Voyage: A Novel of 1896 [Paperback]

Sterling Hayden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999 | Series: Mariner's Library Fiction Classics

A magnificent epic of the sea and a dynamic portrait of turn-of-the-century America.—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Hayden's wonderful 1976 novel is a historical page-turner with a social conscience. The book compares the treatment of the rich and poor as it juxtaposes the journeys of the pampered daughter of a shipping titan and the crew aboard one of her father's hellish barks. (Classic Returns, LJ 11/15/99)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

"Violent, colorful... you keep turning the pages to find out just what in the name of God is going to happen next." --Boston Globe

"A book of savage beauty." --Boston Herald American

"A rousing epic... Big, muscular, profane, cynical, romantic." --Chicago Daily News

"Scuds through the emotions like a windjammer before a full gale." --Chicago Tribune

"Solid, masterful writing that ranks the author with some of the giants of literature." --Houston Post

"Great storytelling... a sensational achievement in the genre of adventure stories." --Kansas City Star

"An elemental smash hit." --Kirkus Reviews

"A well-crafted yarn, a narrative of energy and excitement... Hayden knows how to tell a story." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A spellbinder." --New York Daily News

"A rare sort of sheer drive and vitality carries this novel... a raw fury about class distinctions and privileges... strangely refreshing in our blase age." --New York Times Book Review

"A story of extraordinary richness and power... Sterling Hayden here proves himself a master novelist. His prose is vivid and brawny, his characters come to individual life... At once a magnificent epic of the sea and a dynamic portrait of turn-of-the-century America." --Publishers Weekly

"A fast-moving, heart-pounding saga... pure pleasure to read." --San Francisco Examiner

"Hayden has created many strong characterizations in his story and has woven in major events and movements of the period... Voyage is basically a sea story, but its significance is much broader." --Seattle Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Sheridan House; 1st edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574090852
• ISBN-13: 978-1574090857
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rings of truth and grows more powerfull with time., June 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Voyage: A Novel of 1896 (Paperback)

A story of 1896 written in 1976 by a man with an old soul. I envisioned a gray haired patriarch narrating this tale of a time when a four-masted barque would sail under the horn. The style is rough and heavy handed but you can taste the salt and feel the cold when he speaks of the sea. This is a hard read of a harsh time but well worth the voyage.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Voyage, February 7, 2000

By 

R.G. (Dick) Burton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyage: A Novel of 1896 (Paperback)

I'm sorry Sterling Hayden only wrote two books because I think he could have been one of the greats. But as with his acting career, he dropped out early, (although I must say I think he was a much better author than an actor). I read Voyage many years ago and went on to read "The Wanderer" his autobiographical work. Voyage is about a sailor and the hardships of the sea in the late 1800s. It also deals with the labor union movements of that era. A victim of McCarthyism which ended his acting career, Sterling Hayden's political agenda, in my opinion, was evident in this book. As a sailor I enjoyed it for its realism of the sea and would compare it to Richard Henry Dana's classic "Two Years Before the Mast".

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An epic; He should have written more., September 1, 2004

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyage: A Novel of 1896 (Paperback)

While reading this huge book, it is easy to imagine Sterling doing the research. First, he would select the year for his opus. 1896 would seem like a good choice, because it was at the end of the tall ships when steam was supplanting sail, and Hayden was a lover of the ships (see his only other book, his autobiography: Wanderer). After he selected the year, he would go to a really good library and start reading the daily newspapers for 1896, jotting down events, dates, names and places. Then having compiled all his data, he would begin to compose this bestselling novel. The main focus of the book is the maiden voyage of "Neptune's Car" from Maine around the Horn to San Francisco. He has peopled the crew with very interesting and compelling characters, from the hard-driving, yet fair-minded Captain Irons Saul Pendelton, to the brutish first mate Otto Lassiter, to shipmates Harwar the Wrecker, Carmack the Anarch, a cast-a-way plucked from a deserted isle, and the ship's lone passenger MacLeod. Hayden takes the time to develop each of these characters and many others, providing them with a past, and a present, and no hope for the future. As the trip progresses, we get to know each of them personally as we learn of the extraordinarily hard life of the seaman and the futile and dangerous attempts to unionize and improve their lot. Meanwhile, we also follow another excursion: The Neptune Car's owner, Banning Butler Blanchard, sends his daughter and her ne'er-do-well husband with other socialites of the era on a pleasure cruise to Japan to witness a total solar eclipse. The juxtaposition of these two journeys gives an indepth look at the strong class distinctions of the day: the poor working stiff and the idle rich. Meanwhile, Blanchard himself is involved in that year's heated Presidential conflict. He goes to the Democratic Presidential convention in Chicago where the battle rages over whether America should use the gold or silver standard. Again, Hayden makes sure we understand all of the factors that lead to rioting in the streets and over-the-top rallies. And there are interesting sub-plots galore, each character driven, each fitting into the tapestry of the novel like tightly-fitting puzzle pieces. Hayden's strong descriptive abilities make us feel part of every scene, whether it be in the forecastle, on a Hawaiian beach, or a crowded convention hall floor. This is a two-fisted, hard drinking, passion-filled novel and makes me wish that Hayden had written other books. Why only four stars? The book leads us to an anticipated violent climax that just fizzles away on the very last pages. But until then, I could not have asked for more.