"Strange articles of passengers they were, too. Truly, you never did see such a clever and pestful trio as these, all disagreeing with themselves and taking their great clever brains for a little stroll about the deck. I dare say it was hardly a surprise they were odds, mind, seeing as their quest was to discover themselves the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden! As if it couldn't just be left in the Bible where it belonged. They weren't even looking to find it in any sensible spot, but on some rotten island at the very ends of the earth, called Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, as it couldn't make up its mind. This was a mad fool of a place, by the sounds Of it, all gaols and bluemen and worse, being nowhere any sensible fellow would venture near. It was there, and all the way back, too, that we were supposed to be carrying the three snots. A whole year of Englishmen. What a thought that was. It was bad enough just taking them along the coast to Maldon."
Plot: A Manx ship trading in French contraband is caught by the British. While in port, the crew finds a quick escape by agreeing to transport a Vicar and his group to Tasmania to search for the Garden of Eden. Although having no intention of living up to their part of the bargain, the ship's crew is forced to do so. Once in Tasmania, they met up with Peevay, the last aborigine survivor, who becomes their land guide. Peevay's (and the other aborigines') tragic story is also told in alternating chapters.
Why read it?: This is a very funny story, albeit mixed in with a lot of horror and tragedy - this is the destruction of an entire group of people, after all. While the humor provides some relief, this is a serious book and takes sharp aim at several groups of people who think they know better than others, but obviously don't. (A common refrain in our history). And it is a great way to learn some of the history of Tasmania.
A book that rapidly alternates between moments of slapstick humor and enormous tragedy on a grand scale, English Passengers, a book I read years ago, still clearly sticks with me to this day. Ostensibly, this story revolves around the destruction of Tasmania’s aborigine population in the 19th century. This is viewed through the eyes of one of the last aborigines alive named Peevay (whose white father comes to Tasmania to serve a prison sentence and rapes Peevay’s mother) who we first meet as a young boy, living with the quickly diminishing local population as the Europeans overtake their land. Their destruction is slow; little by little they lose the lands they have long occupied and are forced to change the lifestyles they have always known. Much of the early parts of the book are a beautiful (and sometimes horrible) passages of aborigine life, and its slow intersection with the Briitsh. By the time Peevay is an adult, he is a hardened soul, and mostly alone. It is then that he meets the rest of the cast of this story, who come aboard the ship Serenity, manned by a Manx crew. None of the crew, nor the Captain of the ship, want to be in Tasmania, but circumstances have caused them to be here. How the Serenity ends up in Tasmania is the subject of much of the first half of the book. Initially, the crew the Serenity are looking to smuggle French goods (liquor, smokes and porn) into England. When caught by the authorities, they manage to make a run for it by getting hired to take a Vicar to Tasmania, where he believes the Garden of Eden is to be found and can ultimately be used to disprove evolution. Along with the Vicar is a nasty piece of humanity named Dr Potter, who secretly has his own research to do on the trip, namely to find “specimens” to prove his theories on race (a similar plan in included in Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish). The Serenity’s Captain Kewley takes a dim view of these men (and the British in general), but sees them as his only hope to escape the law. Unfortunately for Kewley, his luck is generally terrible and always ill-timed (he explains early on that it runs in the family), and despite his best intentions, his ship does make it to Tasmania, but only after a series of comic adventures at sea; coincidence is rarely your friend .
Plot: A Manx ship trading in French contraband is caught by the British. While in port, the crew finds a quick escape by agreeing to transport a Vicar and his group to Tasmania to search for the Garden of Eden. Although having no intention of living up to their part of the bargain, the ship's crew is forced to do so. Once in Tasmania, they met up with Peevay, the last aborigine survivor, who becomes their land guide. Peevay's (and the other aborigines') tragic story is also told in alternating chapters.
Why read it?: This is a very funny story, albeit mixed in with a lot of horror and tragedy - this is the destruction of an entire group of people, after all. While the humor provides some relief, this is a serious book and takes sharp aim at several groups of people who think they know better than others, but obviously don't. (A common refrain in our history). And it is a great way to learn some of the history of Tasmania.
A book that rapidly alternates between moments of slapstick humor and enormous tragedy on a grand scale, English Passengers, a book I read years ago, still clearly sticks with me to this day. Ostensibly, this story revolves around the destruction of Tasmania’s aborigine population in the 19th century. This is viewed through the eyes of one of the last aborigines alive named Peevay (whose white father comes to Tasmania to serve a prison sentence and rapes Peevay’s mother) who we first meet as a young boy, living with the quickly diminishing local population as the Europeans overtake their land. Their destruction is slow; little by little they lose the lands they have long occupied and are forced to change the lifestyles they have always known. Much of the early parts of the book are a beautiful (and sometimes horrible) passages of aborigine life, and its slow intersection with the Briitsh. By the time Peevay is an adult, he is a hardened soul, and mostly alone. It is then that he meets the rest of the cast of this story, who come aboard the ship Serenity, manned by a Manx crew. None of the crew, nor the Captain of the ship, want to be in Tasmania, but circumstances have caused them to be here. How the Serenity ends up in Tasmania is the subject of much of the first half of the book. Initially, the crew the Serenity are looking to smuggle French goods (liquor, smokes and porn) into England. When caught by the authorities, they manage to make a run for it by getting hired to take a Vicar to Tasmania, where he believes the Garden of Eden is to be found and can ultimately be used to disprove evolution. Along with the Vicar is a nasty piece of humanity named Dr Potter, who secretly has his own research to do on the trip, namely to find “specimens” to prove his theories on race (a similar plan in included in Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish). The Serenity’s Captain Kewley takes a dim view of these men (and the British in general), but sees them as his only hope to escape the law. Unfortunately for Kewley, his luck is generally terrible and always ill-timed (he explains early on that it runs in the family), and despite his best intentions, his ship does make it to Tasmania, but only after a series of comic adventures at sea; coincidence is rarely your friend .
The second half of the novel takes place on land in Tasmania. Peevay is hired as a guide for the Vicar and Dr Potter. He is alternately bemused and disgusted by these men. Soon after, the Vicar is losing his sanity, Dr Potter is taking charge and the whole expedition is on the verge of collapse.
The conclusion is in itself a grand spectacle (with a big helping of irony), with everyone getting pretty much what they deserve; except Peevay, of course, who has witnessed his entire way of life destroyed and left with nowhere to go.
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