Voyage
A Novel of 1896By Sterling Hayden
704 pp. October 1999. Paperback. OUT OF PRINT
ISBN 1 57409 085 2
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This richly drawn, rousing historical novel is both a tumultuous sailing adventure and an incisive, epic portrayal of a watershed year at the close of the 19th century.
The torturous maiden voyage of the enormous steel-hulled four-masted square rigger NEPTUNE'S CAR drives her crew to murder and mutiny, while her owner's daughter luxuriates aboard the private yacht ATALANTA. As both vessels arrive in San Francisco on the eve of the Bryan-McKinley presidential election, an increasingly volatile class struggle threatens to erupt into riot and insurrection.
The gripping story of two ships and their conflicted crews, Voyage also recounts the first stirrings of the American labor movement and the decline of the Gilded Age of robber barons.
“A rousing epic… Big, muscular, profane, cynical, romantic.” —Chicago Daily News
“A rare sort of sheer drive and vitality carries this novel…a raw fury about class distinctions and privileges… strangely refreshing in our blasé age.” —New York Times Book Review
“A fast-moving, heart-pounding saga…pure pleasure to read.” —San Francisco Examiner
“Scuds through the emotions like a windjammer before a full gale.” —Chicago Tribune
“An elemental smash hit.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Solid, masterful writing that ranks the author with some of the giants of literature.” —Houston Post
“Violent, colorful…you keep turning the pages to find out just what in the name of God is going to happen next.” —Boston Globe
“A well-crafted yarn, a narrative of energy and excitement… Hayden knows how to tell a story.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
“A story of extraordinary richness and power… Sterling Hayden here proves himself a master novelist. His prose is vivid and brawny, his characters come to individual life… At once a magnificent epic of the sea and a dynamic portrait of turn-of-the-century America.” —Publishers Weekly
“Great storytelling…a sensational achievement in the genre of adventure stories.” —Kansas City Star
“Hayden has created many strong characterizations in his story and has woven in major events and movements of the period… Voyage is basically a sea story, but its significance is much broader.” —Seattle Times
“A book of savage beauty.” —Boston Herald American
“A spellbinder.” —New York Daily News
- See what else the press has to say: Reviews
About the Author:
Sterling Hayden served as mate and captain aboard a number of sailing ships, and was a Grand Banks fisherman when Hollywood offered him a screen test. His most famous role was that of Captain McCluskey in The Godfather. The autobiographical book Wanderer chronicles his rise to fame and his eventual escape from Hollywood to the South Seas. He died in 1986.
Also by Sterling Hayden: