The Islands of Unwisdom

The Islands of Unwisdom

First edition (US)
Author Robert Graves
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Historical novel
Publisher Doubleday (US), 1949
Cassell (UK), 1950

The Islands of Unwisdom, by Robert Graves, 1949. Also published in the UK as The Isles of Unwisdom. It is a reconstruction of an historic event, the voyage of Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira to find the Solomon Islands. Graves tells a story with many surprising twists, in which some characters turn out to be quite different from how they are first portrayed. In Graves's telling, when the Spanish first come into contact with Solomon Islanders the relationship is cordial. However, the Spanish expedition's need for fresh food and water quickly leads to tension and conflict, the Solomon Islanders’ subsistence economy being unable to provide continuous supplies. The real prizes are pigs, desperately needed by the Spanish, while vital to the local people’s economy. The tensions cannot be resolved, and so the Spaniards sail home. Graves also considered that the story summarises the reasons Spain lost its early lead in exploring the world.

The novel was republished in 2003 as part of the 'Millennium Graves' edition.

Link

Reference at Books and Writers


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, December 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.