Three Men of the Beagle

Beautifully written and hauntingly resonant, Three Men of the Beagle is both an engrossing Victorian morality tale and a superb rendering of a key period in the life of Charles Darwin.

The three men of the Beagle are: Darwin himself, at a time when his epochal theory of evolution was taking shape–a theory that when eventually published would threaten the foundations of Victorian society; Robert FitzRoy, the ship’s brilliant aristocratic commander, a scientist who championed orthodox Christianity; and Jemmy Button, an Indian of Tierra del Fuego, who was taken to England by FitzRoy, educated and catechized, received by the King and Queen and then returned to his bleak homeland (in order to be of service to future European mariners). Jemmy’s outlook is that of primitive man as he begins to apply moral measures to his own and general human behavior.

Based upon historical facts never before stitched together as a narrative, and set primarily in the Fuegian islands north of Cape Horn, this is a story that brings into conflict two men who represented the dominant trends of nineteenth-century thought and another man of utter simplicity. The encounter and clash of these three onetime shipmates set in motion a remarkable chain of events that culminates in a crime of gargantuan proportions.

Rich in atmosphere, often spellbinding, Three Men of the Beagle is a work of singular originality. It is also a deeply revealing picture of the ways in which Victorian England perceived itself and the world around it.