Customer Reviews

This Thing of Darkness

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I picked up this title in London because it was long-listed (i.e., nominated but not a finalist) for Britain's famed Booker Prize for fiction.

Do not let the title put you off - this is not some kind of bodice-ripper romance. Rather, this massive and engaging novel entwines the real-life stories of the 1820s-era HMS Beagle's famous passenger, the naturalist Charles Darwin, and its unfairly forgotten captain, Robert FitzRoy. In the first three sections of this six-section book, author Harry Thompson does a most excellent imitation of a Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novel - all near-death adventures at the hand of the vicious seas off South America, strange encounters with the natives, and the like. The leads even bear a passing resemblance to O'Brian's heroes: , Captain FitzRoy is a natural sailor whose men are devoted to him (like O'Brian's Jack Aubrey). He has impeccable "leave no man behind" values and heaps and heaps of derring-do. Darwin is lean and eccentric, and obsessed with the natural world (like O'Brian's Maturin). One almost suspects that O'Brian had FitzRoy and Darwin in mind, so close seems the resemblance.

In sections 4 through 6, however, Thompson runs up against the common curse of the novelist who bases his plot on historical events - he feels obliged to include scenes, characters, and entire plotlines because the historical record requires them, rather than because they make dramatic or literary "sense." So, if FitzRoy is appointed Governor of New Zealand and makes a mess of it, you're going to hear about it for 30 pages or so. If FitzRoy's career is sabotaged by political enemies and he spends the rest of his life managing a minuscule weather-forecasting department in a back corner of the Navy, this will take perhaps 200 pages to tell. The birth and death of Fitzroy's and Darwin's many many children must be told. This back half of the novel is actually fairly interesting - Thompson is a very engaging writer - but it lacks the dash and drive of the first half.

Still, quite gripping, and, despite 700+ pages, definitely worth your time.

Before the publication of this epic work by Harry Thompson, the novel that best described the famous voyage of H.M.S. Beagle was Irving Stone's The Origin: A Biographical Novel of Charles Darwin. Stone's work also portrayed Darwin's voyage from a youthful amateur naturalist through his development as a scientist, to his attainment of the pinnacle of fame as the primary developer of the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Stone based his novel on considerable research into Darwin's works, those of his supporters and critics, and visits to the places where Darwin lived and worked. The impression he gave of Darwin was of a generous Victorian gentleman who found it difficult to publish his theory of evolution because of the criticism he knew it was likely to provoke, as well as his love for his wife (and cousin) Emma, who remained a traditional Christian who believed in the Biblical account of creation, which did not provide for creation of new species.

In Thompson's novel, Darwin is not the protagonist. This leading role goes to Captain (later Rear Admiral) Robert Fitz Roy. Yet while Fitz Roy is the hero of this novel, Thompson weaves a double fictional biography--yet one grounded on consummate research--of Fitz Roy and Darwin, counterpoising the characters of the two men skillfully, both during the second voyage of the Beagle from 1831-1836 and in their subsequent careers following the Beagle's return to England.

In Darwin, Thompson portrays the young scientist already given to detailed observation and abstraction of hypotheses as he encountered more adventures in his exploration of South America than the overwhelming majority of men encounter in their lifetimes. Yet, as depicted by Thompson, Darwin also seeks fame, sometimes neglecting obligations to his shipmates as he seeks to make a name for himself. Fitz Roy, by contrast, embodies the qualities of the military gentleman servant of the Crown. Staunch, firm in his beliefs, loyal to and fiercely supportive of his shipmates, Fitz Roy even draws on his own funds to buy additional boats to meet the requirements of mapping the coasts of the southern cone of South America when this proves impossible on the budget provided by the Admiralty.

Darwin and Fitz Roy have some strong disagreements while on the Beagle, and their differences only grow stronger after the Beagle's return to England and Darwin begins to publish his findings. As we know, Darwin went on to worldwide fame, while Fitz Roy was relegated to a series of minor posts and knocked about by the bureaucracy and politicians. He was a true hero who was denied fame in his lifetime, and has only recently been accorded a measure of tribute, among other things, for developing the world's first system of weather forecasting.

Thompson's work has to rank as a major historical novel, based on the development of its characters, faithful historical representation of the people and cultures of its time, and the clash of ideas as the provocative concept of evolution interacts with religious and traditional models of how the world was established and how it works. All that, and a rousing adventure as well. I recommend it most highly

Charles Darwin was training to be a Minister of the Church when he took a journey on The Beagle, but his true passion was natural history. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, and it was to change the way the world was viewed, and gave birth to a new science - evolution.

Along the way he befriended the ship's Captain, Robert FitzRoy, himself a remarkable young man, who was beset with crippling bouts of depression and uncertainty.

The story of their journey around the world, the people they meet and the creatures they see is utterly fascinating. You can feel Darwin questioning all that he has been taught, and you agonise with FitzRoy as he struggles with his own inner demons. All of the characters are believable, the narrative well researched, and the adventure typical of any tale of the high seas.

However, if I have any crticism, it is that the momentum of the novel stops almost the minute The Beagle returns to port. It's not that they story is any less fascinating, it's just that there is far less excitement, and after the daring adventures on The Beagle, it is a bit of a let down. It is almost like another book - perhaps the author should have finished the story at the dock in Plymouth.

This is a fine book, beautifully researched and easy to read. A historical travellogue if you like, set in times of great change. I recommend it highly.

