Rifling Paradise

by Jem Poster

Book Overview

When past indiscretions catch up with Charles Redbourne, a minor English landowner, he is propelled from England to Australia, where he plans to make his mark as a naturalist. There, his life begins to change dramatically, not least when he meets his host's wayward, artistic daughter. But it is on an expedition in search of scientific specimens in the Blue Mountains that events take a terrifying turn. Vividly conveying the unspoken codes of Victorian society, this is a gripping tale of emotional and psychological reckoning that offers an inspired meditation on the relationship between humankind and the natural world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590200489
• ISBN13: 9781590200483
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 325 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.7" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

"It's the bane of our age. Sentimentalism."

Charles Redbourne is a middle-aged gentleman of substance who finds himself under attack one night after a local youth commits suicide. The village locals converge on Redbourne's home, the anger of the mob threatening to spill into action. Burning all evidence of his proclivity towards inappropriate relationships with young men, Charles flees to the London residence of his Uncle Joshua. All but estranged over the years, Joshua is reluctant to help his nephew but begrudgingly provides the resources for Charles to sail to Australia, there to pursue his scientific interests. Hoping to add to the data on species of birds, Redbourne flees the past with a revived sense of purpose. Staying at the estate of Edward Vane and his daughter Eleanor, Charles is struck by the charged rancor between father and daughter, the girl's indomitable spirit capturing Charles' imagination. Less appealing is the gruff, unmannered Bullen, who is to serve as Redbourne's guide to Australia's interior to collect specimens. The hard-bitten Bullen is not an easy man to like, Charles used to the more genteel refinements of his class. Couched in the Victorian mores of his education, Redbourne must at all times maintain a gentlemanly facade and a gracious attitude towards his host. When the day of the trek to the interior arrives, Charles leaves Eleanor reluctantly, the young woman constantly in his thoughts in a confused mix of damsel-in-distress and emotional attraction. Traveling with Bullen is a constant strain, the crude, bullying hunter careless of local tradition and superstition, abusing Billy, their guide, and ignoring the boy's words of caution when disturbing ancestors. The trip becomes a crucible where reason is abandoned, illness infusing both men with terror and a manic energy that confuses the real with the imagined. Barely surviving, Redbourne learns that past demons have returned, his fears mutating into the present. Clinging desperately to what appears real, Charles leaps from confusion to action, compounding the mistakes of a compromised existence. There is never a moment's peace in Charles' journey, emotional or physical, only the continuing rationalization of decisions, revealing the protagonist as a morally bankrupt fool. Luan Gaines/2009.