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Wyspa Hobsona
Cuando el depuesto presidente de Bukumla es rescatado de la muerte por un grupo de comerciantes franceses y vendido (por su peso en whisky) a un dudoso capitán británico, comienzan a concatenarse una serie de acontecimientos cuyo epicentro será la pequeña, pacífica y prácticamente desconocida Isla de Hobson. Stefan Themerson despliega con maestría un increíble elenco de personajes que se entrecruzan en esta historia, que rebosa imaginación, humor y erudición.
238 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
3 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Stefan Themerson
49 books34 followersStefan Themerson was a Polish, later British poet, novelist, film-maker, composer and philosopher.
Stefan Themerson was born in Plock (Poland) in 1910, the son of a doctor. He studied physics at the University of Warsaw and architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic. In his twenties, Stefan became well-known in Poland as an author of children’s books.
Stefan got married in 1931 to Franciszka. Between 1931 and 1937, the Themersons made several experimental films and Stefan invented new techniques for photograms. 'Adventures of a Good Citizen' (1937) was the fifth and the last of their pre-war films and the only one that has survived.
The Themersons played a major role in the history of independent, experimental and pre-war cinema in Poland, their significance for the development of the Polish avant-garde film is enormous.
The Themersons moved to Paris in 1937, to be at the heart of the art world. Two days after the start of the Second World War Stefan and Franciszka volunteered for the Polish army. In 1940 Franciszka escaped by moving to London. Stefan served in the Polish army in France, ending up in a Polish Red Cross hostel in Voiron, 1940-42.
At this time Stefan wrote his first novel, Professor Mmaa’s Lecture. After two years of separation Stefan and Franciszka were reunited in London in 1942. They made two more films, 1942-44.
In 1948 the Themersons founded a publishing house: the Gaberbocchus Press. In 31 years they published over sixty titles, including works by Alfred Jarry, Kurt Schwitters and Bertrand Russell.
In 1953 Stefan’s Professor Mmaa’s Lecture was first published. It is still a classic in Poland.
Through the 60s and 70s, Stefan’s books were published by Gaberbocchus Press, for example philosophical novels, children’s books, poetry, essays and a libretto and music for an opera.
His books have been translated in eight languages.
He invented 'semantic poetry' which first appeared in his novel Bayamus (1949). It is a sort of poetry that prefers the matter-of-fact meanings of words in dictionary definitions to the romantic euphemism of poetic conventions.
Ethics, language, freedom, human dignity and the importance of good manners are the topics Stefan wrote about most.
His novels range from elaborate allegories to satirical thrillers. The humanitarian philosophy that underpins them all was crystallised in The Chair of Decency, a talk given as the Huizinga lecture in Leyden in 1981. It contrasted the innate sense of good with which man is born, with the impassioned pursuit of belief and causes by which he is subsequently deluded.
Stefan Themerson was born in Plock (Poland) in 1910, the son of a doctor. He studied physics at the University of Warsaw and architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic. In his twenties, Stefan became well-known in Poland as an author of children’s books.
Stefan got married in 1931 to Franciszka. Between 1931 and 1937, the Themersons made several experimental films and Stefan invented new techniques for photograms. 'Adventures of a Good Citizen' (1937) was the fifth and the last of their pre-war films and the only one that has survived.
The Themersons played a major role in the history of independent, experimental and pre-war cinema in Poland, their significance for the development of the Polish avant-garde film is enormous.
The Themersons moved to Paris in 1937, to be at the heart of the art world. Two days after the start of the Second World War Stefan and Franciszka volunteered for the Polish army. In 1940 Franciszka escaped by moving to London. Stefan served in the Polish army in France, ending up in a Polish Red Cross hostel in Voiron, 1940-42.
At this time Stefan wrote his first novel, Professor Mmaa’s Lecture. After two years of separation Stefan and Franciszka were reunited in London in 1942. They made two more films, 1942-44.
In 1948 the Themersons founded a publishing house: the Gaberbocchus Press. In 31 years they published over sixty titles, including works by Alfred Jarry, Kurt Schwitters and Bertrand Russell.
