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The Beach of Falesá
Originally censored by its British publisher, The Beach at Falesá is a scathing critique of colonialism and economic imperialism that bravely takes on many of the 19th Century’ s strongest taboos: miscegenation, imperialism, and economic exploitation. It does so with a story that features a surprising and beguiling romance between an adventurous British trader and a young island girl, against a background of increasing—and mysterious—hostility. Are the native islanders plotting against the couple, or is it the other white traders? The result is a denouement that is astonishing in its violence. Told in the unadorned voice of the trader, it is a story that deftly combines the form of the exotic adventure yarn with the moral and psychological questing of great fiction.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
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530 people want to read
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson
6,903 books6,958 followersRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
June 23, 2019
For a novella of a hundred-odd pages, there’s a heck of lot going on here. RLS spent the last few years of his life travelling the Pacific, eventually settling in Samoa. In the book the depictions of the traders, the missionaries, and the indigenous peoples all have a feeling of authenticity about them.
On one level this is an adventure story. John Wiltshire, a trader, arrives on a Polynesian island, to find 3 existing traders, a bunch of rather shady characters who don’t welcome the prospect of increased competition. At this level it’s a perfectly decent read. RLS knows how to write an adventure tale.
For me though, RLS uses this story to explore the relationship between the Europeans/North Americans and the indigenous islanders, and the first thing that jumps out is a level of racism that’s quite startling to the modern reader. Wiltshire is portrayed as an uneducated man, blunt in speech and decisive in action, but he assumes himself to be superior to the islanders in every respect, viewing all other races with open contempt. Of course, this would have been accurate for a man of his background and time, but what’s unsettling about the novel is that Wiltshire is the hero of the story. I’m not used to reading a book where the hero is an out and out racist, even when it’s a 19th century novel.
In one respect, Wiltshire’s attitudes are challenged. In the novel he genuinely falls in love with, and legally marries, a Polynesian woman. The story makes it clear that it was quite acceptable, in fact expected, that a white man would take a Polynesian woman as a concubine, but in marrying a native woman, Wiltshire transgresses a social boundary. He acts in contradiction to his own beliefs, and the last paragraph of the novel left me pondering on the message that RLS was really trying to convey.
A very memorable tale. In many respects it’s worth a higher rating that I have awarded, but I can’t avoid the fact that much of it left me feeling very uncomfortable.
On one level this is an adventure story. John Wiltshire, a trader, arrives on a Polynesian island, to find 3 existing traders, a bunch of rather shady characters who don’t welcome the prospect of increased competition. At this level it’s a perfectly decent read. RLS knows how to write an adventure tale.
For me though, RLS uses this story to explore the relationship between the Europeans/North Americans and the indigenous islanders, and the first thing that jumps out is a level of racism that’s quite startling to the modern reader. Wiltshire is portrayed as an uneducated man, blunt in speech and decisive in action, but he assumes himself to be superior to the islanders in every respect, viewing all other races with open contempt. Of course, this would have been accurate for a man of his background and time, but what’s unsettling about the novel is that Wiltshire is the hero of the story. I’m not used to reading a book where the hero is an out and out racist, even when it’s a 19th century novel.
In one respect, Wiltshire’s attitudes are challenged. In the novel he genuinely falls in love with, and legally marries, a Polynesian woman. The story makes it clear that it was quite acceptable, in fact expected, that a white man would take a Polynesian woman as a concubine, but in marrying a native woman, Wiltshire transgresses a social boundary. He acts in contradiction to his own beliefs, and the last paragraph of the novel left me pondering on the message that RLS was really trying to convey.
A very memorable tale. In many respects it’s worth a higher rating that I have awarded, but I can’t avoid the fact that much of it left me feeling very uncomfortable.
February 17, 2013
The South Seas are not at all the paradise it is cut out to be, and Robert Louis Stevenson, to his benefit, realized this. The Beach of Falesa begins on a high note, with the trader Wiltshire arriving at Falesa and getting a good reception. In fact, he is offered a beautiful women to marry the first night he is on shore, the lovely Uma.
