A High Wind in Jamaica (novel)
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| A High Wind in Jamaica | |
|---|---|
 1st edition cover |
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| Author | Richard Hughes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Chatto and Windus |
| Publication date | 1929 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 283 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
A High Wind in Jamaica is a 1929 novel by Richard Hughes. It was made into a film in 1965.
[edit] Plot
The Bas-Thornton children are raised on a plantation in Jamaica during the late 19th century. A hurricane destroys their home and the parents decide the children must leave the island to return back to their original home in Europe. Accompanied by other children from Jamaica, they leave on a ship that is soon seized by pirates. The ship is ransacked, the children are kidnapped, and the pirates release the ship back to its captain.
Even though the children are shot at (in order to get the captain of their ship to disclose the location of caches on the vessel) they are quickly forgotten about and the pirate ship becomes their new home. They are treated with indifference, though cared for. One child accidentally falls to his death and is immediately forgotten by his own family. The pirate captain seems to be the last one to forget him.
While drunk, the captain of the pirates approaches one of the girls. She bites his hand before harm can be physically done, but the girl is tormented by the look in the pirate's eye as he reached for her.
Having made no further captures, the pirates quickly take the first ship they finally see. The captain of this ship is tied up and left with an injured girl on the pirate ship as everyone else boards the new ship to watch a fight between a lion and a tiger. The tied captain does all he can to get the girl to free him, but is unable to communicate. Finally, seeing a knife, he rolls towards it. The injured girl screams, but no one is near her to hear. She pounces at the last second and kills the captain.
When reboarding their own ship, the pirates mistake another girl for the murderer and without ceremony throw her overboard, to be rescued by another boat of pirates heading back to their ship.
The pirate ship is seized by British authorities and the pirates are subsequently executed for the crimes they committed against the children. The murder they are convicted of and hanged for was actually committed by one of the children.
[edit] Critical reception
The book received much criticism for its content at the time of release. Many critics responded negatively to the behavior and treatment of the children in the novel, ranging from sexual abuse to murder.
Others lauded Hughes for contradicting the Victorian romances of childhood by expressing the children without emotional reduction. The book is often given credit for influencing and paving the way for novels such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
In 1998, A High Wind in Jamaica was included as number 71 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, a list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century.
[edit] Trivia
The cocktail, Hangman's Blood, is first described in this novel.
