Roslyn Jolly is Lecturer in English at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She is the author of Henry James: History, Narrative, Fiction (OUP, 1993).

The clash between a missionary and a prostitute, "Rain" is among this master storyteller's most famous tales. Additional selections include "Macintosh," "The Fall of Edward Barnard," "The Pool," and other compelling stories of life in the tropics.

This book is a study of 'collecting' undertaken by Joseph Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux and his shipmates in Tasmania, the western Pacific Islands, and Indonesia. In 1791-1794 Bruni d'Entrecasteaux led a French naval expedition in search of the lost vessels of La Pérouse which had last been seen by Europeans at Botany Bay in March 1788. After Bruni d'Entrecasteaux died near the end of the voyage and the expedition collapsed in political disarray in Java, its collections and records were subsequently scattered or lost. The book's core is a richly illustrated examination, analysis, and catalog of a large array of ethnographic objects collected during the voyage, later dispersed, and recently identified in museums in France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The focus on artifacts is informed by a broad conception of collecting as grounded in encounters or exchanges with Indigenous protagonists and also as materialized in other genres--written accounts, vocabularies, and visual representations (drawings, engravings, and maps). Historically, the book outlines the antecedents, occurrences, and aftermath of the voyage, including its location within the classic era of European scientific voyaging (1766-1840) and within contemporary colonial networks. Particular chapters trace the ambiguous histories of the extant collections. Ethnographically, contributors are alert to local settings, relationships, practices, and values; to Indigenous uses and significance of objects; to the reciprocal, dialogic nature of collecting; to local agency or innovation in exchanges; and to present implications of objects and their histories, especially for modern scholars and artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

"Before getting tickets for that Tahitian holiday you've dreamed about, read this book." Publishers Weekly

Tales from the South Seas comprises The Beach at Falesá, The Bottle Imp, The Wrecker, The Ebb Tide, The Isle of Voices, and Letters, and is introduced by Jenni Calder.

A classic that describes how, deep down, there appears to be a craving for a more primitive existence; that, while this is sometimes a delusion, the South Seas are more suitable to such aspirations than any other section of the globe. Few races are more appealing than Polynesians. Frank, the winner, is homosexual and extremely courteous; the taller type is frequently quite attractive and just slightly darker than Southern Europeans. Some of their experiences are genuinely lyrical. They have nearly limitless free time to share with the tourists in their midst, half nude, with flowers in their hair, and enough labor to maintain them in wonderful physical form. And soil, humanity's most formidable obstacle, does not exist. No one is cleaner, and no one has such high self-esteem. Sometimes one wonders whether it is not the white barbarian, who is the boss in certain aspects. Samuel Lloyd Osbourne, author, is an American writer and the stepson of Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he has co-written three works, including The Wrecker, and provided feedback and ideas on others. Osbourne also authored a few short tales and articles.