Hobson's Island (British Literature) - Softcover

Themerson, Stefan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564784177 ISBN 13: 9781564784179

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2005

Synopsis

Hobson's Island (so called because Mr. Hobson bought it, or did Mr. Hobson buy it because it was so called?) enjoyed decades of isolation in the Atlantic Ocean. For years, the caretakers lived there peacefully, with only a cow for company and an empty house to care for. But all is suddenly disrupted when a wave of unusual visitors arrive: a deposed African king fleeing a revolution, a Hobson descendant claiming ownership, government agents eyeing the nation-less real estate, and scientists looking to test a dangerous new invention. In typical Themerson fashion, the comic is wound up with the serious and let go to devastating effect. A clever and apt parodying of Cold War power plays and twisted science, Hobson's Island is a strangely touching, sympathetic, and emotional account of the families and individuals brought together and broken up by Hobson's Island.

About this title

About the Author

Stefan Themerson (1910-1988) was born in Poland, moved to Russia during the Revolution, studied physics and architecture in Warsaw, and lived in Paris before settling in London. Aside from his writings--which include novels such as Tom Harris, The Mystery of the Sardine, and Professor Mmaa's Lecture, children's stories, philosophical essays, and poems--Themerson also composed music and made a number of films with his wife Franciszka.

From Publishers Weekly

A small refuge against modernity gets overtaken by history in this meditative fable of ideas. The legacy of an eccentric American billionaire who deeded it to a philanthropic Swiss trust, tiny Hobson's Island in the eastern Atlantic is inhabited only by a caretaker family and their cow. But, like any Hobson's choice, the island's opt-out alternative proves illusory. Decades of idyllic isolation end when representatives of imperialism and the military-industrial complex descend on the island: an exiled African dictator, his handlers in British intelligence, French agents assigned to keep an eye on the British agents, a descendant of the island's original owner who intends to turn it into a resort or an American naval base, and scientists seeking a testing ground for a germ-warfare experiment. Published in the U.K. just before Themerson's death in 1988 (this is the first American edition), the novel has a distinctly pre-1989 feel, with an apocalyptic mood lit by flashes of absurdist humor and a slightly dated concern with Cold War–style power intrigue. But the geopolitics are secondary to Themerson's preoccupations with ethics, religion, science and the impossibility of representing reality in language, which he often explores through characters' ruminative streams-of-consciousness. Fortunately, the novel's engaging story, sympathetic characters and rueful tone help lighten its philosophical weight. (Sept.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1564784177
• ISBN 13: 9781564784179
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 196