Begun in 1916, first published in 1924, this an almost poetic utopian work. About one hundred women and a twelve-year-old boy shipwrecked from a luxury liner on an unknown South Sea island establish a matriarchal society, a paradise of natural existence. In this society children are regarded as of divine origin, and there is a taboo on even considering who the father of any given child may be. The island religion resembles ancient Greek mythology but with Hindu and Buddhist aspects. As the male ...