The suicide of a British naval captain in 1828 while charting Tierra Del Feugo leads to the appointment of Robert FitzRoy as the commander of the Beagle. He advertises for a ship's naturalist, and Charles Darwin is appointed.

Robert FitzRoy is a gifted leader of men and a brilliant lateral thinker but is also prone to episodes of deep despair (presented, most likely, as bi-polar depression)

In this novel, which is based on history, Thompson explores ideas and relationships. Initially at least, this is as a naval adventure story which combines episodes of violence, danger and catastrophe.

When Darwin and FitzRoy part company, the story moves more deeply into the politics of influence and of conflicting beliefs. On one level(but not entirely consistent with the history)neither man is as fully developed individually as they are whilst operating as a team on the Beagle.

I found the story of FitzRoy more interesting, but probably because I know less about him. I suspect that dealing with two larger than life characters became more challenging once their spheres of influence became more separate and once 'known fact' impinged more on the story itself.

This is a marvellous novel. It combines adventure, history, discovery and human weaknesses in a way which left me wanting to know more about both men and wondering, too, about the power of coincidence in life.


Sadly, Harry Thompson died last year (7 November 2005)aged only 45.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Harry Thompson who sadly passed away shortly after writing this book has given us a deeply absorbing and moving account of the voyages of Captain Robert Fitzroy upon his surveying ship the Beagle.Its a fascinating story masterfully told by an author who's quality of writing was pure genius.After reading this book I read a couple of other books by better known authors (I read this over six months ago) and found their writing trifling.A truly oustanding piece of writing.Not a book you will forget in a hurry.

Unfortunately the author Harry Thompson died shortly after completing this book. Which means that this is the only novel he will ever write. After reading the book it is apparent that we the reading public have lost a great novelist. I don't think I have been so excited about a book since Edward Rutherford wrote Sarum.

Every schoolboy knows the name Darwin and the book charts his journey on HMS Beagle, a journey that was at times uplifting, at other frightening and sometimes even funny.

When Charles Darwin set out on the Beagle he was a young trainee cleric and amateur geologist. The ship also had a new captain, a young naval officer called Robert FitzRoy, aged just 23 years old and given the job of surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego.

The two young men strike up a firm friendship, but eventually the friendship is torn apart by twin obsessions. Obsessions that lead one man to triumph and the other to disaster . . .

I found the book gripping and fast paced. One of those rare books that you really don't want to end.

Thank you Harry, RIP

This great big book has the salty-sweet richness of caramel- it blends a rollocking buckle-your-swashes story with the most fascinating insight into the difficulties that faced Darwin and his contemporaries as they struggled with the mindboggling, bible-bashing concept of evolution in a world suffused with the splendour
of God. The opposing views and heated arguments of the heroic but doomed sea captain fitzroy (who believes that men are equal under god and deserve respect) and his revolutionary young naturalist friend ( who belives that men, and all things, eveolve and are there not equal) form the theorectical backbone of a novel fleshed out with beautiful narrative and descriptive passages. Painstakingly researched, I loved it.

This book works very well as a thriller, a dashing adventure story, a philosophical discussion of God vs. Nature, the life and times in 19th century Britain, and the development of scientific ideas (weather, evolution, etc.) that we take for granted today. This is the best historical account of Darwin's psychological journey of seeking the designs of God in the natural world (as he fully and sincerely intended to do). It's a big novel, but I didn't want it to end!

Other reviewers have described the book's contents. Thompson took on a grand challenge and, in my opinion, met it successfuly. Although a work of fiction, Thompson sought to follow the narrative history as closely as possible. The result is a glorious telling of the tale of Robert FitzRoy, his captaincy of the Beagle and the ship's most famous occupant, Charle Darwin.

Other reviewers are intent on comparing Thompson's novel to Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey / Maturin series, usually not all that favourably. Having found O'Brien unreadable, tossing Master & Commander aside after three pages of its dull pomposity, by contrast I devoured Thompson's trilogy in a few days.

What made it so good? For someone who knew only the bare facts of the Beagle story and even less about FitzRoy, Thompson provides a complete narrative of the voyages, the tragic interactions with the Fuegians taken to England and of Darwin and FitzRoy's complex relationship.

FitzRoy's frustration with Darwin is portrayed as partly religious, partly mutual incomprehsion after initial warmth and companionability, but mostly as the manifold difficulties a Victorian conservative figure found with Natural Selection. The mutual incomprehension is all the sharper given FitzRoy's own great contribution to natural science via meteorology.

FitzRoy occuoies the principal position in the book, shown as a serious, capable and complex man. Whether intentional or not, Thompson's story makes Darwin as a slightly less prominent figure and thus provides a different perspective than typical (and legitimate) histories that magnify Darwin's achievements.

This is good, serious, often thrilling, never dull historical fiction of the highest order.

I stumbled across this book in a small store in Cape Town South Africa, looking for a vacation read. What a find!! Harry Thompson has written a great adventure-- all the while infused with insight into the great discoveries of Charles Darwin. This is a fictionalized re telling of the true voyage of the young Captain FitzRoy- also a fascinating and brilliant character- and Charles Darwin through the treacherous Tierra del Feugo, back to England, and back again. The intertwined and opposite fates of these great men is so well researched and captured. Any Patrick O'Brien fan would be glad to discover this book.