That's when the real story begins. Wiltshire and Uma are a good match for each other, but the white man who introduced them, one Case, is actually trying to lay a taboo on him because Uma comes from a suspect family. This seriously affects the way the natives behave toward him from that point on. What is more serious, no one is selling copra to Wiltshire -- but they are selling it to case.
Instead of a paradisaic romp under the palms, what we have is a confrontation with a very superstitious culture that could be (and is) easily manipulated by an unscrupulous person. Case goes so far as to build a "devil temple" called Tiavolo out in the brush, where he takes groups of natives to overawe them as to his power among the world of devils.
This is what Wiltshire must overcome, and he does a fair job of it. This is not one of RLS's classic short works like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and its author knows it -- but it is by far the best work of fiction I have ever read, including Conrad, on the tribal culture of the Pacific Islands.
That's when the real story begins. Wiltshire and Uma are a good match for each other, but the white man who introduced them, one Case, is actually trying to lay a taboo on him because Uma comes from a suspect family. This seriously affects the way the natives behave toward him from that point on. What is more serious, no one is selling copra to Wiltshire -- but they are selling it to case.
Instead of a paradisaic romp under the palms, what we have is a confrontation with a very superstitious culture that could be (and is) easily manipulated by an unscrupulous person. Case goes so far as to build a "devil temple" called Tiavolo out in the brush, where he takes groups of natives to overawe them as to his power among the world of devils.
This is what Wiltshire must overcome, and he does a fair job of it. This is not one of RLS's classic short works like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and its author knows it -- but it is by far the best work of fiction I have ever read, including Conrad, on the tribal culture of the Pacific Islands.
June 8, 2023
Großartige Abenteuer-Geschichte, die ein paar Flachköpfe, die das Buch nicht zu Ende gelesen haben, gern mit der Rassismus-Keule niederknüppeln. Zugegeben, die Wortwahl des Ich-Erzählers stößt aktuell gültige Werte vor den Kopf, gibt aber authentisch die Einstellung von kolonialistischen Abenteurer-Kaufleuten des viktorianischen Zeitlaters wieder, ein wenig typischer Stevenson-Schatzinsel-Zungenschlag ist auch dabei, von daher mögen manche Leser den Unterschied zwischen dem Autor und dem Ich-Erzähler, der epochentypsiche Rollenprosa abliefert, nicht bemerkt haben.
Wiltshire wird von seiner Handelsgesellschaft nach Falesa versetzt, einer Art verlorenem Posten, denn die letzten Vorgänger sind unter dubiosen Umständen ums Leben gekommen, der weiße Herr der Insel ist ein Konkurrent, der ihm aber schnell eine junge Schönheit mit einem dieser Alibi-Eheverträge antraut. Am Ende des ersten Kapitels hatte ich den Eindruck über eine Art Vorstufe zu Pierre Lotis Romanvorlage zu Madame Butterfly gestolpert zu sein. Doch Wiltshire schüttet als erstes seinen Schnaps weg, als er mit seiner Frau in die Niederlassung einzieht, um ein besserer Mann zu werden.
Das böse Erwachen lässt nicht lange auf sich warten, sie kann nicht kochen, er muss für beide an den Herd, wenn er was Genießbares auf dem Teller haben will. Zudem kann er keine Geschäfte machen, er wurde von den Einheimischen mit einem Tabu belegt und dann beginnt schon die abenteuerliche Handlung. Wer sich nicht an allerlei zeitgenössischen Vorurteilen stößt, die im weiteren Verlauf ad absurdum geführt werden, auch wenn dem Erzähler nicht die volle Erleuchtung zuteil wird, kann eine kurzweilige Lektüre genießen, die ein in jeder Hinsicht überholtes Weltbild authentisch vorführt, aber auch mit viel Ironie in Frage stellt. Absolut humorlosen Anti-Rassismus-Rigoristen würde ich allerdings von der Lektüre abraten.
