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    The Queen of the Pirate Isle
    The Queen of the Pirate Isle
    The Queen of the Pirate Isle
    Ebook69 pages34 minutes

    The Queen of the Pirate Isle

    By Kate Greenaway and Bret Harte

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1955
    The Queen of the Pirate Isle
    Author

    Kate Greenaway

    Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) was an English artist and writer, best known for her work in children’s books. Her slightly fantastical illustrations highlight the innocence of childhood, and her depictions of Regency era fashion were adapted into children’s clothing designs.

    Read more from Kate Greenaway

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    Reviews for The Queen of the Pirate Isle

    3/5

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    • 2/5
      Originally published in 1886, The Queen of the Pirate Isle is a short story set in and around a mining camp in gold-rush California - a milieu that features in almost all of Bret Harte's work. Illustrated in this 1931 edition by the fabulous Kate Greenaway, for whom Britain's premier illustrator's award is named, it seems at first glance to be a story for children.The four young protagonists - imaginative Polly, her cousin Hickory Hunt, their Chinese "page" Wan Lee, and neighbor-boy Patsey - are all children, and Harte here relates their adventures playing pirate. Unfortunately, the narrative is somewhat muddled, with a "realistic" runaway-adventure being followed by a (possible) dream sequence, morphing into an imaginary/fantastic adventure, which turns out to be "real" play. The connection between these various scenes is not always clear, and the language is rather dense. I find it hard to imagine that young readers, in Harte's day or in our own, would find this narrative appealing, leading me to suspect that this is an adult story presented here as a children's book because its protagonists are young.Leaving aside the question of the intended audience for The Queen of the Pirate Isle, Harte's narrative is also marred by his racist portrayal of Wan Lee, who speaks in the regrettable dialect reserved for "Oriental" characters in nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature. If I were rating this book based solely upon the text, this combination of unappealing story and anachronistic social themes would probably result in a single star.Fortunately (or not, as the case may be), I did find Kate Greenaway's illustrations absolutely delightful, and have therefore given this an added star. All in all, this is not a title I would recommend to readers either young or old, although Greenaway devotees will no doubt get something out of the experience.

    Book preview

    The Queen of the Pirate Isle - Kate Greenaway

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Queen of the Pirate Isle, by Bret Harte

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: The Queen of the Pirate Isle

    Author: Bret Harte

    Illustrator: Kate Greenaway

    Release Date: November 27, 2005 [EBook #17168]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE ***

    Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the Online

    Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

    The Queen

    OF THE

    Pirate Isle

    BY

    BRET HARTE

    ILLUSTRATED BY

    KATE GREENAWAY

    A FACSIMILE FROM THE ORIGINAL

    PUBLICATION OF 1885

    Harte, Bret, 1836-1902.

    ISBN 0 86441 018 2.

    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

    [Transcriber's Note: A larger version of each illustration can be viewed by clicking / selecting the thumbnail picture.]

    THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE.

    I first knew her as the Queen of the Pirate Isle. To the best of my recollection she had no reasonable right to that title. She was only nine years old, inclined to plumpness and good humour, deprecated violence and had never been to sea. Need it be added that she did not live in an island and that her name was Polly.

    Perhaps I ought to explain that she had already known other experiences of a purely imaginative character. Part of her existence had been passed as a Beggar Child—solely indicated by a shawl tightly folded round her shoulders and chills,—as a Schoolmistress, unnecessarily severe; as a Preacher, singularly personal in his remarks, and once, after reading one of Cooper's novels, as an Indian Maiden. This was, I believe, the only instance when she had borrowed from another's fiction. Most of the characters that she assumed for days and sometimes weeks at a time were purely original in conception; some so much so as to be vague to the general understanding.

    I remember

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