Name: South Sea Tales
Price: 843.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Ballin, G-Ph ; London, Jack
ISBN: 9781542329545

Type

Physical Book

Author

Jack London

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

190

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 1.0 cm

Weight

0.26 kg.

ISBN13

9781542329545

Synopsis "South Sea Tales"

South Sea Tales (1911) is a collection of short stories written by Jack London. Most stories are set in island communities, like those of Hawaii, or are set aboard a ship. Extract: THE HOUSE OF MAPUHI Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark. On the bottom of the huge and glassy lagoon was much pearl shell, and from the deck of the schooner, across the slender ring of the atoll, the divers could be seen at work. But the lagoon had no entrance for even a trading schooner. With a favoring breeze cutters could win in through the tortuous and shallow channel, but the schooners lay off and on outside and sent in their small boats. The Aorai swung out a boat smartly, into which sprang half a dozen brown-skinned sailors clad only in scarlet loincloths. They took the oars, while in the stern sheets, at the steering sweep, stood a young man garbed in the tropic white that marks the European. The golden strain of Polynesia betrayed itself in the sun-gilt of his fair skin and cast up golden sheens and lights through the glimmering blue of his eyes. Raoul he was, Alexandre Raoul, youngest son of Marie Raoul, the wealthy quarter-caste, who owned and managed half a dozen trading schooners similar to the Aorai. Across an eddy just outside the entrance, and in and through and over a boiling tide-rip, the boat fought its way to the mirrored calm of the lagoon. Young Raoul leaped out upon the white sand and shook hands with a tall native. The man's chest and shoulders were magnificent, but the stump of a right arm, beyond the flesh of which the age-whitened bone projected several inches, attested the encounter with a shark that had put an end to his diving days and made him a fawner and an intriguer for small favors. "Have you heard, Alec?" were his first words. "Mapuhi has found a pearl-such a pearl.

Jack London

(Author)

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Jack London (1876-1916), pseudonym of John Griffith Chaney, is one of the great American writers of the early 20th century. His world is inspired by a very subjective interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy and is built on the principle of survival of the fittest. Born in San Francisco, he was essentially a self-taught child who avidly read the collections of the public library. At seventeen, he embarked on his first schooner, heading to Japan. After several experiences as a sailor and vagabond -which also led to his imprisonment-, London attended Oakland High School and later, the University of California, which he had to leave due to financial problems. Like many, he suffered from gold fever until he finally turned to writing.

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