Customer Reviews

Jock of the Bushveld

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you've never seen the classic original of this book, with its wonderful illustrations, then perhaps you would not be as disappointed as I was when I got the re-written "children's version" with none of the original illustrations. There are occasional "boxed" texts that provide background material, but it's like taking a Beatrix Potter book (e.g., Peter Rabbit) and rewriting it-- it doesn't work. The original is beautifully written, the language is lyrical and the descriptions of the life and the veld take you right into the setting. This book is a poor substitute. If you can find it, get the original by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick and read it to your children when they are too young to read it themselves; then they can enjoy it on their own a few years later.

What a travesty; from the cover which looks NOTHING like the Stafforshire that Jock was, to the "PC" nature of the narrative, the book is an insult to the orginal. My grandchildren will read the original.

wHEN i READ THE NEW cHILDRENS VERSION BOOK, I was extremley disapointed. tHIS COMES NOWHARE NEAR THE ORINGINAL Book. Which I thought was terrific. You must read the oringinal and not this one.

This book is a very big dissapointment after reading the origional Jock of the Bushveld by Percy Fitzpatrick. My son will be growing up on the origional book, not this one.

This book was a slaughter of the original by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick - a masterpiece and wonderful for children. This version should never have been published. I am sorry but it is a disgrace to the original author and illustrator (Edward Caldwell)....

As other reviewers have stated, this is an awful and disgracefully edited, unforgivably PC version of the original - and it has lost a lot in the unskilful hacking it has been subjected to. DON'T BUY THIS EDITION! Go and look for a reprint of the original, or even a second hand copy - you'll be far better served than with his abomination.

I had been looking for this "hard-to-come-across-book" for a long time and to my great disappointment the first thing I see as I open it is an editor's note in which it states that this IS NOT THE ORIGINAL but and edited edition in which "language has been modernised" and all "prejudicial racial references" have been eliminated.

It shouldn't have been touched, not even in the least. Jock of the Bushveld and Percy Fitzpatrick's views/opinions and language are a product of the country, the time and the society in which the action is set. We can find the language outdated and the racial opinions of the time outrageous and unacceptable nowadays but that's how the book was written. An editor's note should have better warned the reader about it, not changed the book.

Editing books is, to say the least, a terrorist attack on literature. That would be like editing and redacting Robert Burns' Tam O' Shanter, Cervantes' Quixote or Shakespeare's Othello because the language is strange & inaccessible or there are sexual references in them. If you want a "clean" version for kids buy the bl***y Disney movie, but please DO NOT RUIN ANY MORE BOOKS. (I wonder what'd they've done to Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom).

Though, in purity, I should say it's all my fault. I didn't read the part were it says it is for ages 9-12. Should have read better (and thoroughly).

I read Jock of the Bushveld when I was a child, and loved it. It is a wonderful adventure story about a man and his beloved dog, an animal that eventually dies to save his master's life. It is on a par with "Old Yeller" and similar older stories that catch your heart forever. However, Jock is a TRUE story, depicting the life and culture of the time it happened. How Dare publishers summarily decide to PC up the story in order to make it more palateable to readers?! This is just total arrogance on their part. Why not re-write Shakespeare to make it less patriarchal or classist?! Jock is an original, true Story!!! Any publisher who dares to treat good literature in this way has obviously no respect or appreciation of the work of real authors... I guess the old saying.. " Those who can, Do, and those who can't..." imperiously desecrate the work of those who have talent.. because they who can't, don't... How utterly small-minded!

This is an excellent book, a South African classic comparable to Jack London's "Call of the Wild". I know it does not have all the illustrations of the original 1907 edition and has been "Politically Corrected" somewhat but hey what do you expect for $8. Highly recommend this book.

A true classic. Suitable for book lovers, arm chair travellers, historians, adventurers and homesick South Africans of all ages. Jock will steal you heart.