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Galápagos Regained
A beautiful literary tale about an aspiring actress who seizes Darwin's research and tries to make a name for herself to win a scientific prize.
Galápagos Regained centers on the fictional Chloe Bathurst, an unemployed Victorian actress who finds work on Charles Darwin’s estate, nurturing the strange birds, exotic lizards, and giant tortoises he brought back from his trip around the world. When Chloe gets wind of the Great God Contest, sponsored by the Percy Bysshe Shelley Society—£10,000 to the first petitioner who can prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being—she decides that Mr. Darwin’s materialist theory of speciation might just turn the trick. (If Nature gave God nothing to do, maybe He was never around in the first place.) Before she knows it, her ambitions send her off on a wild adventure—a voyage by brigantine to Brazil, a steamboat trip up the Amazon, a hot-air balloon flight across the Andes—bound for the Galápagos archipelago, where she intends to collect the live specimens through which she might demonstrate evolutionary theory to the contest judges.
Galápagos Regained centers on the fictional Chloe Bathurst, an unemployed Victorian actress who finds work on Charles Darwin’s estate, nurturing the strange birds, exotic lizards, and giant tortoises he brought back from his trip around the world. When Chloe gets wind of the Great God Contest, sponsored by the Percy Bysshe Shelley Society—£10,000 to the first petitioner who can prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being—she decides that Mr. Darwin’s materialist theory of speciation might just turn the trick. (If Nature gave God nothing to do, maybe He was never around in the first place.) Before she knows it, her ambitions send her off on a wild adventure—a voyage by brigantine to Brazil, a steamboat trip up the Amazon, a hot-air balloon flight across the Andes—bound for the Galápagos archipelago, where she intends to collect the live specimens through which she might demonstrate evolutionary theory to the contest judges.
477 pages, Hardcover
First published January 6, 2015
45 people are currently reading
1091 people want to read
About the author
James K. Morrow
102 books326 followersBorn in 1947, James Kenneth Morrow has been writing fiction ever since he, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn. This three-page, six-chapter fantasy is still in the author’s private archives. Upon reaching adulthood, Jim produced nine novels of speculative fiction, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award (for “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima). A fulltime fiction writer, Jim makes his home in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife, his son, an enigmatic sheepdog, and a loopy beagle. He is hard at work on a novel about Darwinism and its discontents.
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January 21, 2015
Even if God does exist, James Morrow probably has nothing to worry about. In His infinite wisdom, He’ll want to keep this hilarious old atheist nearby.
Now 67, Morrow has been writing satiric science fiction and historical novels for almost 35 years. A rationalist with a cerebral/silly sense of humor, he crucifies what he considers the absurdities of religious belief. Whether now or long ago, his stories focus on places where tectonic plates of thought grind against each other.
His latest novel, “Galápagos Regained,” locates the conflict between faith and science in the mid-19th century, when traditional clerics were running out of cheeks to turn. Though now long-forgotten — because Morrow made it up — in 1848 the Shelley Society of London proposed a competition “whereby they would award an immense cash prize of £10,000 to the first scholar, scientist, or theologian who could prove, or disprove, the existence of God.”
Of course, for Morrow, a theologian has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this Great God Contest. But it wouldn’t be fun if the outcome were too obviously predestined, and so he brings on a range of theist and atheist presentations, all comically pompous and all damned, one by one, by the faithful or faithless Bysshean judges. In some ways, this early part of the novel is a Victorian version of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s “36 Arguments for the Existence of God,” a survey of the Argument from Evil, the Cosmological Proof, the Unmoved Mover, etc., etc., gloria in excelsis deo. But Morrow has something much more peripatetic — and ridiculous — in mind.
The heroine of “Galápagos Regained” is a young actress named Chloe Bathurst, another of Morrow’s brilliant female characters caught in the confluence of intellectual revolution. Expelled from the theater for inspiring communist rabble rousers, Chloe is forced to abandon her art and take a job as a nanny with Emma and Charles Darwin. In this delightful re-creation of the naturalist’s home, we see Darwin content to tend his menagerie of exotic animals, and keep safely stuffed away in a drawer the discovery that will one day rock the world. But Chloe sees the opportunity of a lifetime in Darwin’s research. Desperate to buy her father out of debtor’s prison, she purloins a copy of his thesis and sets out to win the Great God Contest herself.
In the novel’s fictional competition, a London society offers “an immense cash prize of £10,000 to the first scholar, scientist, or theologian who could prove, or disprove, the existence of God.” (St. Martin's)
Naturally, this mercenary scheme is complicated by one monkey wrench after another, as told in Morrow’s Victorian-inflected voice. (Everything here happens “whilst” something else is happening.) To make her argument against God convincing, Chloe must first travel to the Galápagos Islands to collect living demonstrations of her (Darwin’s) theory.
You can’t possibly anticipate how this crazy story evolves. Chloe and her little gang of disciples — including a minister secretly set to thwart their mission — move across the world by land and sea and sky. (Do you know how many swim-bladder fish it takes to make a hot-air balloon? You will learn!) Glittered with allusions to Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Jules Verne, Chloe’s journey is a compendium of every possible disaster, leavened with a Gilbert & Sullivan sensitivity. Morrow writes, “Although she’d endured numerous stage-bound aquatic catastrophes, most memorably the tidal wave that had drowned blind Nydia in ‘The Last Days of Pompeii,’ nothing had prepared her for the present spectacle.”
They’re attacked by condors and pythons and piranhas, oh my! Across the seas, up the Amazon, through the archipelago, Chloe and her friends confront cruel rubber barons, bloodthirsty cannibals and kooky Mormons. In a rare moment of self-doubt, Chloe wonders, “Had she bitten off so large a portion of presumption that even Jonah’s whale would not attempt to chew it?”
