Islandia (book)
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Islandia is a 1942 novel written as a hobby over a long period of time by Austin Tappan Wright, a University of California (Berkeley) Law School Professor. It was posthumously edited down by a third, by his wife and daughter, and published eleven years after the author's 1931 death.1
The setting of the novel is Islandia, an imaginary country, that exists in contemporary times. This remote nation "at the tip of the Karain semi-continent" is near "the unexplored wastes of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere."2 The citizens have imposed "the Hundred Law, limiting access to Islandia to a bare one hundred visitors at a time."3 These two factors have shrouded this nation in mystery.
The book deals with an American named John Lang who visits Islandia and learns its language and culture, and finds romance along the way. Among his other discoveries, he finds that the Islandians use three words for love:
- alia: roughly love of place and lineage,
- ania: desire for marriage and commitment, and
- apia: sexual attraction
Islandia's culture has many "progressive" features. For example, prostitutes are rehabilitated back into acceptable society. Another "progressive" feature is the citizens' love of nature, and their rural lives. Everyone, including members of the upper classes, engages in some kind of useful work, especially farming. The word for city in Islandian literally means "a place where people get together," as opposed to a place where people live; all families have a country home that they can return to.
The Islandians also determinedly reject many features of modern technology. A major turning point in the novel is whether to accept certain machinery, and it is rejected.
This fully realized world has drawn parallels to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, but it contains no elements of standard fantasy fare such as dragons, wizards, magic and so on, and is much more like a utopia.
The original Islandia was conceived by Wright as a small boy. Creating its civilization became his lifelong leisure occupation. The complete Islandia papers include "a detailed history ... complete with geography, genealogy, representations from its literature, language and culture."4 A 61 page Introduction to Islandia by Basil Davenport was published along with the original novel in 1942.
There are also three sequels, all written by Mark Saxton, the same man who edited the original Islandia manuscript. All three of these were written with the permission of Wright's estate.
The first is called The Islar, Islandia Today - A Narrative of Lang III and is set in then-modern times in 1969. The plot concerns a coup attempt in Islandia that takes place while the national government is debating whether to join the United Nations.
The second, published in 1979, is a prequel called The Two Kingdoms, and is set in the 14th century. The plot concerns the events surrounding the reign of the only female leader in Islandian history, and the dynastic change that ensued from this.
The third sequel, published in 1982, is yet another prequel called Havoc in Islandia, set in the 12th century during the days of "The League" when the Roman Catholic Church attempted to overthrow the government of Islandia, failed, and was itself expelled from the country forever. Sylvia Wright, the executrix of the Wright estate, died shortly after this book was completed, and there have been no sequels since then.
Reviewers describe these books as entertaining and self-contained. The prequels concern events that are mentioned in passing in the original novel, and evidently are based on Wright's unpublished notes.
[edit] External links
- Islandia (Amazon.com link)
[edit] Footnotes
1 In the Introduction to Islandia, Austin Tappan Wright, 1942, Introduction by Sylvia Wright, 1958.
2 p. v in the Introduction to Islandia, Austin Tappin Wright, 1942, Introduction by John Silbersack, 2001, ISBN 1-58567-148-7.
3 p. vi, Ibid.
4 back cover, Ibid.
