Orphan Island

"Polynesia and Cambridge were in many ways alike", 8 July 2016

This review is from: Orphan Island (Kindle Edition)
In the mid 1800s, a group of some fifty orphans set sail for an orphanage abroad, under the tutelage of Miss Charlotte Smith - a pious lady, much given to moralizing little verses. When they suffer a shipwreck en route, they find themselves washed up on a Pacific island, in the company of the hard-drinking Irish ship's doctor ("a papist by upbringing, an atheist by temperament") and a dour Calvinist nursemaid, Jean, the crew swiftly absconding with the boats...
Some seventy years later, a sociologist named Thinkwell - descendant of the errant first mate - comes into possession of his ancestor's deathbed confession, and a map show more of the island. Accompanied by his adult children - two sons, one literary and one scientific - and a moony teenage daughter, who just happens to have a secret fascination for South Sea islands, they set sail to see who - if anyone - is on the isle, and what kind of society they have created....
This is a superb read, witty from the first, but thought-provoking too, as one sees parallels between the problems on Orphan Island and those in Europe.
I much preferred this to Ms Macaulay's better-known 'Towers of Trebizond.' show less

"Will it seem, in its 1923 stage of knowledge, as.. backward.. as it did to those who broke into it after its first seventy years of segregated history?"

That was ok. The plot, a group of orphans and a couple of adults are stranded on a desert island in the mid-1800's.
In the 1920's a rescue party of sorts finally arrives and finds this society based on victorian values. Its a bit like one of those Star-Trek episodes where they end up on Roman planet or Gangster planet or something.

It really makes fun of the class distinctions and history of britian but its a fairly narrow book. It just has that one idea to carry the entire work.

And as to the quote above, YES is the answer. While it tries to take apart class disparity it is still pretty show more racist and with no appealing female characters despite its female author.

I found the writing a bit odd, its descriptive parts are quite florid compared to the rest of the text. So its normal, normal, florid flourish, normal normal normal florid etc. Its not good odd or bad odd, i just found it odd.

The story moves pretty quick and has some humour to it, mostly dark humour from my point of view.

I was a little surprised their was so little mention of WWI. I kind of expected that to be a major demarcation point between the victorian society and the people of 1920 but it barely got an acknowledgment. show less