With its breathless, loopy plot — as much a parody of 19th-century romance as an exemplar of it — “Galápagos Regained” reflects the endless, ever-evolving variety of life itself. And, as he’s done before, Morrow crossbreeds his fictional characters with real-life figures, from Gregor Mendel and Alfred Russel Wallace to Rosalind Franklin. Yes, time and logic offer no barriers to this author. He’s working in the satiric tradition of Mark Twain, who also couldn’t resist some cheap shots at Mormons. A late scene involving a jury of convicts impaneled to rule in a blasphemy trial involving Noah’s Ark could have jumped out of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” One straight-faced bit of silliness topples over into another, cutting with surprising sharpness to the bone of human nature.
But despite the thousands of miles this story traverses, its internal voyage is just as vast and unexpected. Chloe — so bold and magnetic — constantly adapts in response to her environment. “It was a simple matter,” Morrow writes, “of being shrewder than King Cecrops, more resourceful than Lord Poseidon, and as wise as Lady Athena.” As a great actress, Chloe sets out willing to perform whatever script the Great God Contest requires to win, but along the way, she grows invested in the truth as never before. If only the truth would stay fixed. Despite Morrow’s confirmed atheism and his gleeful mockery of religious fundamentalism, in Chloe he’s created a character capable of surprising spiritual mutation.
Having seen and survived so much, can she argue that everything — every gorgeous, dazzlingly inventive creature — is merely “the accidental efflux of an indifferent machine”?
That’s a question for the Shelley Society to decide, but the creator of “Galápagos Regained” has revealed a divine comedy.
This review first appeared in The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
Now 67, Morrow has been writing satiric science fiction and historical novels for almost 35 years. A rationalist with a cerebral/silly sense of humor, he crucifies what he considers the absurdities of religious belief. Whether now or long ago, his stories focus on places where tectonic plates of thought grind against each other.
His latest novel, “Galápagos Regained,” locates the conflict between faith and science in the mid-19th century, when traditional clerics were running out of cheeks to turn. Though now long-forgotten — because Morrow made it up — in 1848 the Shelley Society of London proposed a competition “whereby they would award an immense cash prize of £10,000 to the first scholar, scientist, or theologian who could prove, or disprove, the existence of God.”
Of course, for Morrow, a theologian has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this Great God Contest. But it wouldn’t be fun if the outcome were too obviously predestined, and so he brings on a range of theist and atheist presentations, all comically pompous and all damned, one by one, by the faithful or faithless Bysshean judges. In some ways, this early part of the novel is a Victorian version of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s “36 Arguments for the Existence of God,” a survey of the Argument from Evil, the Cosmological Proof, the Unmoved Mover, etc., etc., gloria in excelsis deo. But Morrow has something much more peripatetic — and ridiculous — in mind.
The heroine of “Galápagos Regained” is a young actress named Chloe Bathurst, another of Morrow’s brilliant female characters caught in the confluence of intellectual revolution. Expelled from the theater for inspiring communist rabble rousers, Chloe is forced to abandon her art and take a job as a nanny with Emma and Charles Darwin. In this delightful re-creation of the naturalist’s home, we see Darwin content to tend his menagerie of exotic animals, and keep safely stuffed away in a drawer the discovery that will one day rock the world. But Chloe sees the opportunity of a lifetime in Darwin’s research. Desperate to buy her father out of debtor’s prison, she purloins a copy of his thesis and sets out to win the Great God Contest herself.
In the novel’s fictional competition, a London society offers “an immense cash prize of £10,000 to the first scholar, scientist, or theologian who could prove, or disprove, the existence of God.” (St. Martin's)
Naturally, this mercenary scheme is complicated by one monkey wrench after another, as told in Morrow’s Victorian-inflected voice. (Everything here happens “whilst” something else is happening.) To make her argument against God convincing, Chloe must first travel to the Galápagos Islands to collect living demonstrations of her (Darwin’s) theory.
You can’t possibly anticipate how this crazy story evolves. Chloe and her little gang of disciples — including a minister secretly set to thwart their mission — move across the world by land and sea and sky. (Do you know how many swim-bladder fish it takes to make a hot-air balloon? You will learn!) Glittered with allusions to Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Jules Verne, Chloe’s journey is a compendium of every possible disaster, leavened with a Gilbert & Sullivan sensitivity. Morrow writes, “Although she’d endured numerous stage-bound aquatic catastrophes, most memorably the tidal wave that had drowned blind Nydia in ‘The Last Days of Pompeii,’ nothing had prepared her for the present spectacle.”
They’re attacked by condors and pythons and piranhas, oh my! Across the seas, up the Amazon, through the archipelago, Chloe and her friends confront cruel rubber barons, bloodthirsty cannibals and kooky Mormons. In a rare moment of self-doubt, Chloe wonders, “Had she bitten off so large a portion of presumption that even Jonah’s whale would not attempt to chew it?”
With its breathless, loopy plot — as much a parody of 19th-century romance as an exemplar of it — “Galápagos Regained” reflects the endless, ever-evolving variety of life itself. And, as he’s done before, Morrow crossbreeds his fictional characters with real-life figures, from Gregor Mendel and Alfred Russel Wallace to Rosalind Franklin. Yes, time and logic offer no barriers to this author. He’s working in the satiric tradition of Mark Twain, who also couldn’t resist some cheap shots at Mormons. A late scene involving a jury of convicts impaneled to rule in a blasphemy trial involving Noah’s Ark could have jumped out of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” One straight-faced bit of silliness topples over into another, cutting with surprising sharpness to the bone of human nature.
