num_pages: 875
description: 1828 - Brilliant young naval officer Robert FitzRoy is given the captaincy of HMS Beagle, surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego, aged just twenty-three. He takes a passenger: a young trainee cleric and amateur geologist named Charles Darwin. This is the story of a deep friendship between two men, and the twin obsessions that tore it apart, leading one to triumph and the other to disaster...
language: English
title: This Thing of Darkness
titlecomplete: This Thing of Darkness
characters: Charles Darwin, Orundellico, Robert Fitzroy, Bartholomew James Sulivan
genres: Fiction, Historical, Religion, Adventure, British Literature, Literature, Travel, Evolution, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 2860
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Booker Prize
category: Longlist
publisher: Headline Review