The Galapagos Affair [Hardcover]

John Treherne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1983

Over half-a-century ago fanciful and exotic stories began to appear in the world's press about settlers on the remote Galapagos island of Floreana. The tales were of nudism, free love communes, stainless steel dentures - a latter-day Garden of Eden. But the truth was even stranger. Friedrich Ritter, an eccentric German intellectual, and his long-suffering companion Dora Strauch, were the first arrivals. Once established, they were soon joined by others. Most bizarre and dangerous was the self-styled Baroness Wagner-Bosquet. She ruled her three young male lovers with a riding crop, a pearl-handled revolver and insatiable sexual demands - terrorising other settlers. Her mysterious disappearance and the discovery of unidentified bodies on a nearby island perplexed the world. Now The Galapagos Affair unravels the whole incredible story.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394533275
• ISBN-13: 978-0394533278
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing story - gripping mystery, July 19, 2001

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Galapagos Affair (Hardcover)

This is one book that needs, desparately, to be reprinted. It is the most amazing story and quite ably presented by the author. It is the true story of the inhabitants of Floreana, or Charles Island as it was also known in the late 1920's early 1930's. This tiny little island in the Galapagos group, off the coast of Equador was home to a small community of idealists who shifted there to start a new life - and it also became the centre of an odd and unsolved mystery.

The start of the book was not entirely satisfactory. If I hadn't been encouraged to continue then I might not have persisted in reading it. The book centres around two German idealists (Dore and Frecerich), who escape from unhappy marriages and make an 'ideal' home on the island where they can live close to the earth and philosophise. Later another German couple and their child (the Wittmers) settle in another part of Floreana. This first half of the book which is their life is interesting but not compelling. It is when the Baroness, a sort of mystic with Imperial intentions, settles on the island with her small entourage of devoted male followers, that things get interesting. From about half way through the book you can see that things on the island are deteriorating towards some kind of disaster. The Baroness seems to be deliberately provoking the others. Food is being stolen, mail tampered with and the Baroness's imperial intentions start to overwhelm them all.

The relationships on the island and the final mystery are unravelled by Traherne through thorough reading of books and resources from the various characters involved or who had visited the island. Treherne seems to have done a pretty good job in unravelling the tangle web of concealments about just what might have happened on the island during the drought in the summer of 1934 and it makes wonderful reading.

To even reveal the mystery would be to spoil the book as it becomes quite complex with other deaths involved as well. This is very well worth reading - kind of Lord of the Flies for adults and - as with all true stories - the truth is far stranger than fiction.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. Leaves the reader wondering what happened, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Galapagos Affair (Hardcover)

This has become my favorite book.I have been fascinated by the Galapagos Islands since I was a little girl, now I'm totally intrigued. I want to thank J. Treherne for bringing to life such a wierd story, truth is stranger than fiction! I pass the book around to all my friends and everyone has a different theory about the strange events. Wonderful!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stranger than Fiction, December 27, 2001

By 

Marian Powell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Galapagos Affair (Hardcover)

No fiction writer would dare to invent such a story. It's too implausible for a reader of mysteries to believe. However, it's a true story about several odd groups of people who went to live on an island. The story sweeps you along, building to a still unsolved murder or murders. Part of the fun is coming up with your own explanation for what happened. Someone was lying, but who? It's also interesting to find out who of the settlers actually stayed and founded a colony more or less by accident. All in all, a good book to curl up with on a cold winter night by the fire.