But despite the thousands of miles this story traverses, its internal voyage is just as vast and unexpected. Chloe — so bold and magnetic — constantly adapts in response to her environment. “It was a simple matter,” Morrow writes, “of being shrewder than King Cecrops, more resourceful than Lord Poseidon, and as wise as Lady Athena.” As a great actress, Chloe sets out willing to perform whatever script the Great God Contest requires to win, but along the way, she grows invested in the truth as never before. If only the truth would stay fixed. Despite Morrow’s confirmed atheism and his gleeful mockery of religious fundamentalism, in Chloe he’s created a character capable of surprising spiritual mutation.
Having seen and survived so much, can she argue that everything — every gorgeous, dazzlingly inventive creature — is merely “the accidental efflux of an indifferent machine”?
That’s a question for the Shelley Society to decide, but the creator of “Galápagos Regained” has revealed a divine comedy.
This review first appeared in The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
March 24, 2015
I think the 3 stars is a bit generous, although the last 25 pages or so were significantly better. Probably because of the characters present.
This was a very silly book--good silly, but silly nonetheless. It read like a pastiche of a Victorian novel and the characters and completely improbable events that were always greeted with an erudite witticism only added to that element. I liked the silliness.
But silliness has to be balanced with depth. You can't take me on a 450 page adventure and provide with me characters who lack any real emotional depth. It took until the last ten pages before I was reasonably convinced that any characters was actually experiencing feelings and, in the meantime, the narrative had provided five marriage proposals and three conversions, both towards and away from religion. If you're writing a story about evolution and belief - even a very silly story - you HAVE to convince me that faith and its loss are real. No one will ever be Terry Pratchett again, but Pratchett's novels are the ideal example of mixing brilliant absurdity, trenchant critique, and characters whose emotions are palpable.
THese characters just...sat there on the page. With the exception of Charles Darwin, I found the idea that any of them had real inner feelings to impossible and that took most of the bite out of the theological wrangling and the perils of the journey. I would have enjoyed this story so much more if the ridiculousness had a bit more heft.
(It occurs to me that the novel might not mean to be ridiculous. I hope it did mean to be. I would feel very bad if it wanted to be taken seriously, because nope! So not happening.)
This was a very silly book--good silly, but silly nonetheless. It read like a pastiche of a Victorian novel and the characters and completely improbable events that were always greeted with an erudite witticism only added to that element. I liked the silliness.
But silliness has to be balanced with depth. You can't take me on a 450 page adventure and provide with me characters who lack any real emotional depth. It took until the last ten pages before I was reasonably convinced that any characters was actually experiencing feelings and, in the meantime, the narrative had provided five marriage proposals and three conversions, both towards and away from religion. If you're writing a story about evolution and belief - even a very silly story - you HAVE to convince me that faith and its loss are real. No one will ever be Terry Pratchett again, but Pratchett's novels are the ideal example of mixing brilliant absurdity, trenchant critique, and characters whose emotions are palpable.
THese characters just...sat there on the page. With the exception of Charles Darwin, I found the idea that any of them had real inner feelings to impossible and that took most of the bite out of the theological wrangling and the perils of the journey. I would have enjoyed this story so much more if the ridiculousness had a bit more heft.
(It occurs to me that the novel might not mean to be ridiculous. I hope it did mean to be. I would feel very bad if it wanted to be taken seriously, because nope! So not happening.)
February 8, 2021
Il m'aura fallu du temps pour arriver au bout de cet épais roman d'authentiques aventures à travers le monde.
On y suit Chloé Bathurst qui après des débuts d'actrice prometteuse, devient la gardienne du zoo de Darwin (le savant, pas la ville) avant de s'embarquer les pour des raisons difficilement raconta les dans un voyage vers les îles Galapagos qui lui fera subir un naufrage, remonter l'amazone en bateau, traverser les Andes en dirigeable avant de démontrer la théorie de l'évolution à un cénacle de polygame et de criminels. Et tout cela n'est que la partie émergee d'un récit foisonnant et picaresque que je ne pouvais imaginer avant d'en terminer la lecture.
Parce qu'il y a énormément de très bonnes choses dans cette histoire : des personnages charismatiques (à commencer évidemment par cette héroïne), des situations aussi périlleuses que rocambolesques. Et surtout un ton distancié, presque ironique qui, allié à un style dans la veine du XIX ème siècle, rend la lecture aussi divertissante qu'enrichissante. Pour tout dire, je ne pensais pas me régaler autant en lisant les aventures d'une comédienne de ce siècle. Autrement dit c'est une lecture des plus hautement recommandables.
On y suit Chloé Bathurst qui après des débuts d'actrice prometteuse, devient la gardienne du zoo de Darwin (le savant, pas la ville) avant de s'embarquer les pour des raisons difficilement raconta les dans un voyage vers les îles Galapagos qui lui fera subir un naufrage, remonter l'amazone en bateau, traverser les Andes en dirigeable avant de démontrer la théorie de l'évolution à un cénacle de polygame et de criminels. Et tout cela n'est que la partie émergee d'un récit foisonnant et picaresque que je ne pouvais imaginer avant d'en terminer la lecture.
Parce qu'il y a énormément de très bonnes choses dans cette histoire : des personnages charismatiques (à commencer évidemment par cette héroïne), des situations aussi périlleuses que rocambolesques. Et surtout un ton distancié, presque ironique qui, allié à un style dans la veine du XIX ème siècle, rend la lecture aussi divertissante qu'enrichissante. Pour tout dire, je ne pensais pas me régaler autant en lisant les aventures d'une comédienne de ce siècle. Autrement dit c'est une lecture des plus hautement recommandables.
