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paul_cornelius's review
5.0
Something eerily familiar comes to mind while reading Louis Becke's work. And that is how similar it is to many of Joseph Conrad's novels and short stories. Keep in mind that Becke was writing shortly before and contemporaneously with Conrad. But the same "circumstances" of Conrad's work does appear in Becke's. So suspicious was I that I looked a little deeper and found an article by Ann Lane Bradshaw, "Joseph Conrad and Louis Becke," English Studies, June 2005, vol. 86, no. 3, addressing this very issue. It appears that Conrad did know Becke's work and "borrowed" from it, as he did from many other writers. Or so she claims. These stories, to me, are pretty convincing evidence that Bradshaw is correct. Not only are the settings and circumstances similar, but so is the tone of Becke's writing, as well as his oft times startling and melancholy endings.
Take for example the short novel bound with the short stories, "His Native Wife." It operates at first as a condemnation of Christian missionaries and their utter lack of or even an attempt at understanding the nature and culture of Pacific Islanders. So much is that attitude skewered in this novel, in fact, that the wife of the missionary in this case, Helen Parker, has come to detest her husband, while falling in love with an English trader, Jack Barrington, who has a native wife. Complications ensue. But the most startling among them is that Barrington never realizes Helen has come to desire him over her husband. He remains faithful to Needa, his native wife. He remains so despite the maneuvers of Helen as well as the son of a native chief, who wants Barrington's Needa for himself. It would spoil things far too greatly to go much beyond this in the description. Suffice to say that the story provides a glimpse at the inner workings of both whites and island peoples and how, while their moral laws may differ, their passions and wants do not.
Take for example the short novel bound with the short stories, "His Native Wife." It operates at first as a condemnation of Christian missionaries and their utter lack of or even an attempt at understanding the nature and culture of Pacific Islanders. So much is that attitude skewered in this novel, in fact, that the wife of the missionary in this case, Helen Parker, has come to detest her husband, while falling in love with an English trader, Jack Barrington, who has a native wife. Complications ensue. But the most startling among them is that Barrington never realizes Helen has come to desire him over her husband. He remains faithful to Needa, his native wife. He remains so despite the maneuvers of Helen as well as the son of a native chief, who wants Barrington's Needa for himself. It would spoil things far too greatly to go much beyond this in the description. Suffice to say that the story provides a glimpse at the inner workings of both whites and island peoples and how, while their moral laws may differ, their passions and wants do not.
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