This has been the shelf for years and I finally got around to reading it. The story takes place in the late 1700s after the American Revolution, in Bristol, England, on a slaver/convict transport vessel, and eventually in Norfolk Island by way of Botany Bay, Australia. Colleen McCullough does amazing research to provide incredible details about life in whatever period she is writing, using language which is not too modern and describing things as they might be perceived by the character who knows nothing of what we know today. Not only does it help the reader to feel a part of the time and place, but this serves to feel that you're going deeper into that time period to understand the regular person's experience of those history stories that we superficially learn about in school.In particular, by reading this novel, not only did I learn a bit more about the settlement of Australia by British convicts (the obvious history lesson here), but the state of the lives of the working class English really gave me an insight about American culture and its revolt against government taxation, which continues until this day. For example, the British pervasiveness of licensing every aspect of commerce in England was insane. Unlike in America, where licensing (more or less) serves the purpose of ensuring safety and compliance with social norms, in England it served only to raise revenue for the government. (Yes, I realize that regulation in America also provides a revenue stream, but I don't wish to have that argument here.) As to the particulars of the story, Morgan is Richard Morgan, a real-life historical figure in Norfolk Island history (Norfolk Island is in the middle of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and a part of the Commonwealth of Australia). He was convicted of larceny in England and eventually sentenced to 7 years' transportation to Botany Bay. The story tells the epic of his life and how his steady character, work eithic, insight, and luck allowed him to make a new life for himself on Norfolk Island. The author lives in Norfolk Island, and as a result I'm sure her basic familiarity with the story of the island and Richard Morgan is more than most folks have, particularly non-Australians. I don't know much about it, so I can't attest to how much liberty has been taken with the history. Having read this, I do want to read more about Australian history, in general, realizing that I really know very little about it beyond the basic concept that it was settled primarily by convicts who were resettled there.If I had one complaint about the story it would be that Richard Morgan dosen't seem to have any fatal flaws. Granted, things happened which led to the conviction (right or wrong) which were certainly influenced by his character, but ultimately things seemed to have worked out better for him as a result. This story certainly glorifies him. I suppose that is the liberty of historical fiction.Aside from the somewhat greater appreciation of the circustances leading to the American Revolution and Australian settlement that I now I have, I also really liked the handling of the character of Stephan Donovan (fictionalized, although there was a Stephen Donovan, Midshipman, in the First Fleet). In Morgan's Run, he is an openly gay "Miss Molly" who is Morgan's best friend. All very interestingly written.
Richard Morgan, the son of a British tavern keeper, is a devoted husband and has a son who he adores. He expects he will always live in Bristol, a town he has lived in all his life and knows well. He has no desire to venture far from its surroundings, expecting to raise his family here and eventually live out his days. But after inadvertently coming upon and reporting excise fraud, he unwittingly becomes trapped in the net of the British justice system. Unable to properly defend himself, he is falsely accused and convicted of a crime and sentenced to deportation. He boards a ship with hundreds of other male and female convicts and makes the treacherous and grueling voyage across the sea to Rio de Janeiro, on through the South Atlantic to Cape Town and from there on to New South Wales, Australia which is to be his new home. Richard stands out among the convicts on the ship. While others sink to weeping, depression or fighting their keepers, he remains calm despite the chaos that surrounds him. He quickly learns what he needs to know and how to act if he is to survive this difficult and dangerous journey. He does not allow himself to be bullied, does not sink to despair when confronted with problems but instead uses his knowledge to confront and solve them. He willingly helps the others and thus gains supporters and friends. He also realizes his prime concern must be to maintain his health, and he teaches the others to do so as well. Unwittingly, although he does not want it, he becomes the unacknowledged leader of the group. Even those who guard him grow to admire and respect him and he eventually establishes friendships with his keepers that help him and his fellow convicts survive. After travelling by sea for over a year fighting storms, disease and starvation, their ship finally lands in their new home in Australia. Here they face the harsh conditions of an environment they do not know or understand, full of plants and animals they have never seen as well as dangers they do not anticipate. But they must find a way to become self-sufficient if they are ever to survive in this new and strange environment. This novel takes place in eighteenth century Britain and Australia and easily demonstrates the extensive research McCullough did to bring us this interesting story. But the book is far too long (over 600 pages) and includes details that become onerous and burdensome to a necessarily slow moving plot. She also introduces so many characters that we never really get to know many of them because they are never properly developed. In Richard Morgan, McCullough has created a man who seems almost too good to be true, but she insists he was a real man, an ancestor of her husband. And perhaps it is that connection, that desire to see a distant relative in a strong and good light that has led her to create a character full of resilience and strength, who never seems to make a mistake and comes out well despite the many roadblocks, disasters and tragedies he faces.
What do You think about Morgan's Run (2002)?
Do not read this if you have even a very basic knowledge of Australian history. I cannot call this a historical novel because this author thought by throwing in some names and events she could make history out of fiction, it doesn't work that way. I have tried to read her books before and found them ponderous and excessive in description to make up for plot. Decided to give it another go and fight my way to the end. Mistake.What I find interesting about the readers who wrote reviews, they either hated or loved this book. I found more to agree with the one, rather than five star reviews.Part one: Richard the saint, Part two: Richard as Job, Part three: Richard the innocent, Part four: Richard the miracle worker (he kept his group clean! shaved! and happy all on a slave ship) Parts left: He was perfect, could do anything, everyone including gays, straight, superiors, inferiors, loved him. Build a house, plant a field, fell a tree, organize men, make a still, made a Garden of Eden with a totally sustainable economy and food production on Norfolk Island, he could do it all. I should put an exclamation point here. Aborigines two sentences, legal system of England, several paragraphs, rape and sexual abuse of boys, none, of girls, none, of women, several sentences, felling trees, paragraphs beyond counting, torture zero, flogging several sentences, absolutely fairy tale. I could write an entire book on the misconceptions of this one, enough.I wanted to like this book, there were moments that I had hope, but alas, back the author dropped into never-never-land. Now I know why even the Australians have a misconception about their own history.
—Frances Fuller
Sooooo I finally finished Morgan's Run. It has been a long and hard reading. Not because the book was not interesting: it was full of History, romance, adventure. But it's just too long, and with too many details. I learnt a lot about Australia and its discovering by England, but I had not expected to have such a lesson. I feel less stupid now that I have been reading Morgan's Run (I used to know absolutely nothing about the history of this part of the world), but I haven't felt as if I have been reading a great novel. Actually, I have not appreciated much the main character: Richard Morgan is too perfect. Everyone admires him, he never commits any error... And this is quite boring. You can't really imagine such a man could have existed... As a conclusion, we could say that this book will be appreciated by people particularly interested in History, but I would not recommend it just to entertain yourself. I won't read the suite if Colleen McCullough writes it, it's just too much time and energy for a theme I don't love.
—Anaïs
This novel is based on the true story of Richard Morgan who is the real life 4 times-great, grandfather of Coleen McCullough's husband. The novel took me on an adventure that I had never even dreamed of in this riveting, bigger than life novel. Richard Morgan led a somewhat average life in England in the late 1700s but his unjust conviction of a crime that he didn't commit and his exile first by ship, under the most deplorable conditions that one could imagine, sent him on journey that gave him more strength than he had ever known. A year later the ship, Alexandria, with of some of England's prisoners landed in New Holland (later named Australia), in the newly formed English penal colony which was established to rid England of their "undesirables". It is through these adventures and disasters that he led the first of the penal colony exiles to create new lives in Botany Bay, Australia and Norfolk Island which lies between Australia and New Zealand At first I was disappointed that it was not exactly the novel that I expected because it was a slow starter and only a fourth of the novel takes place in Australia. However, I did find that the travel on the ship and McCullough's mesmerizing descriptions of the experience of the sea and ports of Africa and Brazil to be breathtaking, as she was able to create in my mind, the experience of these of places I have never been. Her characters, while not always likable, came alive for me and I don't think I will ever forget them. It is apparent that she historically researched every page that she wrote and all of it is very believable.I recommend this wonderful novel to any one who loves history and (to coin a phrase) likes to travel by armchair.
—Judi/Judith Riddle
