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Ioláni
; or, Tahiti as it was / Wilkie Collins ; ed. and introduced
by Ira B. Nadel. - Princeton (N.J.) : Princeton university press,
1999. - XXXVII-205 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN 0-691-03446-X
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NOTE DE L'ÉDITEUR : The novel is set in Tahiti prior to European
contact. It tells the story of the diabolical priest, Ioláni,
and the heroic young woman, Idia, who bears his child. Determined
to defy the Tahitian custom of killing firstborn children,
Idia and her friend Aimata flee with the baby and take refuge
among Ioláni's enemies. The vengeful priest pursues them, setting
into motion a plot that features civil war, sorcery, sacrificial
rites, wild madmen, treachery and love.
Collins explores themes that he would return
to again and again in his career : oppression by sinister, patriarchal
figures ; the bravery of forceful, unorthodox women ; the psychology
of the criminal mind ; the hypocrisy of moralists ; and Victorian
ideas of the exotic.
❙ Wilkie Collins (1824-1899), perhaps
best known for « The Moonstone » and « The
Woman in White », was the author of more than thirty
novels, more than fifty short stories, as well as many plays
and essays. Collins, even more than his close friend Charles
Dickens, was a master of the suspenseful Victorian thriller.
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MAGAZINE
LITTÉRAIRE, n° 374, mars 1999 : Wilkie Collins avait vingt ans. Commis
dans une compagnie de commerce de thé, il dissimulait
sous ses registres des cahiers où il consignait d'exotiques
aventures. Ainsi nacquit son premier roman, Ioláni or, Tahiti
as it was. Dont aucun éditeur ne voulut.
Cette histoire très saignante de
sacrifices d'enfants en Polynésie choqua. « Ma
jeune imagination se déchaîna au milieu des nobles
sauvages, écrit-il en 1870, dans des scènes
que le très respectable éditeur britannique refusa
de cautionner de son nom ».
Collins rangea son manuscrit dans un tiroir.
A sa mort, en 1889, on le crut perdu, puis on l'oublia. Quelque
cent ans plus tard, en 1991, un libraire de Manhattan est chargé
de l'estimer. Le dernier acheteur, qui conserve l'anonymat, a décidé
de le faire enfin publier ce printemps.
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| EXCERPT |
Years
and years after the period of our narrative, the Polynesian peasant,
was used to describe to his affrightened children and his curious
neighbours, the altered and horrible aspect of Ioláni, the
Priest, when he returned to the Temple. What had occasioned this
alteration never was known. The popular superstition, however, soon
ascribed it to an encounter with the wood-daemons and ghosts, that were
supposed to haunt the shores of the dreaded and desolate lake ;
and in after seasons, among the wild songs of the land, was numbered as
the people's favourite legend — « the night battle of the
Priest ».
☐ pp. 66-67 |
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COMPLÉMENT
BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE
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| mise-à-jour : 25 avril 2007 |
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