Wiltshire wird von seiner Handelsgesellschaft nach Falesa versetzt, einer Art verlorenem Posten, denn die letzten Vorgänger sind unter dubiosen Umständen ums Leben gekommen, der weiße Herr der Insel ist ein Konkurrent, der ihm aber schnell eine junge Schönheit mit einem dieser Alibi-Eheverträge antraut. Am Ende des ersten Kapitels hatte ich den Eindruck über eine Art Vorstufe zu Pierre Lotis Romanvorlage zu Madame Butterfly gestolpert zu sein. Doch Wiltshire schüttet als erstes seinen Schnaps weg, als er mit seiner Frau in die Niederlassung einzieht, um ein besserer Mann zu werden.
Das böse Erwachen lässt nicht lange auf sich warten, sie kann nicht kochen, er muss für beide an den Herd, wenn er was Genießbares auf dem Teller haben will. Zudem kann er keine Geschäfte machen, er wurde von den Einheimischen mit einem Tabu belegt und dann beginnt schon die abenteuerliche Handlung. Wer sich nicht an allerlei zeitgenössischen Vorurteilen stößt, die im weiteren Verlauf ad absurdum geführt werden, auch wenn dem Erzähler nicht die volle Erleuchtung zuteil wird, kann eine kurzweilige Lektüre genießen, die ein in jeder Hinsicht überholtes Weltbild authentisch vorführt, aber auch mit viel Ironie in Frage stellt. Absolut humorlosen Anti-Rassismus-Rigoristen würde ich allerdings von der Lektüre abraten.
September 14, 2024
A little slow at first, but it builds into something quite dramatic. Both the language and the complex issues addressed in this tale might seem far-off to modern readers, but the love story shines out as something clear and bright. Stevenson raises a lot of questions here, but don't look for easy answers.
August 20, 2017
The Beach at Falesa’ was first published in 1892. By this time Robert Louis Stevenson had been a Socialist, a Tory Conservative and for 3 years had been wandering in the Seas of the Pacific Ocean with his family. The Beach is one of several of his later works drawn from this latter part of his life. The Beach can be tricky to read as the narrator can switch between the languages of 19th Century English, the language of the professional sailor then to some version of Polynesian pidgin English. On the surface it is a white man in the colonial world of the South Seas story in much the same tradition of those written by Conrad, Kipling and Michener. It is a tight little story about treachery and adventure. A worthy follow on from the pen of Treasure Island. There is a quiet subtext that that asks about the prejudices of the white man.
One again the Art of the Novella Books allow one to convert a few dollars into a chance to explore writers who might otherwise be shrugged off as only for the kids (as I had regarded Stevenson) or otherwise inaccessible. In 116 pages, the reader is taken on a short adventure and is left with the just enough of weightier things upon which to think.
Our first person narrator John Wiltshire, is a trader sent to replace a now dead store owner on the far away Island of Falesa’. He allows himself to ‘wed’ a beautiful local girl even before he can unpack. Within a few days he comes to realize that this off hand marriage is to a woman he cares for but that she is an unwitting part of a scheme to isolate him from the locals, ruin his business and have him dead.
Being the hero, John will deal, heroically with all challenges and do so with the dispatch required to tell the tale in very few pages. Incidentally the reader is exposed to several sides of religious, racial, and cultural prejudices. The ending twist comes as little more than a wrap up but is so ingeniously isolated from the rest of the story as to leave one wondering. And that is the ‘got ya’ moment of The Beach at Falesa’.
One again the Art of the Novella Books allow one to convert a few dollars into a chance to explore writers who might otherwise be shrugged off as only for the kids (as I had regarded Stevenson) or otherwise inaccessible. In 116 pages, the reader is taken on a short adventure and is left with the just enough of weightier things upon which to think.
Our first person narrator John Wiltshire, is a trader sent to replace a now dead store owner on the far away Island of Falesa’. He allows himself to ‘wed’ a beautiful local girl even before he can unpack. Within a few days he comes to realize that this off hand marriage is to a woman he cares for but that she is an unwitting part of a scheme to isolate him from the locals, ruin his business and have him dead.
