A Year in Jamaica: Memoirs of a Girl in Arcadia in 1889

This complex memoir tells the story of two simultaneous journeys: Diana Lewes's 1889 trip from England to visit her family's sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and the internal rite of passage of a Victorian girl on her journey to adulthood. For it is in Jamaica that Miss Lewes tries to find a place for herself in the mysterious adult world, to understand its coded rules and hidden passions. Set primarily on a plantation called Arcadia, overlooking the sea and a distant Cuba from on high, Miss Lewes alternates between the acceptable pursuits of a Victorian gentlewoman, and trying to find a more meaningful role for herself in this man's world. With black and white plates.