Tyler Brock

Tyler Brock (1787–1863?) is a fictional character in the novel Tai-Pan. He is the Tai-pan, or "supreme leader" of Brock & Sons Trading Company, and the novel's antagonist. He is married to Liza Brock and has several children, including his sons Gorth, Morgan and Tom, and daughters Tess and Elizabeth. Brock is presented as a tough character, with a rough, Birmingham accent and an eyepatch. He competes fiercely with protagonist Dirk Struan, Tai-pan of Struan's Trading Company - known as the Noble House.

Brock's enmity with Struan precedes the events of the book. Brock, being older than Struan, was the 3rd mate on ship The Vagrant Star, on which Struan was a deckhand. Brock whipped Struan and made his life on the ship hellish. This ended one night when their ship hit a reef and sank. Brock and Struan survived, and each began to build their respective companies.

Brock lost an eye sometime prior to the book, when his vessel was hit by wind. He was pinned under a broken mastbeam and thrashed about the face by a loose halyard, whose metal-capped end gouged out his eye. Despite his overwhelming hatred for Dirk Struan he passes up outside assistance in bringing down the Noble House, preferring to do it himself.

Tyler Brock never gets his chance for vengeance, as Dirk Struan dies in a typhoon before there can be a reckoning. In classic Shakespearean fashion Tyler's daughter Tess and Dirk's son Culum fall in love, getting married and condemning their fathers' hatred. But Tyler Brock disowns his little girl, a grudging act that has terrible consequences.

Now part of the Noble House, Tess works with her husband Culum, now Tai-Pan of Struans, to further the Noble House and extract the vengeance that Dirk Struan would never have. The novel leaves us at that, but future books in James Clavell's saga reveal the end of Tyler Brock.

When Culum dies, Tess takes over as Tai-Pan and orchestrates the fall of her father in 1863. A penniless Tyler Brock is seen pirating a Chinese junk ship and sailing north, screaming promises to rebuild his fortune and come back for the coveted title of "Noble House."

He is never seen or heard from again.

John Stanton played Brock in the 1986 film Tai Pan. George MacDonald Fraser, who wrote an unused script adaptation of Tai Pan in the late 1970s, thought Oliver Reed would have been ideal casting for the role of Brock.^[1]

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