After a terrible hurricane levels their Jam aican estate, the Bas-Thorntons decide to send their children back to the safety and comfort of England. On the way their ship is set upon by pirates, and the children are accidentally transferred to the pirate vessel. Jonsen, the well-meaning pirate c aptain, doesn't know how to dispose of his new cargo, while the children adjust with surprising ease to their new life. As this strange company drifts around the Caribbean, events turn more frightening, and the pirates find themselves increasing ly incriminated by the children's fates. The most shocking betrayal, however, will o nly take place after the return to civilization.

The swift, almost hallucinatory action of Hughes's novel, together with its provocat ive insight into the psychology of children, made it a bestseller when it was first published in 1929 and have since established it as a classic of twentieth-century li terature--an unequalled exploration of the nature, and limits, of innocence.

One of the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the Twentieth Century

理查德・休斯（1900-1976），英國著名劇作傢、詩人和小說傢。曾先後就讀於倫敦查特豪斯公學和牛津大學歐瑞爾學院。早在牛津讀書期間，休斯便齣版瞭詩集《流浪的夜晚和此前的詩》。畢業後，休斯擔任英國威爾士國傢歌劇團團長，並創作瞭著名廣播劇《冒險》。 1926年，理查德・休斯齣版小說處女作《牙買加颶風》，立即風行英美，成為超級暢銷書。同年，休斯以此書贏得法國費米娜文學奬，奠定瞭本書作為現代文學經典的基礎。此後，休斯又創作瞭《大海上的男人》、《人類的睏境》和《睏惑的少年》等著名作品。