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Lost in the surf of the South Pacific lies a speck of volcanic rock. Home to thirty-eight islanders - descendants of the Bounty mutineers - Pitcairn has no cars, no crime, no doctor, and no regular contact with the outside world. For two centuries "Fletcher Christian's children," whose culture and language are a bizarre blend of Polynesian and eighteenth-century English, have lived out a unique social experiment.
Each year the islanders are inundated with requests from paradise seekers obsessed by the island's Edenic image, and by the Bounty legend - which has inspired five movies, countless books and articles, a Bounty museum, and Bounty stamps. Almost all visitors are refused. But after two years' persistence and a four-thousand-mile sea voyage aboard a chemical tanker, acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett realized her dream of reaching Pitcairn.
The islanders seemed welcoming and soon wove her into their web of intrigue, decades-old disputes, and thwarted desires. But as she came to understand that being a Pitcairner means more than climbing cliffs and weaving baskets, Birkett saw the darker face of paradise. Pitcairners sacrifice their individuality to the good of the group; and without any way to evade their neighbors' watchful eyes, the islanders have no privacy.
With no means of escape, Birkett discovered that this island paradise had become at last a kind of prison.
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Subjects
Birkett, Dea, 1958-, Oceania, Description and travel, Journeys, Travel, Birkett, Dea,, Pitcairn island, Pitcairn islands, Pacific area, description and travelPeople
Dea Birkett (1958-)Places
Pitcairn IslandTimes
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1
Serpent in Paradise
September 1998, Anchor Books
Paperback
in English
- 1st Achor trade paperback edition
0385488718 9780385488716
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2
Serpent in Paradise
September 1997, Anchor Books
Hardcover
in English
- 1st Anchor Books ed.
038548870X 9780385488709
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3 |
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Work Description
Author Dea Birkett is inspired to go to Pitcairn Island and contrives a reason and wrangles a grant from the Royal Mail to fulfill her dream of paradise. What she finds is a tiny community of hardy folk who make their island even smaller by their constant presence in each others' lives.
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Feedback?September 18, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
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