Excerpt from Kalani of Oahu: An Historical Romance of Hawaii Bereft of such knowledge, the prehistoric past of a people of Polynesia becomes a period of dark ness to the physicist, unrayed by sufficient glim mer of light by which-to judge of the remote anterior conditions of their religious or social his tory, not to mention the ever-disputed point of their anthropophagy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

チャールズ・マーティン・ニューウェルによる本作は、霧に包まれたポリネシアの先史時代に光を当てる、壮大な歴史ロマンの極致です。単なる記録文学の枠を超え、学術的な視点と情熱的な叙事詩が融合した文体は、失われた古代ハワイの宗教的・社会的息吹を鮮やかに蘇らせています。読者は、未知なる神話の世界が現実の歴史と交差する瞬間の、震えるような美しさに立ち会うことになるでしょう。 著者は、未踏の過去という暗闇を、ロマンスという名の松明で照らし出します。当時の慣習や禁忌、そして人間の根源的な情熱が織りなすドラマは、単なる異国情緒の提示に留まりません。文明の変遷に埋もれかけた魂の叫びを掬い上げるその筆致には、遠き先祖たちへの畏敬の念が満ちており、物語の深淵へと読み手を誘う圧倒的な磁力を放っています。