From the inside cover:
"Rites of Passage is a journey of the soul. Set during the Napoleonic era, it is the story of the passengers aboard an ancient ship making its way from England to new Zealand, carrying seamen, soldiers, emigrants, cargo, and a few ladies and gentlmen. Amont the latter is the observant Edmund Talbot, who records the ceremonies that mark a progress through life in the stratified society-in-miniature on board the ship. Death, birth, betrothal, betrayal, abortive court martial, disappearnace at sea, funeral - each turn of events leads the reader on to the startling truth of the voyage."

***

I enjoyed Lord of the Flies far more than this. That said, I did appreciated the style of writing in this book (even though every character annoyed me in some way to no end), and the culmination of events was quite awful. I also liked seeing events from the two different perspectives. Definitely not one of my favourites books, but I'm glad I did read this.

The book will now be heading out on a bookray for the Booker Prize winners. The list of participants can be found here

My first Booker bookring novel. ugh, now I have to keep track of these, the Great Aussie Novel bookrings, the Sue Grafton bookrays, the John Marsden bookrays and my normal bookrays and bookrings! Did I sign myself up for too much? No way!

Should get to it soon.

I finished this a few weeks back but life got in the way for a bit. I'm not sure that I actually enjoyed this novel, but like tantan I did appreciate it. I think I was 100 pages in before I actually became interested in the outcome. It also took me quite a while to get used to the writing style. The protagonist was quite a horrible person and he didn't really grow or learn from the experience.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this novel. Will send this on to meganh soonish. I will have to do some repairs on the book though, as it is looking a bit worse for wear.

Caught this at the Melbourne meetup - good to see you fushmush!
Have 4 Booker prize books in the Mt TBR pile now.

I finished this on the weekend (shh, no TBR Booker books at the moment). An interesting story which started off as a journal to a godfather about the godson's journey to the Antipodes and altered to the mystery of the unwanted shipboard parson.
I was interested to see this novel was published by Playboy Paperbacks and found one particular paragraph (page86) quite amusing, although unlike most of the narration in the remainder of the novel! Part of it reads "I called on her to yield, yet she maintained a brave if useless resistance that fired me even more. ...Ah - she did yield at last to my conquering arms, was overcome, rendered up all the tender spoils of war!"
Off to peggysmum when I get her address.

Got it today (along with another 2 rings!). I'm up to page 37 and already disliking our protaganist a lot - oily little snob, hope he gets his just desserts! So love having a real reaction to a character - much better than not engaging at all.

to be continued.

Definitely really enjoyed this one.

Took a while to get into the language - oh for a short paragraph - but soon settled down to enjoy this exploration of masks and true natures; social convention and double-standards on board a migrant ship bound for Botany Bay (well, Port Jackson, but definitely NOT New Zealand as it says on the inside cover).

I guess the ship was a microcosm of society at the time and a good setting to explore the double-standards at play.

Off to goatgrrl in Cananda sometime this week.

It's here, it's here, a lovely old book held together with electrician's tape :^). Thanks very much, tantan and peggysmum. I look forward to reading this one just as soon as I finish Life & Times of Michael K (another Booker winner), and I promise to have it back "on the road" by the end of the month. Best wishes to all!

Rites of Passage is a historical novel set during the last years of the Napoleonic wars, around 1815. The novel takes place aboard a "superannuated third-rate" British battleship ("third-rate" being both the Royal Navy classification and a description of the ship), and is narrated by Edmund Talbot, an ambitious young gentleman on a voyage of several months' duration from England to Australia. Talbot is keeping a journal for the vicarious benefit of his godfather, who is his benefactor. In it, he records details of day-to-day life on the ship, describing characters including the tyrannical Captain Anderson, the paregoric-pushing servant Wheeler, the "mousey" Pike family, past-her-prime Zenobia Brocklebank ("defending indifferent charms ... by a continual animation which must certainly exhaust her"), and the Reverend Robert James Colley, an affected clergyman whose presence on the ship is surprisingly unwelcome.

Like Lord of the Flies, Rites of Passage is an exploration of the darker side of human nature. It seems Golding was interested in social dynamics, and in particular in how a group of men would -- or might -- behave in circumstances of isolation, competition and emotional deprivation. Although my memories of Lord of the Flies are more than twenty-five years old, I have faint memories of characters in that book corresponding to some of the characters from Rites (like Piggy, who has much in common with the character of Colley). The homoerotic undercurrent in Rites (those descriptions of the sailor at pp. 216 - 218!) also brings back memories of the feel (if not the specifics) of Lord of the Flies. On the other hand, what sets Rites apart from Flies is the sense that social degradation, persecution and violence between men (women, too, but not in this story) is close to the surface of our human natures at all times, not just when we're in extremis.

Golding planned Rites of Passage as a single novel, but apparently two others grew out of it: Close Quarters (1987) and Fire Down Below (1989). All three were published together in 1991 as To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy. A television adaptation of To The Ends of the Earth will be screened on England's BBC TWO in the summer of 2005.

William Golding won the 1980 Booker Prize for Rites of Passage. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he was knighted in 1988. Golding died in June 1993 at the age of eighty-one. (Picture courtesy Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.)

I finished this book last night, and have PMd NeedSun for her address. I'll send the book along as soon as I hear from her.

Mailed to NeedSun on Monday, June 27th. Thanks again, tantan, for making this book available to us!

This arrived on July 4. I have several bookrings ahead of it so please be patient with me on this one. Thanks!

I couldn't finish this one. Unfortunately, I have not been enjoying the Booker Prize winners and think I will drop out of this book ring series. There are so many book I am longing to read and have been getting bogged down with these.

Thanks for including me!

I will get this book in the mail today.

This one arrived in the mail today. Thanks for sharing. Will get to it very soon.

Update September 18th, 2005 -- Just finished The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, c. 1987 and I will start this book this afternoon.

I collect quotes as I read. These ones are fun, poetical, or even philosophical. Take what you like, and leave the rest. Note that these aren't necessarily the "best" in the book. These happen to be close to the spot where I stopped reading each night.

"But how balmy the air is! I declare it seems almost insupportable that I must descend again and busy myself with my journal."
Captain Anderson checked at the word "journal" as if he had trodden on a stone. I affected not to notice but continued cheerfully.
"It is partly an amusement, captain, and partly a duty. It is, I suppose, what you would call a 'log.'"
"You must find little to record in such a situation as this."
"Indeed, sir, you are mistaken. I have not time not paper sufficient to record all the interesting events and personages of the voyage together with my own observations on them. Look - there is Mr. Prettiman! A personage for you! His opinions are notorious, are they not?"
But Captain Anderson was still staring at me.
"Personages?" p143
[comment: I love pieces about writing in a journal and that you can almost write about "anything and nothing"]

I reminded myself, as I should have done before, that one good soul, one good deed, good thought, and one more, one touch of Heaven's Grace was greater than all these boundless miles of rolling vapour and wetness, this intimidating vastness, this louring majesty! p195
[comment: something for me to ponder]

--

Knowing the book was part of series made reading this a bit more "difficult," if that it is the right word for it. I knew that the impending ending wasn't "it." However I am glad I read the book. Sent it on to the UK 9/26/05.

This book dropped through my letterbox this morning, the first (of many) Booker Prize bookring reads. I will start it straight away, and see how it goes!
Thanks to tantan & tania-in-nc.

I am soo sorry I have had this book for so long - I am deservedly ashamed and repentent! WHile I have started reading it, I haven't finished it but have got another copy so I'm passing this on and will update the journal when I have finished it.
Sorry!

arrived in the post at the weekend