Islandia

by Austin Tappan Wright

Book Overview

Austin Tappan Wright left the world a wholly unsuspected legacy. After he died in a tragic accident, among this distinguished legal scholar's papers were found thousands of pages devoted to a staggering feat of literary creation-a detailed history of an imagined country complete with geography, genealogy, literature, language and culture. As detailed as J.R.R. Tolkien's middle-earth novels, Islandia has similarly become a classic touchstone for those...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585678252
• ISBN13: 9781585678259
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 1040 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.6" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A life altering read

I first read this book in 1946 at the age of 19. I read it through in one sitting and came out of the experience speaking Islandan better than English. I found in the book a minor character upon whom I wished to model my behavior and hoped to achieve the same position in my relationships. Structurally this in not a good novel but then it was never intended to be a novel. The mood of the book parallels the emotions of the protagonist. When he is up--the book is up. When he is going through his disappointment in his thwarted love affair the book drags. When he is doing his "buckling and swashiling" toward the end of the book it is a great book of action. There are too many antclimaxes. I have re-read this book several times a decade and each time leave it with a deep sense of satisfaction that Austin Wright had this dream and we are allowed to share it.

The most underated classic ever.

I found this book after reading about it in a essay by Ursula Le Guin. (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed) You will not hear about it from your local bookstore, or from school, and until recently you would have had an extremely hard time even buying it. I found my copy 1942 HB (Tan) in a used bookstore for three dollars years ago and it never leaves my nightstand. I understand that there will be some who simply don't understand the allure of the uptopian book, and they would probally find it boring. The reviewer who found the author long winded would be amazed that only half the book acutually got published, over 1,000 pages were edited before the first printing.It is one of the last elegant books, and the flavor of the early 20th century runs through it. It is a book that you can read to your children before bed, and too yourself anytime. It deserves shelf space next to Dickens and Tolkien. I cannot reccomend this book enough. Everyone should have a copy.

A true classic of utopian fantasy

This is my very favorite book, bar none, and has been since I first read it 20 years ago. Hero John Lang attends Harvard (Class of 1905) with Dorn, a young man from Islandia, a mysterious, xenophobic country struggling to deal with incursions from rest of the world. Upon graduating, he finds himself unable to choose a career, so he decides to use his language skill (Dorn teaches him Islandian one summer vacation in Maine) and is granted a rarely-issued entry visa. Though he never truly fits in, he becomes involved in Islandia's curious culture in various ways, and ends up at the crux of a national debate there, related in part to a German military threat. (Islandia is on the northern end of an Australia-like continent, never clearly located but probably in the far southern Pacific.) Wright carried Islandia in his head, expanding it from a childhood fantasy into hundreds of thousands of words of narrative and description of the place. [Sailing on Cape Cod once, he remarked that a particular bay looked just like another in Islandia.] He was killed in a car accident in Las Vegas in 1931, and his editor and family took 11 years to cut about 70% of his words to winnow the book to its still formidable length (it's 1,000 pages long). The book is wonderfully written and edited, with a smooth, lovely style. It's a bit slow by contemporary standards, but the description of Islandia's language, e.g. there are 4 words for love (romantic, strong friendship, desire, and one unique to Islandia's family-centric society), culture, and country, are beautifully done. Example: he's helping plow one day, and is horrified to find human remains right in the main field. His hosts quietly explain that when people die, they are of course returned to the land they loved, and they carefully return the bones to the furrow. In subsequent conversation, his hosts are equally horrified to hear how corpses are handled in America. The plot tracks John Lang's development from a young man, through his coming-of-age, finding himself, and coming to terms with his simultaneous love for and alienness in Islandia, and ultimately accepting who he is. First published in 1942, it was a minor cult classic in the early '60s, and though it's a bit dated in terms of feminism, for example, it remains my favorite book of all time. If there was an Islandia, I'd be there now...

A compelling vision of the good life

Islandia is a masterpiece. It is a utopian novel about a high culture, low technology society, but a utopia without glib answers and with real-world problems. It is a rich and detailed creation of a country, its society, and its people. The Islandians have developed a simple way of life that gives broad scope for individual fulfillment and the living of a happy, healthy, natural life through the enjoyment of work, love and friendship, craft, and the beauty of nature. Since this is the story of an American in Islandia, there are many contrasts between the American and Islandian way of life. It is impossible to describe the richness of this book; it has to be experienced to be understood. The plot is dramatic, the characters have great depth, the dialogue is fascinating, and the writing is beautiful. I have already read it three times, even though it's 1000 pages. It is a pleasure to read and highly rewarding.