{"product_id":"a-high-wind-in-jamaica-paperback","title":"A High Wind in Jamaica - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRichard Hughes\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eFrancine Prose\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRichard Hughes's celebrated short novel is a masterpiece of concentrated narrative. Its dreamlike action begins among the decayed plantation houses and overwhelming natural abundance of late nineteenth-century Jamaica, before moving out onto the high seas, as Hughes tells the story of a group of children thrown upon the mercy of a crew of down-at-the-heel pirates. A tale of seduction and betrayal, of accommodation and manipulation, of weird humor and unforeseen violence, this classic of twentieth-century literature is above all an extraordinary reckoning with the secret reasons and otherworldly realities of childhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRichard Hughes (1900-1976) was born in Surrey, England, but his ancestors came from Wales and he considered himself a Welshman. After an early childhood marked by the deaths of two older siblings and his father (his mother then went to work as a magazine journalist), Hughes attended boarding school and, with every expectation of being sent to fight in the First World War, enrolled in the military. Armistice was declared, however, before he could see active service, and Hughes was free to go to Oxford, where he became a star on the university literary scene, with a book of poems in print and a play produced in the West End by the time he graduated in 1922. Hughes's first novel, \u003ci\u003eA High Wind in Jamaica\u003c\/i\u003e, came out in 1928 and was a best seller in the United Kingdom and America. In Hazard followed ten years later. Hughes also wrote stories for children and radio plays, but his final major undertaking was the \"The Human Predicament\", an ambitious amalgamation of fact and fiction that would track the German and English branches of a single family into the disaster of the Second World War while offering a dramatic depiction of Hitler's rise to power. The work was planned as a trilogy, but remained incomplete at the time of Hughes's death. The first volume, \u003ci\u003eThe Fox in the Attic\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 1960, to great critical acclaim; volume two, \u003ci\u003eThe Wooden Shepherdess, \u003c\/i\u003ewas published in 1973. All of Hughes's completed novels are available from NYRB Classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 296\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.73 x 7.96 x 5.06 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 30, 1999\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51772844343584,"sku":"9780940322158","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/ee9fd33462fcf02513d506f391d7914e.webp?v=1780415482","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/a-high-wind-in-jamaica-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}