Currently reading
September 18, 2015I'm still reading--and enjoying-- this whimsical tale. From the first page, I loved the writing style. Purposefully flowery, with a delightful touch of irony. You can feel how much fun the author had with this. Here is an example in his description of Charles Darwin:
"Beetle-browed and side-whiskered, with a nose suggesting a small but assertive potato, he was far from handsome, though Chloe found him attractive nonetheless--physically magnetic and also, by the evidence of his kind eyes and warm smile, a person of abiding benevolence."
The book reads just like one of the plays in which Chloe constantly finds herself, and as you read, you feel the author is sharing a private joke with you about life, its ironies, and whether we've really gotten much farther along than the Victorians.
"Beetle-browed and side-whiskered, with a nose suggesting a small but assertive potato, he was far from handsome, though Chloe found him attractive nonetheless--physically magnetic and also, by the evidence of his kind eyes and warm smile, a person of abiding benevolence."
The book reads just like one of the plays in which Chloe constantly finds herself, and as you read, you feel the author is sharing a private joke with you about life, its ironies, and whether we've really gotten much farther along than the Victorians.
January 21, 2015
I received this novel as part of the Goodreads First Reads.
I am the kind of person that 90% of the time will finish a book even if I don't particularily enjoy it. This is the 10% where I don't finish. Maybe I will read this novel at a later time, as I got a little over halfway through, but currently I have battled through the writing style enough for one month.
I do find the story interesting and I am big "fan" of Darwin in general (due to my biological sciences background), which is why I was so excited to receive this book as part of First Reads. This novel, however, feels so tedious to read and much of the lengthy, verbose nature of it appears to be unnecessary. I don't find the characters particularily likable or relatable; there is something about them that falls flat or rings untrue. Especially with Chloe, I find that I outwardly dislike her. For instance, the whole relationship with her father felt rushed and underdeveloped. The way she speaks and her interactions with other characters aggravates me. The only character I liked in the novel was Solange, as at least she was entertaining. And maybe Mendel and his hookah pipe.
I am the kind of person that 90% of the time will finish a book even if I don't particularily enjoy it. This is the 10% where I don't finish. Maybe I will read this novel at a later time, as I got a little over halfway through, but currently I have battled through the writing style enough for one month.
I do find the story interesting and I am big "fan" of Darwin in general (due to my biological sciences background), which is why I was so excited to receive this book as part of First Reads. This novel, however, feels so tedious to read and much of the lengthy, verbose nature of it appears to be unnecessary. I don't find the characters particularily likable or relatable; there is something about them that falls flat or rings untrue. Especially with Chloe, I find that I outwardly dislike her. For instance, the whole relationship with her father felt rushed and underdeveloped. The way she speaks and her interactions with other characters aggravates me. The only character I liked in the novel was Solange, as at least she was entertaining. And maybe Mendel and his hookah pipe.
April 18, 2015
I kept hoping this book would be sharper, funnier, more outrageous, a true picaresque gem, but in the end, even though I'm a big tortoise fan, I found it dull and almost couldn't bring myself to finish its nearly 500 pages in the 3 weeks the library allowed. Morrow did obviously have a grand time researching ODD THINGS THAT HAPPENED in Victorian times and stringing them together in a string of interesting episodes, so there is a lot to take in, but much of it has a predictable effect on the plot.
February 14, 2016
In 20 plus years of being in a bookclub, I can count on one hand the number of books I didn't finish, but add Galapagos Regained to this list. It became due at the library and I just didn't both to renew. Looking back over other books that I didn't like, I realize I just don't like this style of writing. It kind of silly without being actively funny, and the characters are not likable enough to make you care what happens to them. If you like a farce, maybe this book is for you, but if you want humor or a compelling read, look elsewhere.
December 19, 2022
Très agréable découverte avec ce roman pioché un peu au hasard dans ma bibliothèque où il dormait oublié depuis deux ans, et pour lequel je ne nourrissais pas de fortes attentes. Je ne connaissais pas cet auteur, mais je suis maintenant curieuse de lire d'autres œuvres de sa part.
En 1848, Chloe Bathurst, actrice au chômage dont le père est couvert de dettes, entend parler d’un concours offrant un prix de 10 000 £ à qui prouvera (ou réfutera) scientifiquement l’existence de Dieu. Elle dérobe alors à Charles Darwin le manuscrit prototype de L’Origine des espèces afin de le présenter au jury. C’est le début d’une expédition rocambolesque vers les îles Galapagos pour en ramener des spécimens qui prouveront cette fameuse théorie.
Cet ovni littéraire de 600 pages forme un mélange inattendu et harmonieux entre un roman d’aventures bourré de rebondissements loufoques et une satire politico-religieuse concentrée au vitriol. Le tout est servi par une plume jubilatoire, pastiche des romans victoriens au style pompeux et aux dialogues délicieusement irréalistes (bravo à l’auteur ainsi qu’à la traductrice). Nul souci de vraisemblance, on est ici dans le grotesque assumé : selon les gouts littéraires, ça passera ou ça cassera, mais dans tous les cas, les premières pages donnent directement le ton. Les personnages sont aussi caricaturaux que colorés, on les suit avec plaisir même si on ne s’y attache pas vraiment (sauf peut-être à Darwin dont le portrait est très touchant).
Les débats théologiques sont passionnants, on suit avec curiosité les bouleversements religieux provoqués par la théorie de Darwin. On explore sous toutes les coutures les rapports souvent houleux (mais pas toujours) entre la religion et la science. C’est très documenté, bourré de références diverses qu’on peut s’amuser à repérer. Cela donne du corps à une œuvre qui serait sans cela un roman d’aventures fun mais vite oublié.
Seul petit reproche, 600 pages sur ce ton-là peuvent donner l’impression que l’histoire s’étire en longueur. Je conseillerais d’étaler la lecture sur plusieurs semaines pour ne pas saturer.
