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.
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About the Author:
British, essayist, novelist and poet Stevenson sparkled for his novels of exploration and exciting journeys. He contributed many essays, tales and fantasies to various journals and magazines. All his works show consistency of style that is assiduously graceful.
Review:
Long story by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published as "Uma" in 1892 and collected in Island Nights' Entertainments (1893). An adventure romance fused with realism, it depicts a man's struggle to maintain his decency in the face of uncivilized hostility. John Wiltshire, the story's narrator and protagonist, is a white trader on the exotic island of Falesa in the South Seas. He is befriended by Case, a fellow trader who persuades him to marry the native Uma. When Wiltshire does so, the natives ostracize the couple. Gradually Wiltshire learns that Case has subdued the natives by manipulating their fears of the supernatural. Wiltshire exposes Case as a fraud and kills him in self-defense. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature
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