The Trader's Wife

by Louis Becke

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Pages: 26

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About this book

From her verandah above Levuka harbour, Nell Brabant watches her husband's schooner return after five months at sea. John Brabant is a prosperous Pacific trader, devoted to his young wife and confident that his oldest friends will be welcome in their home. His chief mate, Lester, views her with distrust. Louis Becke opens this short novel amid the heat, hospitality and social rivalries of a small European community in Fiji.

Money brings the marriage's tensions into focus. Nell enjoys lavish entertaining, while Brabant hopes to save enough to settle in the old country. A proposed business merger promises a large payment, but he questions the fairness of the scheme. Conversations about expenses, friendships and a possible visit to Sydney reveal competing loyalties. Readers interested in Pacific fiction will find domestic conflict closely tied to ships, trading ventures and the reputations people cultivate ashore.

About the author

Louis Becke

Louis Becke was an Australian short-story writer and novelist whose years as a trader and traveler in the Pacific supplied much of his subject matter. Born George Lewis Becke in Port Macquarie, he went to sea young, worked in Samoa and Micronesia, survived shipwreck, and later turned those experiences into fiction.