Being the hero, John will deal, heroically with all challenges and do so with the dispatch required to tell the tale in very few pages. Incidentally the reader is exposed to several sides of religious, racial, and cultural prejudices. The ending twist comes as little more than a wrap up but is so ingeniously isolated from the rest of the story as to leave one wondering. And that is the ‘got ya’ moment of The Beach at Falesa’.
December 11, 2016
From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:
The first of two dramatisations of Robert Louis Stevenson's gripping novellas set in Samoa and written while he lived there.
David Tennant stars as Wiltshire, a trader freshly arrived on a Samoan Island. He marries a native girl, only to find himself tabooed by the rest of the inhabitants.
At the height of his powers, Stevenson tackled the most pressing theme on the islands - the vicious effects of colonialism including slavery, racism, sexual exploitation and the conflict between traditional and modern values. The subjects are as vivid today as in 1894 and these compelling and violent stories feature some of the most driven, dangerous and obsessive characters in fiction. Joseph Conrad drew on these novellas for Heart of Darkness.
Dramatised for radio by Jane Rogers
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0848rl2
The first of two dramatisations of Robert Louis Stevenson's gripping novellas set in Samoa and written while he lived there.
David Tennant stars as Wiltshire, a trader freshly arrived on a Samoan Island. He marries a native girl, only to find himself tabooed by the rest of the inhabitants.
At the height of his powers, Stevenson tackled the most pressing theme on the islands - the vicious effects of colonialism including slavery, racism, sexual exploitation and the conflict between traditional and modern values. The subjects are as vivid today as in 1894 and these compelling and violent stories feature some of the most driven, dangerous and obsessive characters in fiction. Joseph Conrad drew on these novellas for Heart of Darkness.
Dramatised for radio by Jane Rogers
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0848rl2
May 2, 2016
Tengo que confesar que me ha sorprendido este libro. Ya había leído mucho de Stevenson, desde los más clásicos ('La isla del tesoro', por ejemplo) hasta otras novelitas menos conocidas ('El dinamitero', por citar alguna), pero no había oído hablar de esta otra novela breve (o relato largo, más bien). Me la encontré en Amazon y gratuita, y decidí probar. Fue un acierto.
'La isla de Falesa' es una historia de aventuras en los mares del sur, y a quienes gusten del género decirles que seguramente disfrutarán con su lectura. No es una historia de piratas, no. Nos narra sencillamente las peripecias de un colono llegado a una isla de Oceanía para regentar un puesto comercial. Desconocedor de la lengua de los indígenas canacos, y con muy pocos occidentales en la isla, el protagonista poco a poco se dará cuenta de que los nativos le tratan de un modo extraño, casi como a un paria, algo quizás propiciado por los otros blancos de la isla. Casado con una nativa y presionado por las circunstancias, se empeñará en desvelar el misterio de la isla y, ya de paso, ajustar su balance comercial (que parece despeñarse por el abismo del fracaso).
Un relato largo sin grandes pretensiones, pero original y bien narrado. Un buen ejemplo de los relatos de aventuras decimonónicos.
'La isla de Falesa' es una historia de aventuras en los mares del sur, y a quienes gusten del género decirles que seguramente disfrutarán con su lectura. No es una historia de piratas, no. Nos narra sencillamente las peripecias de un colono llegado a una isla de Oceanía para regentar un puesto comercial. Desconocedor de la lengua de los indígenas canacos, y con muy pocos occidentales en la isla, el protagonista poco a poco se dará cuenta de que los nativos le tratan de un modo extraño, casi como a un paria, algo quizás propiciado por los otros blancos de la isla. Casado con una nativa y presionado por las circunstancias, se empeñará en desvelar el misterio de la isla y, ya de paso, ajustar su balance comercial (que parece despeñarse por el abismo del fracaso).
Un relato largo sin grandes pretensiones, pero original y bien narrado. Un buen ejemplo de los relatos de aventuras decimonónicos.
April 23, 2016
Such a sweet tale - and it started so unprepossessing. A trader, seemingly down on his luck, arrives at a south sea island, and picks a girl walking by to be his wife - though the marriage is a sham, and the marriage contract she jealously protects, without being able to read it, is vile. And a love story starts from there - with a bit of action and adventure thrown in for good measure - well this is Robert Louis Stevenson!