En 1848, Chloe Bathurst, actrice au chômage dont le père est couvert de dettes, entend parler d’un concours offrant un prix de 10 000 £ à qui prouvera (ou réfutera) scientifiquement l’existence de Dieu. Elle dérobe alors à Charles Darwin le manuscrit prototype de L’Origine des espèces afin de le présenter au jury. C’est le début d’une expédition rocambolesque vers les îles Galapagos pour en ramener des spécimens qui prouveront cette fameuse théorie.
Cet ovni littéraire de 600 pages forme un mélange inattendu et harmonieux entre un roman d’aventures bourré de rebondissements loufoques et une satire politico-religieuse concentrée au vitriol. Le tout est servi par une plume jubilatoire, pastiche des romans victoriens au style pompeux et aux dialogues délicieusement irréalistes (bravo à l’auteur ainsi qu’à la traductrice). Nul souci de vraisemblance, on est ici dans le grotesque assumé : selon les gouts littéraires, ça passera ou ça cassera, mais dans tous les cas, les premières pages donnent directement le ton. Les personnages sont aussi caricaturaux que colorés, on les suit avec plaisir même si on ne s’y attache pas vraiment (sauf peut-être à Darwin dont le portrait est très touchant).
Les débats théologiques sont passionnants, on suit avec curiosité les bouleversements religieux provoqués par la théorie de Darwin. On explore sous toutes les coutures les rapports souvent houleux (mais pas toujours) entre la religion et la science. C’est très documenté, bourré de références diverses qu’on peut s’amuser à repérer. Cela donne du corps à une œuvre qui serait sans cela un roman d’aventures fun mais vite oublié.
Seul petit reproche, 600 pages sur ce ton-là peuvent donner l’impression que l’histoire s’étire en longueur. Je conseillerais d’étaler la lecture sur plusieurs semaines pour ne pas saturer.
February 15, 2015
A Most Splendid Victorian Satire About Life
Compellingly readable and brilliant, “Galapagos Regained” is a superb Victorian satirical thriller and an exemplary noteworthy novel of ideas, dealing with concepts and issues absent in much of contemporary Anglo-American mainstream literary fiction. It is Jane Austen meets Jules Verne meets Patrick O’Brian; a most commendable madcap blend of “Sense and Sensibility”, “Around the World in Eighty Days”, and “The Far Side of the World”, with our heroine Chloe Bathurst, the illicit daughter of Phineas Fogg, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. James Morrow’s elegant faux Victorian prose, rich in its absurdist satirical humor, commands the reader’s attention constantly, not just for its inventiveness and hilarity, but also, because it is all too often, profound, in dealing with issues as unsolvable as determining the existence of GOD. It is more than a fine work of historical fiction, but also an admirable one pertaining to the history of science, letting readers know to an extent, how Charles Darwin conceived of and then sought scientific proof for his Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection. Much to his credit, Morrow leads readers along a fine overview of early Darwinian thought, without trivializing or sacrificing it, but often at a swift pace that may remind some readers of China Mieville’s “Kraken” and Nick Harkaway’s “Angelmaker”. He does a most admirable job in introducing readers not only to Charles Darwin, but also to his friends and fellow scientists Charles Lyell, Joseph Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley, and to critics like “Soapy Sam” Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, who remain in the background, as Chloe Bathurst seeks fame and fortune in London and distant – and quite remote – Amazonia and the Encantadas (Galapagos Islands).
Down and out actress Chloe Bathurst finds employment at Charles Darwin’s Down House estate, tending to the reptiles and birds he collected years before during his celebrated HMS Beagle voyage. When she hears of the Great God Contest sponsored by the Percy Bysshe Shelley Society, she opts to copy his 1842 manuscript describing the Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection, and to claim it as her own, hoping to win the contest and her prize, giving her enough funds to free her destitute father from the London workhouse he’s been sentenced to, unable to pay his substantial debts. Soon thereafter, she finds herself embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, heading towards the Galapagos Islands to find the tortoises and birds that will support her evolutionary theory and demonstrate why GOD doesn’t exist. Beset by disasters both natural and manmade and tormented by competitors, especially by a team sent under the orders of Bishop Wilberforce, Chloe will stop at nothing in seeking her prize and in finding the Tree of Life described by Darwin in his manuscript.
While “Galapagos Regained” is a superb work of historical fiction, it also veers into steampunk and magical realism that pays homage to the best traditions of Sufi Islamic mysticism. It may be Morrow’s most accessible work of fiction, deserving of a wide readership, and one that should affirm his status of one of the greatest living American writers of fiction irrespective of genre. An accessible work of fiction that will keep readers spellbound and in awe to the very last page, worthy of recognition as one of 2015’s best new novels published in English. An accessible work that respects the life and work of Charles Darwin, one of the greatest scientists and thinkers ever to have lived, and may yet encourage others to become more familiar with – and more accepting of – his ideas, finally recognizing that “There is grandeur in this view of life….”. It will be hard to find a newly published novel as brilliant, inventive, insightful and compellingly readable as “Galapagos Regained”; for these reasons, it deserves not only ample readership but also ample consideration for the literary honors it deserves.
