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Mystic Isles of the South Seas
FEATURING;
MORE THAN 75 DIGITIZED PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE ORIGINAL 1921 EDITION
A DIGITIZED COPY OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK COVER
A FULLY FUNCTIONAL, LINKED TABLE of CONTENTS
AS WELL AS A FULLY LINKED AND ANNOTATED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"We cast our eyes over the scene. There was a forest of wild ginger, ferns, and dracaena all about. Thousands of roses perfumed the air, and other flowers and strawberries, and feis, green or ripened, wondrous clusters of fruit, awaiting man's culling. The stream purled about worn rocks, and we came to two gloomy pools, black from the reflection of their bowls. The water bubbling and surging from springs beneath. It was deliciously cold, and we drank it from leaf cups."
And so again, Frederick O'Brien takes the reader to the "Mystic Isles of the South Sea" with the second installment of his Polynesian travel trilogy, circa 1915. Oddly 'Mystic Isles' is a prequel to his first book, the wildly popular "White Shadows in the South Seas." 'Mystic Isles' starts by chronicling the beginnings of his South Seas sojourn. From the San Francisco depart, the ocean liner passage, and arriving in Tahiti, his initial exposure to Polynesia. O'Brien spends a bit of time describing life in the colonial South Seas capital of Papeete. But, as in 'White Shadows', O'Brien hits his stride when he leaves the western influences and takes to living with the local Polynesians, living as close to the old ways as he can find.
Tahiti in the 1910's had been closely administered to by France for close to 70 years. So the Tahitians of 'Mystic Isles' aren't living nearly as 'wild' or 'raw' as the Marquesans of 'White Shadows'. However, O'Brien found that bits of the old life still existed and there were many who could still recount the memories of times past. The life and memories of old Tahiti were fascinatingly brought to form by O'Brien's 75 amazing photographs. Of special note is the fact that several of these photographs were contributed by a budding and unknown local author, Robert Dean Frisbie, the future iconic author of so much classic Polynesian literature.
O'Brien's writing style allows fact and narrative sketch to smoothly flow across the page. As he said in 'Mystic Isles' Preface, there's no discoveries in the book. It was meant to "offer the reader an anodyne for a few hours, of transport to the other
side of our sphere, where are the loveliest scenes the eyes may find upon the round of the globe, the gentlest climate of all the latitudes, the most whimsical whites, and the dearest savages I have known"
A hundred years have passed, the yearning yet exists, and his book waits for you.
MORE THAN 75 DIGITIZED PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE ORIGINAL 1921 EDITION
A DIGITIZED COPY OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK COVER
A FULLY FUNCTIONAL, LINKED TABLE of CONTENTS
AS WELL AS A FULLY LINKED AND ANNOTATED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"We cast our eyes over the scene. There was a forest of wild ginger, ferns, and dracaena all about. Thousands of roses perfumed the air, and other flowers and strawberries, and feis, green or ripened, wondrous clusters of fruit, awaiting man's culling. The stream purled about worn rocks, and we came to two gloomy pools, black from the reflection of their bowls. The water bubbling and surging from springs beneath. It was deliciously cold, and we drank it from leaf cups."
And so again, Frederick O'Brien takes the reader to the "Mystic Isles of the South Sea" with the second installment of his Polynesian travel trilogy, circa 1915. Oddly 'Mystic Isles' is a prequel to his first book, the wildly popular "White Shadows in the South Seas." 'Mystic Isles' starts by chronicling the beginnings of his South Seas sojourn. From the San Francisco depart, the ocean liner passage, and arriving in Tahiti, his initial exposure to Polynesia. O'Brien spends a bit of time describing life in the colonial South Seas capital of Papeete. But, as in 'White Shadows', O'Brien hits his stride when he leaves the western influences and takes to living with the local Polynesians, living as close to the old ways as he can find.
