The African Queen, by C. S. Forester
By Peter on Jul 24, 2009 in C. S. Forester, Classical novel, World literature, book review
C. S. Forester is now mostly remembered for his Horatio Hornblower sea adventures. However, his novel The African Queen, filmed in 1951 by John Huston with stars Bogart and Hepburn, is very well worth
The setting is German Central Africa in the year 1914. At the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, the local German commander has rounded up the local natives and as a consequence closed the Christian mission run by the Reverend Samuel Sayer. The Reverend dies and his spinster sister, Rose Sayer, are left on her own. When cockney Charlie Allnutt comes to visit the mission, he helps her bury his brother.
Then the two of them sets out to go down the treacherous and wild Ulanga River in Charlie’s little steam engine launch, The African Queen. Rose wants to contribute to the British cause by torpedoing the German police steamer, Konigin Luise, which is the only ship of any size in the region and so completely dominates Lake Wittelsbach, the lake far down at the end of the Ulanga River.
Getting the African Queen down to the lake is more or less impossible. The journey by river has only been done once, by a man riding down the rapids in a canoe. The wild journey sees them facing the guns of a local fort, treacherous currents, raging rapids, insects, unfriendly leeches, malaria, near impenetrable vegetation, and a host of mechanical challenges. Rose and Allnutt, of course, eventually fall in love. And they reach the lake.
The African Queen is a very good book. A strange but great plot, basically two very different people more or less forced together by necessity, total strangers, setting out on a mission, fighting together against nature and gradually developing a relationship to one another. Very exciting, very interesting and very entertaining. C. S. Forester deserves to be remembered for this one as well!
, amazon UK
, amazon CAN
, and at Bokkilden and Haugenbok.
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