Compellingly readable and brilliant, “Galapagos Regained” is a superb Victorian satirical thriller and an exemplary noteworthy novel of ideas, dealing with concepts and issues absent in much of contemporary Anglo-American mainstream literary fiction. It is Jane Austen meets Jules Verne meets Patrick O’Brian; a most commendable madcap blend of “Sense and Sensibility”, “Around the World in Eighty Days”, and “The Far Side of the World”, with our heroine Chloe Bathurst, the illicit daughter of Phineas Fogg, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. James Morrow’s elegant faux Victorian prose, rich in its absurdist satirical humor, commands the reader’s attention constantly, not just for its inventiveness and hilarity, but also, because it is all too often, profound, in dealing with issues as unsolvable as determining the existence of GOD. It is more than a fine work of historical fiction, but also an admirable one pertaining to the history of science, letting readers know to an extent, how Charles Darwin conceived of and then sought scientific proof for his Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection. Much to his credit, Morrow leads readers along a fine overview of early Darwinian thought, without trivializing or sacrificing it, but often at a swift pace that may remind some readers of China Mieville’s “Kraken” and Nick Harkaway’s “Angelmaker”. He does a most admirable job in introducing readers not only to Charles Darwin, but also to his friends and fellow scientists Charles Lyell, Joseph Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley, and to critics like “Soapy Sam” Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, who remain in the background, as Chloe Bathurst seeks fame and fortune in London and distant – and quite remote – Amazonia and the Encantadas (Galapagos Islands).
Down and out actress Chloe Bathurst finds employment at Charles Darwin’s Down House estate, tending to the reptiles and birds he collected years before during his celebrated HMS Beagle voyage. When she hears of the Great God Contest sponsored by the Percy Bysshe Shelley Society, she opts to copy his 1842 manuscript describing the Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection, and to claim it as her own, hoping to win the contest and her prize, giving her enough funds to free her destitute father from the London workhouse he’s been sentenced to, unable to pay his substantial debts. Soon thereafter, she finds herself embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, heading towards the Galapagos Islands to find the tortoises and birds that will support her evolutionary theory and demonstrate why GOD doesn’t exist. Beset by disasters both natural and manmade and tormented by competitors, especially by a team sent under the orders of Bishop Wilberforce, Chloe will stop at nothing in seeking her prize and in finding the Tree of Life described by Darwin in his manuscript.
While “Galapagos Regained” is a superb work of historical fiction, it also veers into steampunk and magical realism that pays homage to the best traditions of Sufi Islamic mysticism. It may be Morrow’s most accessible work of fiction, deserving of a wide readership, and one that should affirm his status of one of the greatest living American writers of fiction irrespective of genre. An accessible work of fiction that will keep readers spellbound and in awe to the very last page, worthy of recognition as one of 2015’s best new novels published in English. An accessible work that respects the life and work of Charles Darwin, one of the greatest scientists and thinkers ever to have lived, and may yet encourage others to become more familiar with – and more accepting of – his ideas, finally recognizing that “There is grandeur in this view of life….”. It will be hard to find a newly published novel as brilliant, inventive, insightful and compellingly readable as “Galapagos Regained”; for these reasons, it deserves not only ample readership but also ample consideration for the literary honors it deserves.
March 25, 2015
The only reason I am giving this book five stars is that I can't give it more. This is a thoroughly engaging story about a young actress named Chloe Bathhurst, who copies a rough draft of Darwin's theory of evolution, and heads for the Galapagos Islands. Her reason for doing so? The Percy Bysshe Shelley Society is offering a prize of 10,000 pounds to anyone who can prove the existence, or non-existence, of God, and Chloe wants the money to pay off her father's debts so that he can be released from a workhouse. This is only a rough summary of a more complex (but not difficult to follow) plot that unfolds over the next 400+ pages.
I was eager to see how it would all end but at the same time, I didn't want it to end. It's that kind of book. It is funny, touching and enlightening -- and a rollicking good adventure story to boot. Highly recommended!
I was eager to see how it would all end but at the same time, I didn't want it to end. It's that kind of book. It is funny, touching and enlightening -- and a rollicking good adventure story to boot. Highly recommended!
July 2, 2015
An adventure romp in the ridiculous spirit of THE PRINCESS BRIDE, packed with romance, hijinks, and laughably dastardly villains, that somehow manages to bring history and science into the mix.
did-not-finish
January 10, 2017got bored :)
Read
June 6, 2024Dnf 19%
June 11, 2016
This is a pretty difficult book to categorize or review. My best description is that it takes us on a delightfully satirical romp through the history of the scientific study of evolution and heredity, while poking fun at the absurdities of several major religions. It is completely far fetched, which sometimes annoys me, but it is such an outrageously implausible story told in such a clever way that I was able to forgive its ridiculousness and just go with the flow of the story. Actress Chloe Bathurst, after being blacklisted from the London theatre community, finds herself in need of a new means of supporting herself, and takes a job as a zookeeper for Charles Darwin...yes, that Charles Darwin. When she learns that the Percy Bysshe Shelley Society is offering a large cash prize to anyone who can prove or disprove the existence of God, she steals the manuscript of Darwin's theory of evolution. Intrigued but unconvinced, the Shelley Society funds Chloe's trip to the Galapagos Islands to collect zoological specimens to support her argument. Many ridiculous adventures ensue. In a parallel story, we meet many of the big names in the study of evolution and heredity, through the wonders of time travel and cannabis. I'm sure many people find this completely irreverent story offensive, and I'm sure that's what the author intended, but it is so well written and so humorous that I found it quite delightful. It did get a bit long at times, and the many characters and convoluted story got confusing, but overall it was a great read.
January 22, 2015
I don't even know where to start this review. Action, adventure, romance, sex and drugs this book has it all! Oh, and lots of philosophical debate on the nature and existence of god and evolution which totally sounds like a downer but really isn't at all. It is so incredibly imaginative, completely ridiculous and absolutely hilarious. If you have ever wondered what it was like traveling through South America in the Victorian era, well, I don't think that this book will enlighten you. From an airship to a replica of Noah's Ark our heroine Chloe finds herself in one improbable situation after another. There is a plethora of characters to keep track of but it wasn't very difficult since so many of them are familiar famous figures such as Lyell and Mendel. I really enjoyed seeing these historical characters come alive in ways I had never imagined them. The parts with Gregor Mendel in the Istanbul hookah bar smoking hash were my absolute favorite and totally cracked me up! Don't let the length of this book intimidate you. It is definitely worth the journey!
