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librarymouse's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This is every bit what I'd expect of an adventure novel from the 1880s. Surprisingly, the novel had far less overt hate for Africans and far less overt racism, as compared to a book like Doctor Doolittle, published in the 1920s. I'm not sure that I necessarily enjoyed it, but the form and mode of storytelling were interesting, and the travel sections were engaging. There is quite a lot of murder, excessive game hunting, killing for ivory, and consumption of meat in this book, as well as detailed description and discussion of corpses.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, War, Death, Gore, Child death, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Gun violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
njk125's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Sexism and Injury/Injury detail
taylarae's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
It was fine. As a historical device, It can give a lot of context into how those in Victorian-era England viewed Southern Africa and other colonies. But it is littered with very racist views and words, which is to be expected from it, but the constant use of the k-word did make it very difficult to read for me personally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail
amphipodgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is a hard one to rate. It was written in 1885 by a white Englishman who had worked in the colonizing force in southern Africa, and it is just as racist, sexist, imperialist, and colonialist as that would lead you to expect. He just has no respect for people of African descent or the cultures of Africa, and when one of them does get a compliment it is extremely back-handed. But it's a compelling adventure tale, and the writing is much more straightforward than I expected -- I had braced myself for Dickensian levels of sentence complexity, and it's a lot more modern-feeling than that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Colonisation, War, Sexism, Confinement, Death, and Blood
ayah_reads's review against another edition
slow-paced
First book for my Empire and it's Fictions course! Aside from being the usual imperialist garbage that depicts Africans as only barbaric or in servitude (this I had very much expected), it's an incredibly boring book. It's written as a letter to his son, and I feel sorry that this fictional son has to read such a long and ridiculously detailed story, even though at points the main character would leave details out, it was still such long, and boring story. British people really thought this was fun? An enjoyable adventure romance novel that became a bestseller 🙄
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Animal death, and Violence
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