69 pages • 2 hours read
Eleanor CattonThe Luminaries
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: New Zealand Gold Rush
The Luminaries takes place in the South Island of New Zealand during the Gold Rush. In 1861, Gabriel Read, an Australian gold digger and veteran of the gold rush of the 1850s, published a letter describing gold finds in Otago, a region near the southeast coast of the South Island (“Read, Thomas Gabriel.” Te Ara—The Encyclopedia of New Zealand). This sparked the Otago Gold Rush and prompted the development of the town of Dunedin. Many of the events in The Luminaries that occur in 1865 take place in Dunedin, and Crosbie finds his big stash of gold in the Otago goldfields.
By the mid-1860s, the gold in Otago had started to dry up and prospectors set their sights on the Arahura Valley, to the northwest of Dunedin on the West Coast. In 1860, the Arahura Valley was purchased from the Poutini Ngai Tahu Māori people by the British Crown for 300 pounds sterling (“Arahura Deed, 1860.” West Coast New Zealand History, 2024). In The Luminaries, Tauwhare references this transaction and expresses his anger about his people losing their land. Crosbie’s cottage is built on land formerly owned by the Poutini Ngai Tahu and borders their remaining land. This is significant to the plot, as prospecting was not allowed on Māori land and provided a safe place for Staines to hide his jackpot. The Māori people were previously aware of the gold in the region; however, they didn’t value it as much as the hard greenstone found in the area that they used to make weapons and ritual objects. Tauwhare is one of these greenstone hunters.
The town of Hokitika in the Arahura Valley, where most of the events in The Luminaries take place, was founded in 1864 (“Hokitika.” Te Ara—The Encyclopedia of New Zealand). The prospectors would live in camps like the Kaniere mining camp inland, near the digging areas, and come into Hokitika to purchase materials and to sell their gold. At the height of the gold rush, the population in Hokitika hit its peak of over 4,000 people. During the events of The Luminaries, Hokitika is a new town with people from all over the world hoping to strike it rich or to make money off the prospectors. The characters in The Luminaries who come from different backgrounds reflect the diversity of this frontier town, like the Chinese indentured worker Quee, the Jewish newspaper man Löwenthal, and the British lawyers, merchants, and shipping agents.
Historical Context: The First Opium War
Like the colonization of New Zealand, the Opium Wars were part of the global British colonial project of the 19th century. The First Opium War, also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of conflicts over trade between the United Kingdom and China between 1839 and 1842. The Qing Empire in China traded goods such as silk and tea with the United Kingdom for silver. When the silver ran out, British merchant traders began to pay for goods with opium from India that they smuggled into China. A key nexus of this trade was the city of Canton, also known as Kwangchow or Guangzhou, a large port on the Pearl River in southwest China. In response to the opium smuggling, the Qing Empire outlawed the use of opium and executed those involved in the operations (Pletcher, Kenneth. “Opium Wars.” Britannica). This is referenced in The Luminaries when Sook’s father is executed when opium, smuggled in by Carver, is discovered in his warehouse in Canton.
In order to ensure the continued sale of opium and access to Chinese markets, the British Empire launched several attacks in Canton and elsewhere in China. In March 1841 and May 1841, Canton was captured by the British. Access to the port by the British was eventually secured in the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, which ended the First Opium War. In The Luminaries, Quee’s father was a night watchman in Canton and fought against the British invasions. With China’s loss, Quee’s family is destitute. This historical background also explains Quee’s father’s hatred of opium, not only for its effects on people but also because of the humiliating loss over its trafficking that he had lived through.