Read 12 Feb
Read 12 Feb
January 29, 2019
It would have been a cute little story, but it's so overwhelmingly racist that you find yourself cringing on nearly every page which makes the story completely unenjoyable.
March 5, 2022
Una novela corta, entretenida, en la que un comerciante inglés llega a una pequeña isla del Pacífico y se ve envuelto en la intriga de otro europeo que engaña a los nativos aprovechando su superstición.
Aunque en sí la novela es una crítica del colonialismo e imperialismo, el autor también peca de creer superior al europeo blanco sobre el nativo.
Aunque en sí la novela es una crítica del colonialismo e imperialismo, el autor también peca de creer superior al europeo blanco sobre el nativo.
August 23, 2020
I wrote my dissertation on this, about colonial masculinity. The deeper you delve into it, the more questions arise and the more foolish Wiltshire seems. It’s a really interesting look at the often-feminised Polynesia from the unique perspective of Stevenson as a Scottish expatriate, via his narrator who can’t seem to shake his feeling of superiority.
September 6, 2022
Credevo ci fosse un limite a quanto amore posso provare per questo autore.
Mi sbagliavo.
Solo la prefazione di Richard Ambrosini meriterebbe cinque stelle, la farei leggere a forza a tutti coloro che parlano di Stevenson non sapendone niente (e sono tanti).
L’autore classico più sottovalutato di sempre qui in Italia, ancora una volta (la TERZA) inventa un genere letterario da cui poi tutti prenderanno spunto (Kipling, Conrad).
L’edizione poi è WOW, e su Amazon non costa NULLA.
Perché sei ancora qui a leggere e non lo stai comprando? 🤨
CORRI, prima che finiscano le copie! 💥
⬇️ L’edizione è questa! (C’è il link di affiliazione Amazon, tu paghi lo stesso prezzo, io prendo una percentuale!)
https://amzn.to/3D1c9yJ
Mi sbagliavo.
Solo la prefazione di Richard Ambrosini meriterebbe cinque stelle, la farei leggere a forza a tutti coloro che parlano di Stevenson non sapendone niente (e sono tanti).
L’autore classico più sottovalutato di sempre qui in Italia, ancora una volta (la TERZA) inventa un genere letterario da cui poi tutti prenderanno spunto (Kipling, Conrad).
L’edizione poi è WOW, e su Amazon non costa NULLA.
Perché sei ancora qui a leggere e non lo stai comprando? 🤨
CORRI, prima che finiscano le copie! 💥
⬇️ L’edizione è questa! (C’è il link di affiliazione Amazon, tu paghi lo stesso prezzo, io prendo una percentuale!)
https://amzn.to/3D1c9yJ
January 21, 2022
To market this today as 'a scathing critique of colonialism' and heroise it as 'originally censored by its British publisher' is a risky strategy. Look, possibly the point-of-view character himself is a scathing satire, but he is also painted as disarming and beguiling to the reader in his rough manners and blunt ways, and his marriage with an island girl is pretty certainly celebrated by the text. I might have missed a little critique because it was so hard to read through the racism and misogynoir of all concerned -- you have to squint through that to see, and is it worth it?? Lots of material here as a set text in empire studies, but for gods' sake don't valourise it to your students.
September 26, 2017
the narrator irritated me so damn much... but a pretty accurate look at colonialism, even if it is told from a white person's perspective
August 18, 2024
This short story was written in the 1890s so it was a challenge to figure out what was going on since the way things were phrased are so different from how we write now. It started off slow but as the main character got more involved with the natives I knew something big would happen towards the end.
July 1, 2024
Sorry to my English professor and the people who listened to me give a whole panel talk on this man a couple days ago, but this was profoundly boring and cumbersomely written.
August 26, 2021
Overbooked as a scathing critique of imperialism. Ended up being a pretty straightforward adventure story but I enjoyed it.
