Desolation Island

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This is a story within a story where our narrator is relating meetings with a friend, Griffin, who gradually told him a rambling story - but the text makes it difficult at times to distinguish between whether we are listening to Griffin or the narrator because there are virtually no speech marks to show when Griffin is speaking!

That is the one nit-pick I have about this book. It could have done with more speech marks around Griffin's narration of his story. The story itself is one of obsession This is a story within a story where our narrator is relating meetings with a friend, Griffin, who gradually told him a rambling story - but the text makes it difficult at times to distinguish between whether we are listening to Griffin or the narrator because there are virtually no speech marks to show when Griffin is speaking! The story itself is one of obsessions; the obsession of the man who built the automaton, the obsession of 16th century kings and explorers to conquer new lands and found new cities so they can be remembered for eternity, the woman who finds the automaton years later while obsessively searching in vain for her drowned family, the obsession of a man who spends every spare moment drawing islands he's never been to The novel explores all of these and how those obsessions can come to identify and define us.

The idea of an Elizabethan-era robot might seem odd at first, until you remember that Leonardo da Vinci first drew a design for a helicopter years before they were actually made. People thought up all sorts of things in those days, even if they didn't have the means at that time to build them. The historical strands of the novel all tie in together, the 16th, early 20th and early 21st centuries all form part of an engrossing tale. Also, on a side note, while I've seen U2 name-checked in quite a few books, this is the first I've read that name-checks another favourite artist of mine, Carlos Vives.

Seeing that reference made me feel almost like I was meant to pick up this book. Novels based on sea-faring journeys do not usually spark my interest but the blurb on the back of this book intrigued me. A man, Griffin, following the story of a mysterious automaton sounded promising. The theme of obsession loom larges - that of Griffin who is obsessed with both the automaton and the island of the title, and the narrator, who recounts the story as told by Griffin.

Sadly, I struggled to find the flow of this book. Like a boat on the high seas, I felt tossed around by each chapter Novels based on sea-faring journeys do not usually spark my interest but the blurb on the back of this book intrigued me. Like a boat on the high seas, I felt tossed around by each chapter as Griffin flipped between different characters and time periods.

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May 13, Yosef Gotlieb rated it it was amazing. I completed reading the English translation of Desolation Island rapidly. I consumed it with great savor. It is a deeply intelligent and sensitive book that glides between cultural matrices with admirable finesse. It is a book that is almost too rich to absorb on first reading; I am sure I will refer to it again. Garcia Ortega's knowledge is vast. While the philosophical message is not yet fully clear to me, the author plumbs human nature to great depths. Review to come after August issue of Historical Novel Review is published.

Gareth Pottle rated it really liked it Nov 28, Mike rated it did not like it May 10, Anna rated it liked it Aug 27, Dkchalmers rated it it was ok Oct 27, Daniel Barker rated it it was amazing May 21, David Rex rated it liked it Sep 09, Oliver Wright rated it liked it Feb 28, Bill rated it really liked it Sep 15, Joseph rated it it was amazing Sep 16, Donna R rated it it was ok Aug 05, Oscar rated it it was amazing Feb 04, Xanti Sarabia rated it it was amazing Jun 06, Claire rated it liked it Mar 16, Fedora marked it as to-read Mar 05, Ismael Alonso added it Nov 07, Comfortably marked it as to-read Jul 23, Silvana marked it as to-read Jan 16, Larry Francisco marked it as to-read Jan 18, The Leopard drifts east with the wind, still rudderless, pumping all the time.

Aubrey, making adroit use of anchors and sails, directs the ship to safe harbour in a bay of Desolation Island. Despite its name, it is full of fresh food in the rainy Antarctic summer.

The crew repair leaks, but cannot leave until the rudder is replaced. As their forge went overboard earlier, this is a challenge. Maturin is in paradise as he and Herapath collect samples of the local plant and animal life and identify edible cabbage, which fights scurvy.

Maturin uses a small island in the bay for observations in the daylight.

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The American brig Lafayette , a whaler, arrives at the bay for supplies of the cabbage. They lost their surgeon, but they have a forge. A delicate situation arises immediately, reflecting American — British tensions from the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of , continued British pressing of Americans into the Royal Navy, and awareness that the two nations might already be at war.

Maturin uses Herapath as first envoy to Captain Putnam. Maturin follows, providing medical care to all aboard. The Captain offers to pay, but Maturin does not accept payment.

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The next morning the forge is on the beach for the use of Aubrey. Maturin sees a perfect way to speed his plan to spoil Mrs Wogan's contact as an intelligence source by letting her and Herapath slip away on the whaler with documents he shared with Herapath. Maturin advised Aubrey to resist any efforts at pressing the British sailors they see on the whaler.

The rudder is set in place and the forge returned. The Lafayette sails on the tide, as Maturin and Barret Bonden watch the ship pick up Herapath and Mrs Wogan, and then it slips out of the bay.

See also Recurring characters in the Aubrey—Maturin series. Kirkus Reviews noted the "usual action" present in Desolation Island compared to other nautical novels, and praised O'Brien's "literate, clear-eyed realism", which may broaden the audience for the novel beyond the usual readers of a story on sailing ships. The Leopard stopped for water and fresh supplies in Saint Jago , one of the Cape Verde islands, west of Senegal and in Aubrey's time a colony of Portugal.

In the nineteenth century, Saint Jago was the name rather than the modern Santiago. The real-life Leopard' s earlier involvement in the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair is described in the novel. The appearance of the American whaler reveals the tension between the English and the Americans on the eve of the War of The novel uses Lieutenant James Grant as the model for fictional second lieutenant Grant, who parts from the Leopard when the situation is most grim.

Desolation Island

The real Grant was promoted to commander in , and this story takes place about The career of the real Grant with early success as captain of sloops was not followed up by anything more than the promotion to commander, though he was years older than Jack Aubrey, so he provides a good base for the fictional lieutenant who would much rather be the captain.

Aubrey does tell Maturin how William Bligh is viewed by the Royal Navy, the point of which is that his story-telling foreshadows how Aubrey handles his crew after the Dutch ship sinks and their ship hits the iceberg, and how Aubrey handles Lt Grant, turning a potential mutiny into an officially allowed parting of the ways. In addition, Aubrey and Maturin speak with Captain Peter Heywood who was involved with the mutiny, with Bligh, and with Captain Edwards , sent to fetch the mutineers back. The reason why Bligh is in trouble in the moment of the novel is also described.

In short, Bligh faced another mutiny, but this time by staff under him as Governor of the colony.

Captain Heywood offers the explanation that Bligh seemed not to understand the reactions of others to many things he said, and then to react too harshly, which those around him perceived as harsh criticism and a miserable life. The Rum Rebellion , also known as the Rum Puncheon Rebellion, of was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history.

Desolation Island (novel)

Afterwards, acting governors were sworn in until the arrival from Britain of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie at the beginning of From the book Desolation Island is geographically close to the Kerguelen Islands. Kerguelen is what some people call Desolation Island, is it not, sir? But it is not our Desolation Island, which is smaller, farther south and east.

Despite the dialogue in The Thirteen Gun Salute , the description of the harbor where the Leopard sought shelter is taken exactly from Captain Cook's description of Christmas Harbor, in the far NW corner of Kerguelen which he mapped with the assistance of his sailing master, William Bligh, on his last voyage.

Desolation Island differs from the prior novels in the series in that the main characters are not back in England or safely on the way at the end of the story. This novel leaves them on Desolation Island at the end of the Antarctic summer having just floated the ship and installed the rudder, far from home and from the original intended destination for the mission, with a part of the crew trying to navigate to the Cape in small boats. The reader does not know if the original mission will be completed or how they will get home to England until the next novel, The Fortune of War or a yet later novel.

Like the previous novels, characters are introduced who will appear in later novels. Many of the characters appear in the next novel, The Fortune of War , and some will appear in several novels before their story is told e. The novel was one of the novels in the series which had themes taken into the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. W W Norton issued a reprint 12 years after the initial publication as part of its reissue in paperback of all the novels in the series prior to

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