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The Dark River is at once the most poignant and contemporary of the novels by this gifted pair of authors a narrative with such command of human nature and such feeling for the past and present that no one can read it unmoved. To Tahiti come two young Englishmen, one returning to the land of his birth and the other to rest and recover from overwork which has affected his sight. The homecomer slips easily into the life of the settlement, but to the newcomer the attractions of the town are small as against those of the countryside. Exploring in a remote part of the island, he finds himself in the valley of the Dark River, once the home of a numerous and happy people and now lonely but otherwise little changed. Most of the valley now belongs to a single family, consisting of a middle-aged woman, an old man, and a young girl. The traveler stays on, first held by the beauty of the valley and then by his growing love for the girl. Their romance follows a stormy course, threatened by the rocks of racial pride, to a heart- rending climax.
The episodes in this story move from sun- light to shade, from tranquility to tropical violence, with almost effortless reality. In the descriptions of the storm which sweeps the lovers out to sea, in the account of the idyllic honeymoon and the trip to the ancient caves, Nordhoff and Hall have blended the realism of the moment with nostalgia for the past in terms of unforgettable beauty.
Jacket drawing by John Alan Maxwill
—from the dust jacket
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