Hurricane is a fine romance, enriched by genuine appreciation of the South Sea islands and their people. Written by the authors of Mutiny On the Bounty, it's a sympathetic tale of Polynesian life as seen through the eyes of Dr. Kersaint, a French medical officer. But even paradise has a serpent, and in Polynesia it is called "hurricane."
************************
The Hurricane is a modern story of one of the small islands of the Low Archipelago, that sprawling group of dots on the map of the Pacific that spreads over a thousand miles from Tahiti to Pitcairn. The population consisted of one hundred and fifty Polynesians and four Europeans: Monsieur and Madame de Laage, the stern French Administrator and his wife, Father Paul, the tender-hearted priest, and Dr. Kersaint, the medical officer. Captain Nagle, the English skipper whose trading schooner was their only link with the outside world, was an occasional visitor. The serenity of this island paradise is shattered by the return of a native son son, Terangi, an escaped convict. In the hue and cry the white men and the natives are brought into subtle opposition. But the issue is decided not by man but by nature, for there sweeps down upon the island a storm, overpowering, inhuman, majestic—a hurricane which tests the strength and temperament of these different races to the breaking point.
Here is a novel of such force and beauty as will not soon be forgotten. For fifteen years Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall have lived in the South Seas. They know the serenity and devotion implicit in the island life; they know the gigantic sweep of wind and sea which forever emperil the coral communities. In their collaboration—a collaboration unique in American letters—they have produced Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, Pitcairn's Island, and now The Hurricane—books which, we believe, will all stand the test of time.
Jacket Illustration by N. C. Wyeth
—from the 1st edition dust jacket
Did you find this review helpful?