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Historical Fiction · TenseA young aristocrat keeps a journal on a ship bound for Australia
Rites of Passage
1980Moderate readSteady pace
★ Booker Prize, 1980
A voyage to Australia told in a young man's journal
Edmund Talbot, a young aristocrat, writes a journal on a voyage to Australia in the early nineteenth century. As the ship makes its way, he records what happens to a clergyman among the passengers. It is the first book of a trilogy that continues with Close Quarters and Fire Down Below.
More about this book
Who
Edmund Talbot, the narrator, and a clergyman travelling on the ship.
World
A sailing ship bound for Australia in the early nineteenth century.
What makes it different
It is the first of Golding's To the Ends of the Earth trilogy.
Feel
Claustrophobic and sharply funny.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Rites of PassageWikipedia