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thank you!
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thank you!
dnf
November 3, 2014A little over halfway through and I"m beginning to struggle with this. The prose is amazing. I wish I could write like this. Think Georgette Hayer in pomposity, but using words that make sense. Perhaps not words we use everyday, but they make sense regardless, unlike Hayer...but I digress.
That being said, while I love the prose and the humor is absolutely delightful, at the same time, the prose is making the book way too long. There are also unnecessary scenes and an overabundance of characters to keep track of.
And another thing, though I find the prose delightful, I must also admit it's an omni POV and this prohibits the reader from becoming part of the story. And with the excitement therein, killing anacondas, an angry Charles Darwin, a castaway harlot, a swearing Spanish parrot...I want to be a PART of the story.
Setting this aside for now.
That being said, while I love the prose and the humor is absolutely delightful, at the same time, the prose is making the book way too long. There are also unnecessary scenes and an overabundance of characters to keep track of.
And another thing, though I find the prose delightful, I must also admit it's an omni POV and this prohibits the reader from becoming part of the story. And with the excitement therein, killing anacondas, an angry Charles Darwin, a castaway harlot, a swearing Spanish parrot...I want to be a PART of the story.
Setting this aside for now.
October 25, 2015
This book took me forever because it's so dense, but this is one of the best books I've read this year. It spans the world and simultaneously gives you a tour of religious beliefs & arguments. If you like biology, history, travel, and religion, you'll love it. It was perfect for me.
June 29, 2017
Galapagos Regained es una novela de aventuras estilo Indiana Jones en el que una joven actriz llamada Chloe, después de trabajar como asistente personal de Darwin y escuchar sus teorías, decide participar en un concurso que recompensará con 10,000 libras a quien logre probar la existencia o no existencia de dios. Entonces se embarca en una aventura hacia el Amazonas, Perú, Ecuador y las islas Galápagos a buscar sus pruebas biológicas de la evolución.
¿Suena bien, no?
Está bien, solo que es un libro muy largo y al final me terminó cansando mucho. Es padre cuando personajes debaten las teorías de la existencia del mal, la perspectiva cosmológica, la tesis de Santo Tomás de Aquino, etc... y desglosan conceptos científicos y teológicos complejos, haciéndolos fáciles de entender. Pero las motivaciones de los personajes y su razonamiento a veces parece un poco payaso.
Nada de esto sería un problema si el libro no se pusiera tan aburrido en el último tercio. Soy fan de libros que tocan estos temas y que explican estas teorías. Las he leído una y otra vez en novelas y en libros de no ficción, pero aquí francamente me cansaron un poco.
Sin embargo, pagaría por ver una película de dos horas adaptada de Galapagos Regained. Dos horas, no más.
¿Suena bien, no?
Está bien, solo que es un libro muy largo y al final me terminó cansando mucho. Es padre cuando personajes debaten las teorías de la existencia del mal, la perspectiva cosmológica, la tesis de Santo Tomás de Aquino, etc... y desglosan conceptos científicos y teológicos complejos, haciéndolos fáciles de entender. Pero las motivaciones de los personajes y su razonamiento a veces parece un poco payaso.
Nada de esto sería un problema si el libro no se pusiera tan aburrido en el último tercio. Soy fan de libros que tocan estos temas y que explican estas teorías. Las he leído una y otra vez en novelas y en libros de no ficción, pero aquí francamente me cansaron un poco.
Sin embargo, pagaría por ver una película de dos horas adaptada de Galapagos Regained. Dos horas, no más.
December 19, 2019
Ce livre nous transporte avec son héroïne Chloé Barthurst dans une aventure loufoque et burlesque. Le style de l'auteur, déluré, m'a fait rire et j'ai adoré voyager et rencontrer ces personnages haut en couleur. Il y a pour moi dans le style et l'intrigue un coté "monthy-pitonesque", avec des situations étranges, parfois sans queue-ni-tête mais qui m'ont toujours fait rire. Les nombreuses références historiques et philosophiques ne sont parfois pas évidentes à suivre, mais j'ai adoré découvrir d'autres pensées.
Le style est travaillé, et change des styles souvent très neutres dans les traductions de livres de fantasy et d'aventures.
Une petite longueur s'installe sur la fin de l'ouvrage, et on sent que l'auteur à un peu de mal peut-être à savoir comment faire un final à la hauteur du reste de l'ouvrage. Mais on le dit souvent, l'important est le voyage et non la destination. C'est aussi le cas dans ce livre atypique.
Le style est travaillé, et change des styles souvent très neutres dans les traductions de livres de fantasy et d'aventures.
Une petite longueur s'installe sur la fin de l'ouvrage, et on sent que l'auteur à un peu de mal peut-être à savoir comment faire un final à la hauteur du reste de l'ouvrage. Mais on le dit souvent, l'important est le voyage et non la destination. C'est aussi le cas dans ce livre atypique.
September 6, 2024
Despite an odd & rather pretentious writing-style, I was able to enjoy this unusual book in many ways, although it was admittedly a fairly arduous undertaking for a fiction read. The author is to be commended for great mastery of story-telling, vocabulary, background-research, and interesting plot-twists. Yet by the end, I was growing fatigued by the book & many of its characters, who I found unsympathetic & I didn't really care for too much. Although most of them were fascinating & occasionally had a good trait or two, they were generally fairly unscrupulous, opportunistic, impulsive, unstable people, who I could only enjoy experiencing adventures with vicariously; but wouldn't trust in real life. When the reader loses concern for the characters, there's not much point to the story, & that's how I ended up feeling, like the book was a beautiful but empty shell. Still had to give it high marks for the clever, brilliant writing skills. Learned a lot of new vocabulary.