March 3, 2018
While "The Beach of Falesa" enjoys nothing like the popularity of "Treasure Island," or "Kidnapped," or "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," it is nonetheless one of Stevenson's most remarkable compositions. Written after he had left Britain for the South Seas, it is the tale of a cynical English trader, Wiltshire, who travels to a remote Pacific island to make the most of the opportunities for profitable exchange. Encouraged by the handful of other Europeans, he takes a native woman, Uma, as his wife, but only according to a contract that will essentially allow him to leave her any time after he has bedded her. Wiltshire's description of Uma's appearance and its impact on him is perhaps the first piece of writing from Stevenson that evokes true physical passion, something he had hinted at in works like "Jekyll and Hyde" but scarcely ever attempted. Wiltshire soon discovers though, much to his surprise, that something like real love begins to grow between them, not supplanting but complementing the lust. This is groundbreaking stuff for late-Victorian fiction, shattering assumptions that natives of the lesser-developed part of the world were somehow sub-human and neither capable of inspiring nor of deserving love. Stevenson clearly writes European bias into Wiltshire, and then frees him from that bias in ways that the character almost finds embarrassing but that make an unmistakable point about the nobility and worth of all humans. Paralleling Wiltshire's revelatory romance is his standing back from the mercantile exploitation of the Pacific islanders and coming to realize its evils. "The Beach of Falesa" was written a decade before "Heart of Darkness," but Stevenson anticipates Conrad in his condemnation of the ideology and practice of colonialism. The novel ends with a scene of remarkable violence that almost seems like part of a different genre than the rest, but in spite of that incongruity (a bit like the ending of "The Master of Ballantrae"), this is a remarkable document of one man's learning to peek past the screen of bias and take a stand for universal justice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2020
I see that the description says that it's a commentary on colonialism, but I had zero reasons to believe that from the text itself. Maybe the author wanted to make such commentary, but it does not transpire from the writing.
I don't think that this text should be read for any other reason than to understand how pervasive racism and misogyny is in the 19th century literature. Besides the beautiful descriptions of the island, there is nothing of value in this text. I'm sorry for you if you have to read it for class.
This was the next in the series of "50 classical novellas" that I'm reading and I was utterly disappointed. I can understand the wittiness of writing about how idiotic colonialists were by using their perspective, but one would not be able to write such rubbish without being able to assimilate all of those observations in the first place. I could not write a truly racist novella even if you pointed a gun at my head, even though I could write some racy commentary on the stupid choices some people make (that is, I used to, I stopped because I was offending people). Judging people and exposing them for the choices they make knowing fully that their decisions are idiotic is one thing, judging them for things they cannot control is another.
I have no idea why this novella has such high ratings from contemporary readers, I'd give it a -100 if I could.
I don't think that this text should be read for any other reason than to understand how pervasive racism and misogyny is in the 19th century literature. Besides the beautiful descriptions of the island, there is nothing of value in this text. I'm sorry for you if you have to read it for class.
This was the next in the series of "50 classical novellas" that I'm reading and I was utterly disappointed. I can understand the wittiness of writing about how idiotic colonialists were by using their perspective, but one would not be able to write such rubbish without being able to assimilate all of those observations in the first place. I could not write a truly racist novella even if you pointed a gun at my head, even though I could write some racy commentary on the stupid choices some people make (that is, I used to, I stopped because I was offending people). Judging people and exposing them for the choices they make knowing fully that their decisions are idiotic is one thing, judging them for things they cannot control is another.
I have no idea why this novella has such high ratings from contemporary readers, I'd give it a -100 if I could.
March 6, 2020
I don't usually read classics, and I haven't ever read a Robert Louis Stevenson book I don't think, I was really expecting it to be boring and to drag on, but I really did enjoy it. I had no problems understanding what was happening, the language wasn't ancient or too posh to know what was going on, I was really engrossed in it and read it super fast.
The story follows a man who goes to an island near Polynesia as a trader and the first night he married one of the island women and soon learns that he is tabooed. This is his quest to find out why and to reverse the curse.
I found it funny and although it is a colonialist book with a somewhat colonialist and imperialist stance, it was really enjoyable and it made me want to read a lot more of his books!
