Welcome to the third leg of the 2012 LibriVox World Tour! Go on a trip through the Pacific Isles and Down Under with 10 gems from our catalog.
In Omoo, a voyage on a whaling vessel ends with a mutiny on Tahiti. Follow the narrator of Herman Melville’s story as he explores the island and its inhabitants.
What happens when missionaries try to enforce their moral standards on others is masterfully told by W. Somerset Maugham in his short story Rain, set on Samoa.
The Solomon Islands, Fiji, Bora Bora,… lay on the way of Jack London’s Cruise of the Snark. As a bonus, his travelogue introduced a new sport to the masses: surfing.
Maoriland Fairy Tales, written down by Edith Howes, tell the mythological history of the Maori – from their roots in Polynesia, their seafaring, and their final settling in New Zealand about 1300 CE.
More than 3000 years later, Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington. The famous author from New Zealand recalls her happy childhood there in Prelude.
Much less happy was the outcome of the Burke and Wills expedition, with the aim of crossing Australia from South to North. Andrew Jackson tells the details of the ill-fated undertaking in Robert O’Hara Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedition 1860.
None of The Pioneers in Australia had an easy life. Read the novel by Katharine S. Pritchard, about the Camerons, free-settlers in the wilderness, who must stand their ground against escaped convicts and bushfires on their way to prosperity.
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke follow the transformation of Bill, from gang member to contented husband and father, at the hands of his wife Doreen. This verse novel was written by J. C. Dennis, the most prosperous poet in Australia’s history.
A prominent place in history is reserved for The Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty, which happened near Tonga in 1789. Sir John Barrow tries to shed light on its cause and consequences.
How can we talk about the tropics and not drop a single word about pirates? Hopefully our amazing – and brand new – rendition of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance will make you forgive that it is not set in the South Seas…
Enjoy – and send a postcard!
What are the first two legs of the world tour? Where are the links to them?Sounds like a great collection!
JeanneE,
click on the link “Monthly Picks” below the post to find all, well, monthly picks – including all previous legs of our World Tour.
Got it–thanks!
got it, thanks!