English Passengers (Signed)
by Matthew Kneale
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0241140684
- ISBN 13
- 9780241140680
- Seller
-
Tilshead, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
"English Passengers 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... 'A-'"--Entertainment Weekly"Robust and rollicking...unforgettable...It's tough to pull off a memorable epic, but Kneale has done it. So get comfortable, and be prepared to enter a fascinating world."--New York PostWhen Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his band of rum smugglers from the Isle of Man have most of their contraband--but not all--confiscated by British Customs, they are forced to put their ship Sincerity 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 revolutionary, and sinister, thesis of his own, about the races of men. And these passengers are perhaps only slightly more odd than the crew itself, a diverse and lively bunch better equipped to entertain one another than to steer Sincerity around Cape Horn and across the Indian Ocean. Yet they set sail, pointed southward and bound for a thrilling, epic romp across the high seas and cultures of the nineteenth century.Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people's struggles against the invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as in their cruelty. This is no Eden but a world of hunting parties and colonial ethnic cleansing. As the English passengers haplessly approach Peevay's land, their bizarre notions ever more painfully at odds with reality, we know a mighty collision is looming.Full of dangerous humor, English Passengers combines wit, adventure, and harrowing historical detail in a mesmerizing display of storytelling. Narrated by over twenty different characters, each one so distinct that the reader has the sense of a story not so much told as dazzlingly peopled, Matthew Kneale has created a buoyant tale, beautifully presented in a storm of voices that brings a past age to vivid and memorable life.From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Books-and-records.com, IOBA (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 4410
- Title
- English Passengers (Signed)
- Author
- Matthew Kneale
- Format/Binding
- Creasing to head and tail of spine, tanning around page edges
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0241140684
- ISBN 13
- 9780241140680
- Publisher
- Hamish Hamilton
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 2000
- Bookseller catalogs
- Signed Books;
Terms of Sale
Books-and-records.com, IOBA
31 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 31 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Books-and-records.com, IOBA
About Books-and-records.com, IOBA
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Tail
- The heel of the spine.
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...