In the Wrong Paradise, and Other Stories

In Short

This collection of short stories blends adventure, speculative fiction, and anthropological wit to explore the strangeness of human belief. Whether describing a missionary stranded among islanders who practice bizarre rituals, or a man accidentally delivered to the wrong celestial paradise, the narratives remain grounded in the author’s keen interest in folklore and mythology. By mocking rigid Victorian perspectives and elevating the "natural man," the work provides a satirical look at how cultures—both modern and ancient—construct the stories they tell about themselves to justify their own peculiar customs.

The Story

The collection opens with "The End of Phaeacia," a narrative centered on the Reverend Mr. Gowles, a missionary stranded on an island he renames "Boothland." Gowles, blinded by his own cultural superiority, views the islanders as "darkened savages" while failing to realize he has stumbled upon a survival of ancient Greek life. His attempts to impose his own values are thwarted by the island’s rituals, including a terrifying public execution tradition that he and his companion only narrowly escape when a steamship appears on the horizon.

In "In the Wrong Paradise," an Agnostic narrator dies and discovers that the bureaucratic machinery of the afterlife is prone to administrative errors. He is mistakenly guided to the paradise of the Ojibbeways. Finding this incompatible with his sensibilities, he wanders through various heavens—including a "transcendental" Islamic paradise—before finally finding a state of being that aligns with his skeptical nature.

"A Cheap Nigger" introduces a darker, more grounded tone, following a plantation purchase that leads to a bizarre, frantic fortification of a home against an unseen, supernatural threat. This tension is mirrored in "The Romance of the First Radical," which depicts a prehistoric figure named Why-Why. Why-Why rejects the tribal superstitions of his medicine-men, asserting his independence through logic and force, successfully defying the irrationality of his community.

The collection pivots into lighter, more satirical territory with "The Great Gladstone Myth," written as if from the perspective of a future scholar analyzing the "Gladstone" of the 19th century as a sun-god or nature deity. The author treats political figures with the same mythic scrutiny applied to ancient icons. Similarly, "A Duchess's Secret" and "The House of Strange Stories" engage with the tropes of ghost stories and aristocratic scandals, often puncturing the gravity of the supernatural with a sudden realization of the mundane. In "In Castle Perilous," a spectre reveals that a family’s "haunted" secret chamber is merely a social fabrication designed to hide the fact that the family lacks a sense of humor. The final tales, including "My Friend the Beach-Comber," further solidify a preoccupation with the collision of civilized pretense and the raw, ancient instincts that still linger beneath the surface of modern society.

How It Unfolds

The missionary’s blunder Reverend Gowles arrives on an isolated island and begins documenting the local customs with profound misunderstanding. He interprets their ancient Hellenic practices through the lens of a narrow-minded missionary, completely missing the historical significance of the people he hopes to "regenerate."

The afterlife error The narrator dies and is met by an Ojibeway guide who admits that the administrative process for transporting souls is frequently subject to human-like mistakes. This leads the protagonist on a surreal tour of various paradises, each tailored to the specific religious expectations of different cultures.

The primitive revolt Why-Why, the first radical, challenges the authority of his tribe's medicine-men by refusing to attribute natural deaths to witchcraft. His refusal to conform forces a confrontation that fundamentally shifts the power dynamics of his prehistoric society.

The myth of the politician A future academic treats the political figure Gladstone as an ancient deity, analyzing his "axe" and "cow" as symbols of religious devotion. This rhythmic satire mocks the way historians reconstruct the past, stripping away human reality to leave behind only sterile, mythic interpretations.

The truth behind the ghost A visitor to a haunted estate learns that the family’s terrifying secret is not a curse or a supernatural horror. Instead, the "secret chamber" is revealed to be a clever lie maintained for centuries simply to explain the family’s total inability to see a joke.

The People

The Reverend Mr. Gowles is a man defined by his inflexible, ignorant zeal. He desires to save the souls of the islanders, but his refusal to acknowledge their humanity renders him a prisoner of his own prejudices.

Why-Why stands as the central figure of individual reason. He wants only to live outside the stifling superstitions of his medicine-men. He is a pragmatic rebel who uses his physical strength to defend his intellectual independence, eventually transforming the social fabric of his tribe.

The "Agnostic" narrator in the title story serves as a dry, skeptical observer. He wants nothing more than a peaceful afterlife that suits his philosophical training, and his journey through various heavens highlights his role as a man who would rather be intellectually comfortable than dogmatically correct.

The "Family Genius" in the ghost stories is a weary, cynical spirit. He is tired of maintaining the reputation of the Perilous family and, rather than being a terrifying entity, he is a bored administrator of a crumbling aristocratic legacy.

In Its Own Voice

The author acknowledges the primitive nature hidden within modern, civilized men:

We are all savages under our white skins; but you alone recall to us the delights and terrors of the world's nonage.

(From the dedication to Rider Haggard, reflecting on the enduring power of ancient stories.)

The narrator of the title story describes the cosmic bureaucracy of the afterlife:

Many a man finds himself in the paradise of a religion not his own, and suffers from the consequences.

(From "In the Wrong Paradise," explaining the narrator's accidental arrival in the Ojibbeway afterlife.)

The ghost in Castle Perilous explains the family's lack of humor:

Some people can't see ghosts, you know, and some can't see jokes.

(From "In Castle Perilous," where the spectre dismisses the need for supernatural horrors.)

What It's Really About

The central theme is the persistence of "the natural man" beneath the veneer of civilization. The author argues that humanity is constantly engaged in the process of myth-making—whether through the religious rituals of ancient tribes, the strange, localized superstitions of the English aristocracy, or the modern political deification of public figures. The book poses a persistent question: if our "civilized" customs are just as arbitrary and irrational as the superstitions we mock in others, what truly separates us from the "savage"? It suggests that we are all, to some degree, prisoners of the stories we believe, and that our failures to communicate across cultures often stem from a refusal to recognize the mythic structures that govern our own lives.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate a sharp, dry wit and an interest in anthropology will find this collection rewarding. It feels like a precursor to modern speculative fiction, utilizing the supernatural as a mirror to reflect the absurdities of the Victorian era. The prose is elegant and precise, though it requires a reader comfortable with the occasional inclusion of period-specific terminology and the casual, sometimes problematic attitudes common to late 19th-century literature.

The book’s real strength is its playful intellectualism. The author does not preach; he invites the reader to laugh at the missionary who cannot recognize his own absurdity or the politician who is turned into a mythic icon. It remains a poignant, often funny reminder that we are all, in our own way, "in the wrong paradise." It is best suited for those who enjoy short, pithy stories that balance humor with a deeper, somewhat melancholic curiosity about why humans believe what they do. While the dialect and dated cultural references in stories like "A Cheap Nigger" may present barriers to contemporary readers, the collection as a whole offers a unique, satirical perspective on the human condition that has not lost its bite.