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South Sea Tales Audiobook
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(3.22) - 18 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A rare pearl is fought over during a hurricane on a South Sea island. A zealous missionary sets out to spread the gospel in a land of cannibals. The son of a Polynesian chief becomes the slave of a white man. These stories and others portray life in the South Seas in the days of tall ships over a century ago. In powerful and compelling language that seems not the least bit dated, Jack London tells eight tales of high daring and great savagery, of bravery and death, even of occasional humor, that could only take place in the exotic South Sea islands. Based around themes London considered important—race, culture, justice, and heroism—the stories derive their intensity from the author’s own far-flung adventures, conveying an impassioned, unsparing vision borne only of experience.
Included here are the following stories: “The House of Mapuhi,” “The Whale Tooth,” “Mauki,” “Yah! Yah! Yah!” “The Heathen,” “The Terrible Solomons,” “The Inevitable White Man,” and “The Seed of McCoy.”
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"Short stories that capture the essence of the South Pacific. This from someone who lives there. There's some particularly memorable vignettes in this collection, notably a story of how a low-lying island and its people weathered a cyclone. "
— Gavin (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“He was an adventurer and a man of action as few writers have ever been…The excellence of his short stories has been almost forgotten.”
— George Orwell -
“Lloyd James reads wonderfully, turning a one-man reading into a lyrical presentation that feels like a full-cast production. Not only does James handle half a dozen accents easily, he shifts pace to capture the cadence of London’s vivid passages of extended description and allows London’s near-poetry to ring out powerfully.”
— AudioFile
South Sea Tales Listener Reviews
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" I learned why I didn't particularly like this in high school. Just a difficult read. "
— Richard, 8/16/2010 -
" Finally! I loved all the stories. So much better than his novels. Beautifully written, great characters, the plots are original and gripping. I would say those where one of best if not the best short stories I have ever read. "
— Pasha, 8/11/2010 -
" Well written. Some stories are better than others. Some racist language. Overtones of white superiority. "
— Omar, 7/30/2009 -
" London records his own adventure on a small boat in the South Pacific - with a lot of his great imagination and story telling. "
— Linda, 6/13/2009 -
" Getting ready for my September trip to Tahiti. "
— Kathy, 5/18/2009 -
" This collection of stories is interesting - talking about a different time and culture than what I'm familiar with. I love to travel, and I can get to lots more places through books, than I ever will in person! "
— Suzanne, 4/26/2008 -
" pretty uneven. If you're going to read a lot of wetern oceania literature, add this one. If a little, skip it and go to Stevenson, Hall (personal experiences), Frisbie (earlier works), Grimble, Gessler, and John Russell "
— Divad, 3/21/2008 -
" I listened to this audiobook as my husband and I were on the plane to Bora Bora for our honeymoon. It really added to my enjoyment of, not only, the flight, but also of my glorious week in the South Pacific. "
— Christine, 8/3/2007
About Jack London
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. Before making a living at his writing, he spent time as an oyster pirate, a sailor, a cannery worker, a gold miner, and a journalist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction writing. He is best known for his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set during the Klondike gold rush, as well as the short stories “To Build a Fire,” “An Odyssey of the North,” and “Love of Life.” He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as “The Pearls of Parlay” and “The Heathen.” He was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, including The Iron Heel, The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.
About Lloyd James
Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been a working professional actor in theater, film, television, and voice-overs for more than thirty years. He has narrated over one thousand audiobooks and won numerous Earphones Awards and nominations for the Audie Award and the Voice Arts Award. He holds a BFA degree in acting from Santa Fe University, New Mexico.