Far Tortuga (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Peter Matthiessen
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Plot: Impressionistic realism
- Time of Work: April and May, 1965
- Setting: The Caribbean Sea: Grand Cayman, cays off the coast of Nicaragua, Far Tortuga
- Principal Characters: Raib Avers, William Parchment, Byrum Powery Watler, Vemon Dilbert Evers, Wodie Greaves, Athens Ebanks, Junior Bodden (Speedy), Miguel Moreno Smith (Brown), Desmond Eden
- Genres: Long fiction, Impressionistic literature
- Subjects: 1960’s, Caribbean, Legends, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Shipwrecks, Adventure, Fishing or fishermen, Pirates, Turtles
- Locales: Caribbean
The Novel
Far Tortuga is a beautifully written, poetic adventure story, a haunting tale of men in conflict with the sea, one another, and themselves. Peter Matthiessen has crafted a spare and eloquent elegy to the ravaged Caribbean and to those men who have sailed and strived on that sea all the days of their lives. This book is full of the lore and legend of the Caribbean and of heart-piercing descriptions of the natural world, but it does not romanticize the life of the sea, nor is it weighted down with portentous symbolic meaning, as are many sea stories. Far...
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See Also:
See Also:
- - Far Tortuga summary and study guide in the quickNotes.
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