Description
An Island Entire Unto Itself
A portrait of Corsica at the End of the 18th Century
By the end of te 18th century, Corsica had been occupied by France for over thirty years. Islanders yearned to recover their lost independence. The French Revolution gave them the opportunity. Their leader, Pasquale Paoli, realized that alone they could never defeat the well-organized French forces. He offered Corsica to King George III of England, on condition that the French were driven from the island.
Based on documented historical fact, the author paints a detailed portrait of Corsica through the captivating adventures of Damian Berra, a young man from what is today the Swiss canton of Valais. After wandering through Lombardy to the Ligurian coast, victim of a press gang on a French frigate, he finds himself on Corsica, an island infested with bandits and crippled with vendettas.
The story describes the failed attempts of the English to administer and island they eventually called “The Ungovernable Rock.”