to find something of a similar size to give to Amnesty.
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