This book is definitely one of the ten books I would take to a desert island.
It is a book centered on a personal journey... but it plays on two levels: it is the inner journey of self discovery and rites of passage into manhood of our main character, and it is also a tongue in cheek tale of travel and adventure. A kind of Heart of darkness with more heart and less darkness.
The book reminds us of the stuff empires thrived on: commerce without a heart, people who are larger than life, emotional friendships, self mockery, debauchery, selfishness, peril where you least expect it, redemption when you least expect it, and lots of carefree energy. All this conveyed in a racy yet delightful style.
The reader will be jumping from cockney dinners to life at sea, from the cobbled streets of London to the exotic shores of Asia, from dealing in fine porcelain to the opium trade, in a narrative flow that makes it hard to put the book down.
A classic. I only wish the author had written more books.