The Ebb-tide: A Trio and Quartette

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Edinburgh University Press, 1995 - 172 Seiten
It is Tahiti in the 1890's and three men - an American sea captain, an English gentleman and a cockney thief - are 'on the beach'. Dispossessed and destitute, the 'trio' agree to sail a smallpox-infected ship loaded with champagne to Sydney, Australia, plotting to steal the cargo, scupper the vessel, and head for the 'Dangerous Archipelago'. Predictably, the thieves fall out. They lose their course and are driven towards an uncharted island which flies the red ensign. The owner of the island, also an English gentleman, has amassed a fortune in pearls. He is both a stern disciplinarian and a religious megalomaniac. As the protagonists in this 'quartette' begin to play out their parts, the plot moves to its dramatic, but ambiguous, conclusion. Stevenson's tale of exploitation in the South Seas recreates both the period and the place through a brilliant exploration of the moral corruption of colonisation.

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Inhalt

NIGHT ON THE BEACH
3
MORNING ON THE BEACH THE THREE LETTERS
14
THE OLD CALABOOSE DESTINY AT THE DOOR
23
Urheberrecht

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Autoren-Profil (1995)

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

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