You might think that a sensible person such as myself would not buy books quicker than I can read them. Think again. The latest addition to my book mountain is "The Company" by Arabella Edge. This is a novel about the 17th century wreck of the Dutch retourship Batavia on one of the Abrolhos islands, and the horrific events that then followed. I have previously read Mike Dash's wonderful "Batavia's Graveyard", a non-fiction account of the same events.
Ms Edge seems to have written this book in the first person from the point of view of one Jeronimus Corneliszoon. This is an interesting choice, given that the man was a religious maniac and psychopath who set up a baroque reign of terror over his fellow survivors. I am curious as to whether she attempts to make him in any way sympathetic.
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The old Jeronimus is everywhere these days. The beloved pointed out that he appears as an enigmatic, probably sinister, character in "Desolation Jones", an ongoing comic by Warren Ellis and J.H. Williams III. If you have any fondness for the comics, I recommend picking up some issues of this odd detectivey title, the McGuffin for which is a missing reel of Hitler's own amateur porn.
(Ha ha, Hitler and porn in one post - Google, I command you to bring me the pervertalists!)
It is impossible to resist the lure of books with pictures of sailing ships on them.
ReplyDeletePaul - the book is in my book mountain. I'll let you know what it adds in a couple of years time.
ReplyDeleteAccentmonkey - She be a harsh mistress.
Research suggests that Ms Edge's as yet unread book was written some time before that of Mr Dash.
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