The Beach Of Falesa: R.L. Stevenson

[poliphilo]

The Beach of Falesa is a hard-bitten story of white men behaving badly on a tropical island- a lot like Treasure Island, in fact, with the difference that the setting is/was contemporary. The critics didn't like it; they preferred their sweary, drunken seadogs in 18th century costume; and it has never been popular. If Stevenson had lived to persist in this line he'd have turned into Conrad. There's a lot of information about the South Seas packed into a story which- though exciting- is perhaps a little too flimsy to carry the load. The narrator- who behaves in a manner that belies the brutish racism of his conversation- is a remarkable inventon.