In 1953 Stefan’s Professor Mmaa’s Lecture was first published. It is still a classic in Poland.
Through the 60s and 70s, Stefan’s books were published by Gaberbocchus Press, for example philosophical novels, children’s books, poetry, essays and a libretto and music for an opera.
His books have been translated in eight languages.
He invented 'semantic poetry' which first appeared in his novel Bayamus (1949). It is a sort of poetry that prefers the matter-of-fact meanings of words in dictionary definitions to the romantic euphemism of poetic conventions.
Ethics, language, freedom, human dignity and the importance of good manners are the topics Stefan wrote about most.
His novels range from elaborate allegories to satirical thrillers. The humanitarian philosophy that underpins them all was crystallised in The Chair of Decency, a talk given as the Huizinga lecture in Leyden in 1981. It contrasted the innate sense of good with which man is born, with the impassioned pursuit of belief and causes by which he is subsequently deluded.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 5, 2016
One of those perfect novels, read on a lazy summer’s afternoon in a state of enchantment, that almost redeem the whole sordid human race and put a permanent rictus on your miserable face. Themerson’s novel is up there with the works of Raymond Queneau (the two are surely twins), in serving up philosophical conundrums and logical puzzles in a delightful manner, in books bursting with wit and warmth and wonder. Absolutely marvellous.
January 25, 2023
Stefan Themerson changed my life
December 18, 2022
Not strictly my preferred style/genre (?) but an interesting and thought-provoking read. The book draws together several intersecting stories, so it takes a bit to actually get into the story after meeting and thoroughly understanding all of the characters. Maybe not the best book to get out of a reading lull, but a nice read that was different to what I have been reading lately.
March 2, 2024
"Łagodnego uśmiechu, który nic nie kosztuje, gdy się go daje, a znaczy tak wiele, gdy się go otrzymuje."Kocham tą książkę, zakończenie szokujące . Gorąco polecam 🙂
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2012
This is a note on both
The Mystery of the Sardine
and Hobson's Island, Stefan Themerson's two final novels before his death in 1988. According to the introduction to the latter, the previous thing that Themerson had published was an essay suggesting that a university should fund a "Chair of Decency". "Contrary to what clergymen and policemen want us to believe, gentleness is biological, and aggression is cultural; not vice versa.... All ideologies, all missions, all aims corrupt.... Because, when all is said and done, decency of means is the aim of aims." These are themes emphasized over and over in Hobson's Island and, to a less obvious extent, in The Mystery of the Sardine. They are books written by someone who is not afraid to turn conversations into philosophy lectures, for whom characters are vehicles for ideas, and whose plots are quite deliberately ridiculous; after all, nothing could be more absurd than the human predicament in that Cold War age when all ideologies and all reason had led to the brink of global annihilation. To judge by these novels, Themerson seems similar to one of the characters in Hobson's Island, Sean D'Earth: a reluctant atheist who thinks there ought to have been a just God, and a betrayed lover of science who sees his beautiful vision of evolution thriving on the love of parent to child cruelly perverted by weapon-builders. Yet, until the despairing end of the second book, the mood is mostly one of gentle, if uneasy, lunacy, in which terrifying events can be overcome by those characters (mostly women) who understand that "Axioms are mortal, politics are mortal, poetry is mortal,–good manners are immortal."
January 13, 2021
Ingewikkeld verhaal dat de halve wereld overreist en zo'n vijftig jaar beslaat, over de heerser van Boekoemla die wordt afgezet en vlucht met een schip naar Hobsons Eiland, waar zich complexe zaken afspelen met drie geheime diensten en een gezelschap Zwitserse bankiers, een gezin en een schipbreukeling, en waar ook de familieleden van Generaal Piesc een rol hebben, en ook allerlei andere dwarsverbanden belangrijk zijn, of juist niet.
Filosofisch en verwarrend: een schattig verhaal.
Filosofisch en verwarrend: een schattig verhaal.
June 27, 2019
Maravilloso
January 8, 2025
This book was smart, and I'm going to have to keep thinking about it. The rating could go up.
November 21, 2025
Cytat o Przyzwoitości cudownie prawdziwy!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews