Serpent in Paradise - Softcover

Birkett, Dea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385488718 ISBN 13: 9780385488716

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1998

Synopsis

Lost in the surf of the South Pacific lies a speck of volcanic rock. Home to thirty-eight islanders--descendants of the Bounty mutineers--Pitcairn has no cars, no crime, no doctor, and no regular contact with the outside world. For two centuries, "Fletcher Christian's children," whose culture and language are a bizarre blend of Polynesian and eighteenth-century English, have lived out a unique social experiment.

Acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett, obsessed like many with the island's image as a secluded Eden and its connection to the mysterious and intriguing Bounty legend, traveled across the Pacific on a cargo ship and became one of the very few outsiders permitted to land on Pitcairn. Although the islanders initially seemed welcoming, they soon wove her into a web of decades-old disputes and thwarted desires. With no means of escape, Birkett's adventure to the other side of nowhere at last became a kind of prison.

About this title

Review

Most people know the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, how in 1789 Captain Bligh's crew mutinied then founded their paradise on Pitcairn Island. Two centuries later, the mutineers' descendants still live on Pitcairn with no cars, doctors, crime, or regular contact with the outside world, despite the hordes of paradise-seekers who deluge the island with requests, most of which are refused. After two years' persistence and 4,000 miles aboard a chemical tanker, Dea Birkett finally made her way to Pitcairn, but the island paradise has a dark legacy. Birkett's account is a fascinating look at a tight community with a notorious past and a shady present.

From the Publisher

Pitcairn Island, a tiny speck in the South Pacific 3000 miles from the nearest landmass, has had an enduring hold over the imaginations of countless people. The final refuge of the infamous Bounty mutineers, the island holds out the promise of paradise: three square miles of tropical beauty, inhabited by only 37 people.

Acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett, obsessed both by the island's enduring image as a secluded Eden, and by the Bounty legend, traveled across the Pacific in a cargo ship and became one of the very few outsiders permitted to land on Pitcairn. Longing to fit in with the islanders, Birkett lived with a Pitcairner family for five months. Initially welcoming, the islanders gradually began to whisper rumors about Birkett, to mount indirect attacks on her character. As she came to realize that being a Pitcairner means more than climbing cliffs and weaving baskets, Birkett saw the darker face of paradise: Pitcairners sacrifice their individuality to the good of the group; with no way to evade their neighbors' watchful eyes, the islanders have no privacy. The island paradise became at last a kind of prison.

An engrossing narrative, Serpent in Paradise is an accomplished piece of travel writing about life in one of the world's most unusual places. It is also a deeper examination of the place Pitcairn Island in particular occupies in many imaginations, of the lure of the mythical island paradise, and finally at the dark side of this myth.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385488718
• ISBN 13: 9780385488716
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324