March 21, 2018
A great scientific adventure novel. Lots of thoughtful anecdotes addressing the existence of gods, the evolution of life, and intellectual debauchery.
A worthy follow up to The Last Witchfinder with a terrific protagonist exploring her worldview and compassionately pursuing a worthy life path. In general Morrow's writing is a colorful filigree of prose and the fantastical time travel smoke shop added a fine fantasy element to the whole.
I felt the pacing occasionally was sluggish, but the flowing enlightenment-speak kept me navigating forward, even though I wished fervently for the Covenant ark's return to Europe with Galapagos fauna to unleash a viral evolutionary movement. Also, a time travel visit from Richard Dawkins or Neil de Grasse Tyson would have been a grand finisher to the fantastical interludes.
In the end, this novel was a delightful science historical fiction entry!
A worthy follow up to The Last Witchfinder with a terrific protagonist exploring her worldview and compassionately pursuing a worthy life path. In general Morrow's writing is a colorful filigree of prose and the fantastical time travel smoke shop added a fine fantasy element to the whole.
I felt the pacing occasionally was sluggish, but the flowing enlightenment-speak kept me navigating forward, even though I wished fervently for the Covenant ark's return to Europe with Galapagos fauna to unleash a viral evolutionary movement. Also, a time travel visit from Richard Dawkins or Neil de Grasse Tyson would have been a grand finisher to the fantastical interludes.
In the end, this novel was a delightful science historical fiction entry!
August 15, 2017
I liked the premise of this book, but I couldn't like the book itself. The things that bothered me most were:
1. The writing style, which used far too many words to convey far too little information. That is characteristic of much Victorian era literature, which this emulates, but to me, it made the story drag.
2. The characters were intended to be read as attractive, witty adventurers, but to me, they came across as moderately stupid, reckless humans who get by on luck, charisma, and the equal stupidity of those they encounter.
I read the first 30%, skimmed another 10%, skipped through a bit more, and then gave up.
1. The writing style, which used far too many words to convey far too little information. That is characteristic of much Victorian era literature, which this emulates, but to me, it made the story drag.
2. The characters were intended to be read as attractive, witty adventurers, but to me, they came across as moderately stupid, reckless humans who get by on luck, charisma, and the equal stupidity of those they encounter.
I read the first 30%, skimmed another 10%, skipped through a bit more, and then gave up.
December 25, 2017
The narrative started out promising with compelling characters and an intriguing premise. It soon dissolved into the ridiculous with impossible things happening in a world that is supposed to be historical fiction. For instance, one mad man in a mental hospital gets letters by pigeon from his son who smokes hashish with impossible people from the future in an attempt to explain genetics and evolution to the reader. It's ludicrous and unnecessary. The worst part is the story loses its narrative voice about halfway through. The part that I liked at the beginning, the reason I wanted to read this novel, simply faded. I do NOT recommend this one.
July 25, 2017
Not awful, but I probably should have realized that as an avid lover of all things Victoriana and especially Darwin/Galapagos there was a reason why I hadn't heard of this until I stumbled on it at a local library: it's not really sure what it wants to be, the characters' motivations are bizarre and yet the denouement is predictable.
June 11, 2022
Come for the most quotable banter in the world, stay for the compelling merger of spiritual and scientific discourse....but still stay for the banter if anything.
"In my former profession," said Solange, "I often dealt with men whose heads I would have liked to cut off and shrink, also their pizzles," a sentence Akawo declined to translate.
"In my former profession," said Solange, "I often dealt with men whose heads I would have liked to cut off and shrink, also their pizzles," a sentence Akawo declined to translate.
August 4, 2022
Loved the first half, maybe 2/3, of the book, but then it became a chore.
The author's cleverness with language just got to be TOO clever, which quickly turned to somewhat-annoying.
Similarly, the outlandishness of some of the plot points didn't sit well. Be realistic or be fantastic, but choose one.
Lastly, it was just too long! A little editing would have gone a long way.
The author's cleverness with language just got to be TOO clever, which quickly turned to somewhat-annoying.
Similarly, the outlandishness of some of the plot points didn't sit well. Be realistic or be fantastic, but choose one.
Lastly, it was just too long! A little editing would have gone a long way.
May 19, 2024
Tous les ingrédients sont là pour donner une farce picaresque et érudite, ce que le roman est à ses meilleurs moments.
Moments malheureusement complètement noyés dans une prose bien trop dense, de trop nombreux personnages et des sous-intrigues confuses.
J'avais largement préféré "En remorquant Jéhovah" du même auteur.
Moments malheureusement complètement noyés dans une prose bien trop dense, de trop nombreux personnages et des sous-intrigues confuses.
J'avais largement préféré "En remorquant Jéhovah" du même auteur.
February 14, 2017
Morrow seems to have lost his spark, at least for me. His most recent novel had a premise that sounded so enjoyable to me, and yet by the end I was bored and disappointed. The only good thing I am taking from this book is the plan to read Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA.
May 9, 2018
I was not familiar with the author when the title caught my eye. “Satiric historic adventure” sums it up well. Get ready for an adventure with a cast of unique characters, and don’t take it too literally.
August 5, 2019
This writer's style gets on my nerves. The dialogue has so much contrived, cutesy banter that I feel like I'm watching a WB show. Ick. The plot is silly and not in an enchanting kind of way. In an Elmo kind of way.
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