Louis Becke (1855–1913)

Becke's work is almost entirely forgotten today, and that's a great shame. It's been 120 years since this short story collection was published, and here we have one of the few 19th century Australian writers who was almost more interested in the lives and culture of the natives than in that of the white folk. Becke's writing is not staggeringly brilliant; another reviewer compared him to Jack London, and that seems fitting. But his strength is in short, powerful bursts of character study. Of people - well, primarily men - driven away from the society they had grown up in, discovering the charm and culture of a people very different to themselves.
Not stories I'll go back to again any time soon, and of course despite being open-minded Becke is not as "woke" as we might like him to be from a 2018 vantage point, but these are intriguing reads that graft another dimension on to the traditional narrative of 19th century Australian literature.… (plus d'informations)

"That woman will be his doom", 6 February 2015

This review is from: The Trader's Wife (Paperback)
Louis Becke was an Australian author, who was also a trader in the islands of the South Pacific. In this novella, set in Fiji, he brings his personal knowledge of the place to life, in a story of a 'worthless' wife.
When Captain John Brabant returns home after five months' away, his wife, Nell, doesn't even come out to meet him. We soon learn that she has been associating with a local cad, Danvers.
How Brabant, a totally upright man, yet a member of a family that 'has always had a strain of insanity running through it', handles this situation, makes for quite a good read.… (plus d'informations)

A series of short stories of life in the Pacific as a trader written by Louis Beccke and published in 1896. This series continues on from By Reef and Palm.
Becke is clearly more confident in his writing, the stories are a little longer and more complex. They now seem more like written compositions than written versions of oral yarns.
While they are clearly period pieces with period views, Becke seems, to me, to be a more tolerant and progressive observer than many from that quite racist era.
Read September 2014.… (plus d'informations)