Tahiti in the 1910's had been closely administered to by France for close to 70 years. So the Tahitians of 'Mystic Isles' aren't living nearly as 'wild' or 'raw' as the Marquesans of 'White Shadows'. However, O'Brien found that bits of the old life still existed and there were many who could still recount the memories of times past. The life and memories of old Tahiti were fascinatingly brought to form by O'Brien's 75 amazing photographs. Of special note is the fact that several of these photographs were contributed by a budding and unknown local author, Robert Dean Frisbie, the future iconic author of so much classic Polynesian literature.
O'Brien's writing style allows fact and narrative sketch to smoothly flow across the page. As he said in 'Mystic Isles' Preface, there's no discoveries in the book. It was meant to "offer the reader an anodyne for a few hours, of transport to the other
side of our sphere, where are the loveliest scenes the eyes may find upon the round of the globe, the gentlest climate of all the latitudes, the most whimsical whites, and the dearest savages I have known"
A hundred years have passed, the yearning yet exists, and his book waits for you.
- GenresNonfictionClassicsTravel
523 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1921
11 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 17, 2025
One of Gauguin's shacks still remained in sight along the road. Several people remembered Robert Louis Stevenson, and a few still had gifts he had presented to them. Tahitians, albeit converted to Christianity, held traditional feasts, lived if not a pastoral life, then one that still had connections to the sea and ancient myths. Papeete, meanwhile, kept a certain excitement about it, although foreigners dominated the port and its increasingly messy and polluted environment. A trip to Moorea could isolate you from French influence. And a trip to the Tahitian hinterlands allowed anyone willing to spend the time, that would be months and months and months, to get as close to ancient Polynesian ways as possible.
That's what things were like for Frederick O'Brien, when he spent part of the years of 1913-1914 in Tahiti. O'Brien seems to have been heavily influenced by James G. Frazer, although he makes no mention of him in this book. But his claims for common roots among Christianity and other religions with Polynesian beliefs could well come from early editions of The Golden Bough. For O'Brien gives over many pages of Mystic Isles to religion, philosophy, anthropological musings, as well as the personal romance of traveling to a remote and relatively untouched part of the globe. He sometimes gives in to purple prose, so it's a good thing I'm something of a connoisseur of writing that is sometimes overstuffed and overflowing with descriptive passages. Give me more!
As stated, almost all the book tells of O'Brien's journey to the South Seas right before World War I--the book itself was published in 1921. There are some German-French-British tensions (not American, however) that illustrate how people living all the way across the world from the European homelands still engaged in national rivalries. The last chapter is the one part of the book that provides for a coda or an update on things. Princess Noanoa, one of O'Brien's Tahitian friends, writes to him in 1919 to tell him that almost every Tahitian he met on his trip is now dead. The Spanish flu pandemic killed them.
That's what things were like for Frederick O'Brien, when he spent part of the years of 1913-1914 in Tahiti. O'Brien seems to have been heavily influenced by James G. Frazer, although he makes no mention of him in this book. But his claims for common roots among Christianity and other religions with Polynesian beliefs could well come from early editions of The Golden Bough. For O'Brien gives over many pages of Mystic Isles to religion, philosophy, anthropological musings, as well as the personal romance of traveling to a remote and relatively untouched part of the globe. He sometimes gives in to purple prose, so it's a good thing I'm something of a connoisseur of writing that is sometimes overstuffed and overflowing with descriptive passages. Give me more!
As stated, almost all the book tells of O'Brien's journey to the South Seas right before World War I--the book itself was published in 1921. There are some German-French-British tensions (not American, however) that illustrate how people living all the way across the world from the European homelands still engaged in national rivalries. The last chapter is the one part of the book that provides for a coda or an update on things. Princess Noanoa, one of O'Brien's Tahitian friends, writes to him in 1919 to tell him that almost every Tahitian he met on his trip is now dead. The Spanish flu pandemic killed them.
August 15, 2023
Interesting Journal
This book was long and at first a bit boring. As I read it I realized it was a journal of the author's experience of his South Sea trip to Tahiti.
This book was long and at first a bit boring. As I read it I realized it was a journal of the author's experience of his South Sea trip to Tahiti.
November 7, 2013
Delivers much the same flavor as "White Sands in the South Seas"
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews