Mr. Darwin's Shooter

Roger McDonald's Mr. Darwin's Shooter caught my eye in the stacks at the shop a few weeks ago, and I've been slowly reading it bit by bit on the T since then. It's quite a nice piece of historical fiction, highlighting the little-known character Syms Covington. Darwin's erstwhile assistant on the Beagle voyage and longtime correspondent thereafter, Covington is an enigmatic character, who left a narrow paper trail (online here) and more than a few mysteries.

McDonald's narrative takes place in two time periods: one plot-line follows Covington through his early years and along with Darwin on his travels, while the second portrays him as an aging man in Australia awaiting the arrival of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This device is put show more to excellent use here; it allows McDonald to introduce a welcome element of suspense and curiosity into the excellently-written narrative.

The tensions in this book are the tensions that have always followed Darwin: as a man of great religious conviction Covington, is profoundly troubled at the conclusions to which his observations lead him (before, it is suggested, they led Darwin to the same place). McDonald handles these tensions well, and has fashioned from them a very good book.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2006/10/book-review-mr-darwins-shooter.html show less

Roger McDonald is a noted Australian novelist however this is the first of his books that I have had the pleasure of reading. Like The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami that I read earlier this year, this is a book based on the life of a real person. Syms Covington, the titular protagonist of this story was a person like most people who have lived and were forgotten. Now his life has been impressively reclaimed from history's notorious dustbin in this novel by Roger McDonald.

Syms Covington was 15 years old when he joined the crew of H.M. S. Beagle for a journey that would change forever both his own life and humanity's view of our place in the world. As collector and shooter and all-around assistant, young Covington accompanied Darwin show more throughout the five-year voyage and for two years of wrap-up work after the return to England. The Darwin biographer Janet Browne describes Covington as the unacknowledged shadow behind Darwin's every triumph. McDonald's fictionalized account of Covington's life is a well-researched book, rich in the complicated issues that surround Darwin and his work, especially its shock to Victorian religious sensibilities. But this novel is genuinely about Syms Covington, not about Darwin. It is about his adventurous life, which happens to accompany for a time that of a man destined to become the most influential scientist of his era.

McDonald imbues his story with the textures and assumptions of 19th-century life including religion, work, clothes, food, even shipboard floggings. The result is a well wrought tale of a man who embodies the milieu of his generation. It is the story of a daring, courageous, passionate man who is troubled by his own small role in the shocking changes going on about him. When we first meet Syms he is 12 years old, the religion-drenched son of a butcher. We accompany him as he and Charles Darwin and the natural sciences grow up. As readers we follow him into a contentious, disappointed middle age.

McDonald constantly surprises. His prose is ebullient, at times boisterous, holding the interest of the reader with language so vivid and original, alternately comic and tragic, that it reminded me of the novels of Dickens. McDonald makes his history come alive by refusing to stray from the sweaty, angry, sad, and sometimes violence of reality. This is one of the better historical novels I have read. show less

This is a story about a 13 year old English boy, immersed in a religious upbringing, who takes to the sea.Life on the sea is presented in marvelous detail leading one to feel the salt spray in your face and the drudgery of slimy chores under the deck. Life improves for this chap when he becomes Mr Darwin's servant and he follows him island hopping and dispatching birds and mammals for his collection. The remainder of the shooter's life in Australia was less interesting. The publication of Darwin's findings much later outraged the shooter for its heretical nature. The character and the sea and island setting were vivid and believable. If you read this book expecting to find some clues as to Darwin's personal life you will be show more disappointed, as the action is all presented from the point of view of his servant. show less

Meet Syms Covington. Raised in Bedford and by the age of thirteen, left home and went to sea. This is no ordinary boy. Grown to reach six feet tall, Syms looked like a man. By fifteen years of age he was in the service of Charles Darwin as his hunter and collector about the HMS Beagle. In later years, Covington grapples with his religious beliefs which are in direct conflict with Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Confessional: reading Mr. Darwin's Shooter was like walking down a gravel road barefoot. Much of my effort was spent gingerly picking through the sentences, hoping to land on ones more comfortable and less complicated. McDonald chose to cram a lot of sharp edges into his short book. The running commentary on 19th century show more culture and society was important to keep the reader grounded in the time period, but ended up ensnaring and slogging the plot. Here is how I know I book will not hold my interest - I can't remember what was happening when I left off reading. I don't remember the last character on the page or what they did or said. Darwin isn't even introduced until nearly 150 pages in. show less

An historical novel based on the seafaring life of Sym Covington, servant to Charles Darwin, on his remarkable Beagle journey.

Startlingly likely, Covington’s character is not merely well illustrated from McDonald’s research; he is compelling and as fine a companion on a reader’s journey as he was to Mr. Darwin... that is to say, irritatingly large in character, touching and alarming in faith, fine in his ambitions and thorough in his work.

A butcher’s boy turned clerk, turned deck-hand, turned servant, Covington burned to better himself during his younger years and, during his last, burned with smouldering consideration at the betrayal of his faith by his master, or of his faith itself, whichever he could bear to believe false show more for a moment. McDonald asks the reader to consider – what do you do with your faith when science asks you to put it away? Nor is this the only philosophical thread, for Covington is as unsettling in his thoughts as his manner.

Covington’s richness, however, lies in the constancy of adaptability; his search for greater fortune than begat him is but a foreshadowing for the truth he later seeks in the people and world around him.

Forthright and dirty, Sym Covington and the young, proper Charles Darwin make an odd coupling; rather than bring them together in harmony in the text, McDonald expounds on their differences and sources of complaint with one another, groaning and settling like a ship’s boards in a storm. show less

I am always fascinated about "the unsung heroes" for some of history's really big developments. MacDonald chooses the perfect person to focus on when he decides to write a fictional account of the life, thoughts, feelings and emotions of an individual who by today's standards would have been considered a co-contributor to Darwin's naturalist work and the creation of his "Origin of the Species" thesis. On one level, this is a full on adventure story of what it might have been like for a 19th century young lad with no work prospects at home to embark on a seafaring life, and what a seafaring life MacDonald portrays! On a different level, this story is about the unique friendship that grows between a much older Covington - being forced to show more give up his seafaring ways - and the young American raised, Australian based doctor MacCracken. If that is not enough, the story even dips into the realm of conflicting views as the older Covington, of the Congregationalist religious persuasion, grapples with the overarching concepts contained in Darwin's newly released [Origins of the Species] and how they are at odds with his religious beliefs.

Well the story presents a rich tapestry of the historical time period, and I love the idea of being able to visit such pristine places like the Galapagos in the 19th century through the story, I have to admit that it took me two months to read this one. I just never felt connected to the story, the characters or their situations. That being said, I do want to see if I can find the book referenced in the story of the Beagle's historic journey, and now have a renewed interest to read The Origins of the Species, so some good did come out of reading this one. show less

I loved this book. It is in my top ten, I recently wrote a review for Oscar and Lucinda, and for me this is much better. I concede that it could well be the fact I have studied Darwin in detail at university and school, and this included aspects and knowledge I did not know. I felt I was on the Beagle and looking at the voyage from a different POV. We are rarely given the POV of anyone except Darwin and Fitzroy (The Captain), but we see the world through Syms Covington's eyes, and what a view it is. If you want to know more about Darwin, evolution and the voyage of the Beagle, this is a must. I also found it quite uplifting, even though I often find reading about dead people tinged with a little sadness. Covington comes from poverty, show more and undergoes a spiritual and knowledge enlightenment, and it had a feel good factor as well. The fact that both him and Darwin remained friends and correspondents is just lovely. Love Dickens, you will love this show less