What do you think?
Rate this book
Mystic Isles of the South Seas
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
- GenresNonfictionClassicsTravel
340 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1921
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 15, 2023
Interesting Journal
This book was long and at first a bit boring. As I read it I realized it was a journal of the author's experience of his South Sea trip to Tahiti.
This book was long and at first a bit boring. As I read it I realized it was a journal of the author's experience of his South Sea trip to Tahiti.
November 17, 2025
One of Gauguin's shacks still remained in sight along the road. Several people remembered Robert Louis Stevenson, and a few still had gifts he had presented to them. Tahitians, albeit converted to Christianity, held traditional feasts, lived if not a pastoral life, then one that still had connections to the sea and ancient myths. Papeete, meanwhile, kept a certain excitement about it, although foreigners dominated the port and its increasingly messy and polluted environment. A trip to Moorea could isolate you from French influence. And a trip to the Tahitian hinterlands allowed anyone willing to spend the time, that would be months and months and months, to get as close to ancient Polynesian ways as possible.
That's what things were like for Frederick O'Brien, when he spent part of the years of 1913-1914 in Tahiti. O'Brien seems to have been heavily influenced by James G. Frazer, although he makes no mention of him in this book. But his claims for common roots among Christianity and other religions with Polynesian beliefs could well come from early editions of The Golden Bough. For O'Brien gives over many pages of Mystic Isles to religion, philosophy, anthropological musings, as well as the personal romance of traveling to a remote and relatively untouched part of the globe. He sometimes gives in to purple prose, so it's a good thing I'm something of a connoisseur of writing that is sometimes overstuffed and overflowing with descriptive passages. Give me more!
As stated, almost all the book tells of O'Brien's journey to the South Seas right before World War I--the book itself was published in 1921. There are some German-French-British tensions (not American, however) that illustrate how people living all the way across the world from the European homelands still engaged in national rivalries. The last chapter is the one part of the book that provides for a coda or an update on things. Princess Noanoa, one of O'Brien's Tahitian friends, writes to him in 1919 to tell him that almost every Tahitian he met on his trip is now dead. The Spanish flu pandemic killed them.
That's what things were like for Frederick O'Brien, when he spent part of the years of 1913-1914 in Tahiti. O'Brien seems to have been heavily influenced by James G. Frazer, although he makes no mention of him in this book. But his claims for common roots among Christianity and other religions with Polynesian beliefs could well come from early editions of The Golden Bough. For O'Brien gives over many pages of Mystic Isles to religion, philosophy, anthropological musings, as well as the personal romance of traveling to a remote and relatively untouched part of the globe. He sometimes gives in to purple prose, so it's a good thing I'm something of a connoisseur of writing that is sometimes overstuffed and overflowing with descriptive passages. Give me more!
As stated, almost all the book tells of O'Brien's journey to the South Seas right before World War I--the book itself was published in 1921. There are some German-French-British tensions (not American, however) that illustrate how people living all the way across the world from the European homelands still engaged in national rivalries. The last chapter is the one part of the book that provides for a coda or an update on things. Princess Noanoa, one of O'Brien's Tahitian friends, writes to him in 1919 to tell him that almost every Tahitian he met on his trip is now dead. The Spanish flu pandemic killed them.
September 7, 2013
Delivers much the same flavor as "White Sands in the South Seas"
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews