What do you think?
Rate this book
Luminous Isle
"I love life, exquisitely, passionately, and with all the truth in me, and for itself, not just for what I can get out of it."The year is 1923 and nineteen-year-old Emmeline Hibbert sails for Jamaica, the luminous isle of her early childhood, with its breathtaking blue mountains, its vivid colours and singing, tropical heat. Behind her lies England, her convent schooldays, her beloved grandmother La, and cousin the gifted companion of her youth. But Em is irresistibly drawn back to the island of her memory and imagination. Reunited with her conventional mother and father she slips into army garrison life -- a round of polo matches, dancing, tennis, riding, gossip, and evenings at the Club. Em is intelligent, sensitive, aware; rebelling against the settled prejudices of this closed society she tries to live according to the way she escaping to her friends in the mountains, seeking people, both white and Black, akin to herself. We watch as Em comes to learn that inevitably she must make a heartbreaking choice -- if she is to be as she longs to "sexless, creedless, classless, free."
392 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1934
1 person is currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Eliot Bliss
3 books8 followersFull name: Eileen Nora Lees Bliss; she wrote under the name: Eliot Bliss.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 1, 2022
The best of the book for me were the sensuous vivid evocations of Em's loved island, especially her beloved mountains. The passages descrying racial prejudice may have been advanced for the time, but there are some unintentionally stereotyping comments, and it was heavy going through all the n-word.
August 23, 2012
Not a patch on Saraband.
March 4, 2023
Synopsis from back cover of the book re-issued by Virago:
• “ I love life, exquisitely, passionately, and with all the truth in me, and for itself, not just for what I can get out of it.”
The year is 1923 and 19-year-old Emmeline (‘Em’) Hibbert sails for Jamaica. The luminous isle of her early childhood, with its breathtaking blue mountains, its vivid color and singing, tropical heat. Behind her lies England, her convent schooldays, her beloved grandmother La, and cousin Clay: the gifted companion of her youth. But Em is irresistibly drawn back to the island of her memory and imagination. Reunited with her conventional mother and father she slips into army garrison life — a round of polo matches, dancing, tennis, riding, gossip., and evenings at the Club. Em is intelligent, sensitive, aware; rebelling against the settled prejudices of this closed society she tries to live according to the way she feels: escaping to her friends in the mountains, seeking people, both white and Black, akin to herself. We watch as Em comes to learn that inevitably she must make a heartbreaking choice—if she is to be as she longs to be: “sexless, creedless, classless, free”.
I gave her earlier work, ‘Saraband’, 3 ½ stars (rounded up to 4 stars in the GoodReads system) and lamented that she was a forgotten author. I quite liked it. But I feel this book didn’t help in making her oeuvre (just two books) more remembered. I came in really wanting to like this book. And after about 100 pages I figured this would be a 3 ½- or 4-star book. But then she went off the rails, and for some time thereafter I was wondering whether I should perhaps just do a DNF on it. Which made me sad. I wanted to like this more than I did. The last ~150-200 pages of the 372-page book was one long ramble and a snooze-fest.
Even the Virago editor who wrote the Introduction, Alexandra Pringle, had this comment about the book (although I should say she was quite positive about the novel):
• “Though long, rambling and sometimes flawed....”
The one thing I found to be most interesting about the re-issue of the novel by Virago Modern Classics was the fact that Eliot Bliss herself wrote a letter to the then-editor of Virago, Alexandra Pringle....
• In June 1982 I received a letter from Eliot Bliss. “Dear Mesdames,” it began, “I understand that you are interested in republishing out of print novels. I have long wanted to have a book of my own republished and wondered if it would interest you...I would very much like to see it republished before I die.” The book arrived a few days later and joined my long reading list. When that autumn I began ‘Luminous Isle’ it was with growing wonder and excitement that I read this beautiful, complex novel. It is perhaps a publisher’s greatest pleasure to be able to fulfil such a wish — and to be able to bring the work of this unjustly neglected author to a new audience who one feels, and hopes, will fully appreciate her at last. [Alexandra Pringle, Virago, London 1984, Founding Director and Editorial Director]
I wonder how many Virago Modern Classics were re-issued based at least in part by an author of a book or perhaps aficionados of a long-forgotten book lobbying to the editorial staff of Virago to re-issue a work. The above letter shows it happened at least once, and given Virago has re-issued at least 700 books (https://www.virago.co.uk/imprint/lbbg...), I wouldn’t be surprised if there have been other instances.
This novel supposedly is semi-autobiographical...just as her first novel ‘Saraband’ was.
I should mention that in this novel, a number of the characters, including the central protagonist’s mother and fiancé, were quite racist. Use of the n-word was prevalent in this book, although I do believe Eliot Bliss herself was not racist, based on what I have read about her as well as how the central protagonist interacted with the black Jamaicans. I got the sense that racism was the prevailing attitude of the British colonialists in Jamaica during that time period.
Reviews:
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• Interesting interview with biographer Michela Calderaro who edited a collection of poems of Eliot Bliss: https://wadadlipen.files.wordpress.co... [In this article is the eponymous poem, “Spring Evenings in Sterling Street”, and damn... it is good! 🙂]
• “ I love life, exquisitely, passionately, and with all the truth in me, and for itself, not just for what I can get out of it.”
The year is 1923 and 19-year-old Emmeline (‘Em’) Hibbert sails for Jamaica. The luminous isle of her early childhood, with its breathtaking blue mountains, its vivid color and singing, tropical heat. Behind her lies England, her convent schooldays, her beloved grandmother La, and cousin Clay: the gifted companion of her youth. But Em is irresistibly drawn back to the island of her memory and imagination. Reunited with her conventional mother and father she slips into army garrison life — a round of polo matches, dancing, tennis, riding, gossip., and evenings at the Club. Em is intelligent, sensitive, aware; rebelling against the settled prejudices of this closed society she tries to live according to the way she feels: escaping to her friends in the mountains, seeking people, both white and Black, akin to herself. We watch as Em comes to learn that inevitably she must make a heartbreaking choice—if she is to be as she longs to be: “sexless, creedless, classless, free”.
I gave her earlier work, ‘Saraband’, 3 ½ stars (rounded up to 4 stars in the GoodReads system) and lamented that she was a forgotten author. I quite liked it. But I feel this book didn’t help in making her oeuvre (just two books) more remembered. I came in really wanting to like this book. And after about 100 pages I figured this would be a 3 ½- or 4-star book. But then she went off the rails, and for some time thereafter I was wondering whether I should perhaps just do a DNF on it. Which made me sad. I wanted to like this more than I did. The last ~150-200 pages of the 372-page book was one long ramble and a snooze-fest.
Even the Virago editor who wrote the Introduction, Alexandra Pringle, had this comment about the book (although I should say she was quite positive about the novel):
• “Though long, rambling and sometimes flawed....”
The one thing I found to be most interesting about the re-issue of the novel by Virago Modern Classics was the fact that Eliot Bliss herself wrote a letter to the then-editor of Virago, Alexandra Pringle....
• In June 1982 I received a letter from Eliot Bliss. “Dear Mesdames,” it began, “I understand that you are interested in republishing out of print novels. I have long wanted to have a book of my own republished and wondered if it would interest you...I would very much like to see it republished before I die.” The book arrived a few days later and joined my long reading list. When that autumn I began ‘Luminous Isle’ it was with growing wonder and excitement that I read this beautiful, complex novel. It is perhaps a publisher’s greatest pleasure to be able to fulfil such a wish — and to be able to bring the work of this unjustly neglected author to a new audience who one feels, and hopes, will fully appreciate her at last. [Alexandra Pringle, Virago, London 1984, Founding Director and Editorial Director]
I wonder how many Virago Modern Classics were re-issued based at least in part by an author of a book or perhaps aficionados of a long-forgotten book lobbying to the editorial staff of Virago to re-issue a work. The above letter shows it happened at least once, and given Virago has re-issued at least 700 books (https://www.virago.co.uk/imprint/lbbg...), I wouldn’t be surprised if there have been other instances.
This novel supposedly is semi-autobiographical...just as her first novel ‘Saraband’ was.
I should mention that in this novel, a number of the characters, including the central protagonist’s mother and fiancé, were quite racist. Use of the n-word was prevalent in this book, although I do believe Eliot Bliss herself was not racist, based on what I have read about her as well as how the central protagonist interacted with the black Jamaicans. I got the sense that racism was the prevailing attitude of the British colonialists in Jamaica during that time period.
Reviews:
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• Interesting interview with biographer Michela Calderaro who edited a collection of poems of Eliot Bliss: https://wadadlipen.files.wordpress.co... [In this article is the eponymous poem, “Spring Evenings in Sterling Street”, and damn... it is good! 🙂]
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews