---
product_id: 35014615
title: "Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1)"
price: "$43.28"
currency: USD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/35014615-rites-of-passage-a-novel-to-the-ends-of-earth
store_origin: US
region: United States of America
---

# Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1)

**Price:** $43.28
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- **What is this?** Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1)
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## Description

Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1) [Golding, William] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1)

Review: Great memory’s of my Navy days - Nice was a nice touch and the initiation over the equator was a great recall of some great memories “Shell Back”
Review: A sea voyage to Australia and the development of Edmund Talbot's view of life. - William Golding, a Nobel laureate in literature, is a favored author of mine. I read Rites of Passage because it received the Booker Prize, and I am on a quest to read all of the Booker Prize winners. But, Rites of Passage is the first of a trilogy about this sea voyage -- the others are Close Quarters, and Fire Down Below -- and I will read the entire trilogy because of the depth of Golding's writing here. At first, a young man on his way to a government position in Australia begins a journal at the request of his benefactor -- who also gave him the journal. At first, the information comes regularly, and while entries tended to be mundane -- e.g., the smell of ballast on an older ship -- it was still interesting. When young Talbot begins to speak about the crew, and the passengers, with him on this trip, the reader is introduced to different social customs, different concepts of what society expects of a gentleman, and how the influence a lord had to get Talbot a position had absolutely no impact on a sea captain taking what may be his last voyage. It is the introduction and development of the characters, their issues, and Talbot's reactions to them that make the book easy to read and hard to put down. To be sure, there are passages that are quickly passed because they inform the reader of heat and windless skies that lead to little movement, but these are relatively short. A major event occurs when an aspiring minister, who does not possess the charisma to make his knowledge at all interesting to his companions or the crew, commits a social breakdown that raises difficult issues from the characters different viewpoints, and helps the reader see how the same event from these viewpoints is so starkly different. This exploration takes Rites of Passage from a book about a certain era and makes it a book relevant to the various issues we all face today. It is a good read. More to the point, it has inspired me to obtain Close Quarters and Fire Down Below so I can finish the trilogy and learn how every issue and every person survive this voyage.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #654,609 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #349 in Sea Stories #3,285 in Classic Literature & Fiction #21,841 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Book 1 of 3  | Sea Trilogy |
| Customer Reviews | 3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars (294) |
| Dimensions  | 5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches |
| Edition  | First Edition |
| ISBN-10  | 0374526400 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0374526405 |
| Item Weight  | 14.4 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 288 pages |
| Publication date  | October 1, 1999 |
| Publisher  | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Reading age  | 8 - 12 years |

## Images

![Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41x3FfwVPUL.jpg)
![Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1) - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Yop4aBL1L.jpg)
![Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1) - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ZBsHvS8pL.jpg)
![Rites of Passage: A Novel (To the Ends of the Earth, 1) - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81fvQjj7HjL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great memory’s of my Navy days
*by S***N on June 9, 2024*

Nice was a nice touch and the initiation over the equator was a great recall of some great memories “Shell Back”

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A sea voyage to Australia and the development of Edmund Talbot's view of life.
*by T***R on January 11, 2024*

William Golding, a Nobel laureate in literature, is a favored author of mine. I read Rites of Passage because it received the Booker Prize, and I am on a quest to read all of the Booker Prize winners. But, Rites of Passage is the first of a trilogy about this sea voyage -- the others are Close Quarters, and Fire Down Below -- and I will read the entire trilogy because of the depth of Golding's writing here. At first, a young man on his way to a government position in Australia begins a journal at the request of his benefactor -- who also gave him the journal. At first, the information comes regularly, and while entries tended to be mundane -- e.g., the smell of ballast on an older ship -- it was still interesting. When young Talbot begins to speak about the crew, and the passengers, with him on this trip, the reader is introduced to different social customs, different concepts of what society expects of a gentleman, and how the influence a lord had to get Talbot a position had absolutely no impact on a sea captain taking what may be his last voyage. It is the introduction and development of the characters, their issues, and Talbot's reactions to them that make the book easy to read and hard to put down. To be sure, there are passages that are quickly passed because they inform the reader of heat and windless skies that lead to little movement, but these are relatively short. A major event occurs when an aspiring minister, who does not possess the charisma to make his knowledge at all interesting to his companions or the crew, commits a social breakdown that raises difficult issues from the characters different viewpoints, and helps the reader see how the same event from these viewpoints is so starkly different. This exploration takes Rites of Passage from a book about a certain era and makes it a book relevant to the various issues we all face today. It is a good read. More to the point, it has inspired me to obtain Close Quarters and Fire Down Below so I can finish the trilogy and learn how every issue and every person survive this voyage.

### ⭐⭐⭐ Three stars
*by K***0 on June 14, 2018*

I'm up to 1980 in my quest to read all the Booker Prize winners in order. I would not have read this book otherwise, and finished it only because of my commitment to myself. I confess to so skimming. Set in the early days of the 19th century, this journal of a minor official on his way to Australia is mostly tedious posturing by a young man very pleased with himself. He writes of his superiority to the other passengers. One in particular is a Mr Colley, a clergyman. Only toward the end of the book do we find out that Mr Colley also kept a journal, and his account is very different from Mr Talbot's. Actually nothing much happens in the book, and I didn't care very much about any of the characters.

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*Store origin: US*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*