Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas

by Lloyd Osbourne

Reproduction of the Wild Stories of the South Seas by Lloyd Osbourne

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Samuel Lloyd Osbourne was an American author and the stepson of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson with whom he co-authored three books. He provided input and ideas on others.

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

When your literary biography begins by noting you are the stepson of Robert Louis Stevenson, then it likely indicates your work was mediocre or worse. That is not the case, however, at least not the case in this selection of short stories about the South Seas. They're actually fairly good. No, there doesn't seem to be much beyond their surface stories, but there need not be. Osbourne tells of life as he witnessed it and works his stories into engaging fictional accounts, mainly of the white settlers, traders, missionaries, and government agents of Polynesia. The Polynesians themselves stand at the periphery, alas. That is, except for the last two stories, "Cloud of Butterflies" and "Ben." The former tells of the rise to respectability of a Tongan warrior and his love for a woman initially beyond his social status. It's a pretty wooden piece, and likely the weakest effort in this volume. "Ben," on the other hand, describes the marriage of a Polynesian woman to a white trader. Osbourne is on firmer ground here, and his narrative shows it. The fuller characterization of Ben allows for a deeper depiction of Rosie, the Polynesian wife. It's of the same level as the other stories in the collection, all of which engage your interest. I'll need to check out more of Osbourne's work. This one gave me a respect for him I at first thought would be difficult to create. But, no, this is the author of good South Seas stories, albeit they are most powerful when of the perspective of people belonging to his own race and culture.