The Company: Portrait of a Murderer

by Arabella Edge

Book Overview

Based on the 1629 voyage of the Dutch East India Company flagship, Batavia -- which foundered off the coast of western Australia with its cargo of untold riches -- The Company tells the story of passenger Jeronimus Cornelisz, a heretical apothecary so twisted by lust and greed that he turns to mutiny, rape, torture, and murder.
With the ship wrecked, its passengers dying, and its treasure at the bottom of the sea, Cornelisz marshals...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743419189
• ISBN13: 9780743419185
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.9" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Company: An impressive read

This is not really a 'likeable' book, but it is certainly an impressive one. Set in the 17th century, it seeks to chronicle the true events of the final fateful voyage of the merchant ship, the Batavia. The level of research and the imaginative translation of a huge amount of period detail into a vibrant, credible and textured landscape is extraordinary. Tonally and atmospherically it feels like a cross between the moribund amoral worlds of 'Perfume' and 'Lord of The Flies'. It doesn't quite work as an explanation of why the main character did what he did. The psychological analysis is the least persuasive aspect of the novel, not because it is unbelievable, but because it is slightly too knowing in its exposition. The language, however, is a delight. It has a seductive rhythmic quality, often using alliterative lists of unfamiliar things as a sort of literary underbelly to its world. It also balances the old and the modern to create just the right feeling of unease without being over-stilted. Definitely worth reading, but more for its craft than any great illumination of the human condition.

A Gruesome Tale Well Told

Arabella Edge's The Company (The Story of a Murderer) is a fictionalized account of the wreck of the Batavia in 1629 off the coast of Western Australia told from the point of view of the leader of the mutineers, Jeronimus Cornelisz. It is a well written book that becomes very difficult to read as it progresses and the endless horrors and atrocities continue unabated. As it is narrated by such a powerful character who is presented from the first as evil (mixed with cowardice, a dealy combination) and without any moral compass, the novel does not develop the horrors slowly but simply presents them one after another after another leaving the reader numb. The author is skilled at this piling on of horrors and creates moments of surprise throughout although finding a meaning to all of this terror seems rather futile. This book never reaches the level of Lord of the Flies but is nastily effective, in its own right, at relentlessly showing man's baser nature.

KIRKUS REVIEWS

"An engrossing debut novel from an English writer now living in Australia, cited as Best First Book in a recent Commonwealth Writers Prize competition. The story's based on a historical incident: the wrecking of a Dutch East Indies flagship, the BATAVIA, on a coral reef off the western coast of Austrialia in 1629--and also on the real-life figure of Jeronimus Cornelisz, a Dutch apothecary who led a murderous mutiny of shipwreck survivors against others of their fellow passengers and the BATAVIA's crew. Edge tells this from the viewpoint of Cornelisz, a serial prisoner who had faked his way on board the ship in order to escape prosecution for his crimes--which are revealed in meditative flashbacks juxtaposed with a spine-tingling episodic account of the survivors' 40-day ordeal on the nearby Abrolhos Islands. Cornelisz is thus gradually revealed to us as the product of a stunted family environment (his father is a brutal sexual predator, his mother a passive religious zealot); the willing student of his Dostoevskyan mentor Torrentius, a wealthy epicurean artist who might have been a crony of Aleister Crowley's; and a deranged visionary who imagines he has committed evil acts in previous lives (having, for example, delivered Joan of Arc up to her martyrdom). Cornelisz is both a memorable Faustian monster and--in an impressive feat of symbolic suggestion--a nightmarish incarnation of the ruthlessness and avarice at the heart of Dutch mercantile culture ("Trade--what will a man not give in exchange for his soul?"). The scenes in which he manipulates "a drunken group of corporate boys" (the overindulged sons of rich merchants) to do his lethal bidding are rendered even more compelling by the psychotic intricacy of Cornelisz's crafty self-justifications. A stimulating mix of OLIVER TWIST, LORD OF THE FLIES, and two great Australian novels: Thomas Keneally's THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH and Patrick White's A FRINGE OF LEAVES. And, both because of and despite these echoes, a stunningly original triumph for a brilliant newcomer." KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)

A different kind of suspense thriller

In 1628, apothecary Jeronimus Cornelisz flees Amsterdam because some of his views on sorcery are considered heresy. In spite of his assisting the city's burghers with various vials including poisons, Jeronimus knows his exile must start immediately. His need to leave town forces the pompous Jeronimus to travel by sea, a mode of transportation he loathes. Still Jeronimus becomes a passenger on the Dutch East India ship Batavia heading to Indonesia. While sailing on the endless oceans, Jeronimus realizes the ship carries a fortune that he believes should be his by divine right. He also lusts after another passenger, who spurns his efforts at courting. Still, Jeronimus manages to use his charismatic personality to incite a mutiny. Soon, the Batavia runs aground with many dying at sea. Those who survive soon turn to "the seducer of men" to keep them safe until a rescue ship can arrive. Instead of a leader of a temporary haven, Jeronimus begins forty days of torture, mayhem, and murder. THE COMPANY is a powerful historical fiction told in the first person by the beguiling villain. The story line is frightening because it is based on a true incident and person. Arabella's Edge's research into Jeronimus allows the reader to see behind his charm into the head of this psychopathic megalomaniac. Yet his fellow mutineers and survivors fell right into his devilish allure. Genre fans will have a field day with this novel, especially comparing this diabolical individual with some of history's charismatic, but deadly tyrants.Harriet Klausner