The story follows a man who goes to an island near Polynesia as a trader and the first night he married one of the island women and soon learns that he is tabooed. This is his quest to find out why and to reverse the curse.
I found it funny and although it is a colonialist book with a somewhat colonialist and imperialist stance, it was really enjoyable and it made me want to read a lot more of his books!
November 18, 2019
Out of all of Stevenson’s short stories I have read, this has been the most enjoyable. Based on his journeys of the South Pacific Region. Has an eclectic mix of ideas, views and beliefs. Whilst reading this story, which, for a short story was quite lengthy, it struck me the issue I have with Stevenson’s ‘Short Stories’, the monologues. His stories are a constant narrative of description’s of what is going on and little actual dialogue.
Many of his stories are just tedious to read. This book I saw traits of Treasure Island in for seafaring life. Perhaps the success of Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the actual written in dialogue.
Many of his stories are just tedious to read. This book I saw traits of Treasure Island in for seafaring life. Perhaps the success of Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the actual written in dialogue.
November 17, 2007
Living in the island nations where RLS lived his last days motivated me to read this story based loosely on the islands of Samoa. I found it mostly unbelievable. It seemed like an imagined image of "natives" and what they feared. I wasn't fond of the protagonist, though it's obvious the reader wasn't meant to be. I had fun trying to guess which Samoan island the story was supposed to be taking place upon. Luckily, it's a very easy to read and slim volume so I was done before I knew it. No Treasure Island, Kidnapped or Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde here.
November 29, 2015
Adventure story purveyor turns to colonialism, miscegenation, and madness? Kind of awesome. The people in charge of the Art of the Novella series, as has been more throughly and insightfully criticized elsewhere, tend towards the obvious authors (Stevenson, H.G. Wells, basically authors who are famous and the public domain which limits the diversity somewhat) but some of the lesser known works of those same authors are absolutely fascinating. Instead of just some Treasure Island adventure writer, Stevenson demonstrates a darker and more sinister streak in this novella.
August 27, 2017
pretty good. sort of funny. the amount of racism is just uncanny and unashamed but per the times it makes sense¿? He illustrates his love for his kanaka wife in such a believing and wonderful way yet still at the end of the story calls his own children half breeds and unashamedly says he thinks less of them because they aren't white but also in sort of a tongue in cheek way. It really gives you a true glimpse of the everyday flippant ways of ignorance and race subjucation on the pacific islands.
September 18, 2009
This late-Victorian novella was one of Stevenson's last published works before his death at age 44. Its tone is much more modern than his early work, and it contains elements of the adventure story and of social commentary. Like some of Kipling's fiction, "Falesa" provides a remarkably frank and unvarnished portrait of English colonialism.
May 8, 2014
A superb novella! Foreshadows Conrad in theme and intelligence, foreshadows Hemingway in lean narrative style. A not particularly admirable narrator whose tale unfolds without any Victorian moralizing or justification--except self-justification. Much stronger than Jekyll and Hyde or Weir of Hermiston.
July 4, 2015
My favorite "Art of the Novella" text so far. The first paragraph was a stunner and the jags and leaps of RLS's sentences consistently delighted me. The text grew increasingly farce-like as it continued, though, which disappointed me. I wanted something grander, more bleak and modern and tragic. More like HEART OF DARKNESS, I guess.
My fault, not the text's.
My fault, not the text's.
January 21, 2016
Its a bit gross the way the main character treats the locals and women. However Stevenson was highlighting the bad side of colonialism and writing about what he saw. Also his wife is very cool, she's super brave. I wish we'd seen more from her point of view.
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January 29, 2016Many a moment of the childlike native for the modern-day reader to right roll his or her eyes at, but every now and then Stevenson gets in lines that use his narrator's simplicity to touch on the complexity of these colonial racial constructions. Otherwise, a silly adventure tale.
March 2, 2017
This wasn't my cup of tea. This was too... xenophoby. It's of it's time but the time was horrible with how they viewed foreigners as a society. I suppose the author was trying to get this message across but his prejudices still shine through somewhat. :') I had to read this for a university essay.
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