Streszczenie książki Opowieści mórz południowych

The story in 10 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A Pearl Sets a Family Dreaming of a House

   On Hikueru, a ring of coral only a few feet above the tide, the diver Mapuhi finds a pearl as large as a pigeon's egg. Word travels fast, and every buyer comes.

   Mapuhi will not name a price in money. He wants a house with a galvanized iron roof, a porch all around, four bedrooms and a clock on the wall. Raoul, the young supercargo, laughs and offers cash, while Mapuhi and his family shake their heads at once.

   The barometer is already falling as they argue. A trader takes the pearl against a debt, and a buyer pays him twenty-five thousand francs for it. When Raoul comes back to accept the house, he is too late. Then great waves roll in without wind, several hundred people crowd onto the highest ground, and the wind tears the island apart. Only three hundred are alive by morning.

   London shows how small a treasure looks beside the weather that can erase everyone who wants it. A modest dream can carry a person through ruin.

2. 2

   A Missionary Walks Into a Bargain Already Made

   In Fiji, where chiefs still eat their enemies, the missionary John Starhurst announces that he will carry the gospel into the mountain strongholds at the head of the Rewa River.

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3. 3

   Mauki Is Sold, Bound and Beaten Down

   Mauki weighs one hundred and ten pounds and is the son of a chief on Malaita, in the Solomons.

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4. 4

   One Old Trader Rules by Borrowed Fear

   On Oolong Atoll a visitor meets McAllister, a Scottish trader who drinks whiskey from six in the morning until midnight and weighs ninety pounds.

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5. 5

   A Hurricane Gives the Narrator a Brother

   The narrator first meets Otoo in a hurricane.

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6. 6

   A Nervous Tourist Is Given a Fright

   London opens with a joke on the title.

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7. 7

   A Barroom Tale About One Deadly Skill

   This is a story told inside a story.

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8. 8

   A Gentle Governor Steadies a Burning Ship

   The Pyrenees, an iron vessel carrying wheat, has burned for fifteen days when she hoists a distress signal off Pitcairn Island.

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9. 9

   Power Rests on Debt, Fear and Custom

   Across the eight tales, one question returns again and again, which is who holds power and how they keep it.

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10. 10

    Voices, Frames and Refrains Shape Each Tale

    London uses many voices.

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