Sanders of the River [Import] [Paperback]

Edgar Wallace (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Brown Watson (1963)
• ASIN: B0000CLQVT
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars VERY mixed feelings about this book..., July 22, 2010

By 

Colleen McMahon ""Omnivorous Reader"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sanders of the River (Kindle Edition)

Sanders of the River is the first in a series of books that popular turn-of-the-20th-century author Edgar Wallace wrote, all of which featured Sanders, the commissioner for an undefined area of British colonial Africa (from the descriptions, probably the Gold Coast/Nigeria area). Though described as a novel, the book is really a series of linked short stories.

I really don't know how to feel about this book. On one hand, Edgar Wallace is an excellent writer in terms of setting atmosphere and telling a story. Africa in colonial days is a completely foreign place in terms of my prior knowledge, and he makes me really see, hear, feel and at times even smell the setting he writes about. The stories move along quickly and Sanders is something of a stoic nonentity as a hero, but it's always interesting to watch how he acts to resolve various problems that face him.

Most of the stories are the same: Sanders, as the British commmissioner, is the highest authority in the land under his control, and holds sway over various native groups living in that area. The plots involve either a foolish white person showing up with little to no understanding of the natives, and getting himself into trouble, or one or the other of the native tribes stirring up trouble. Either way, Sanders has to intervene and resolve the situation.

So my mixed feelings come in in that, there is no nice way to put this, the stories and the whole set up are racist to the core. Sanders exemplifies the sort of person Kipling meant when he urged British men to "take up the white man's burden". The natives are continually portrayed as simple, superstitious, easily manipulated, and not very bright. At best they are portrayed as child like and needing a firm hand; at worst they are stupid, greedy, violent brutes. Sanders' role is to watch over and protect the "good" (well behaved, docile) natives and intervene with strong measures when required. He resolves most native "uprisings" and crimes against other tribes or (heaven forfend) one of those foolish white travellers by hanging the ringleader. Lesser offenders are packed off to some coastal location to serve a prison term of hard labor. In Wallace's portrayal, the natives don't seem to really mind or resent Sanders' authority but recognize it as superior; one man, facing hanging by Sanders, even compliments him on the rumor that he is recognized as someone whose hangings are said to be quick and painless.

If you are interested in reading popular literature that very much portrays the British imperial attitudes at their highest point, this is a book you will want to look at. It's very readable and at times even funny (Sanders has a very dry wit), but the pernicious attitudes and assumptions underlying the stories gives me pause. It's not something I'd be comfortable giving to or reading to a child too young to understand the historical context. Even with my very mixed feelings and distaste for the racial attitudes on display, I am still interested in reading more of the stories in this series, particularly Bosambo of the River, as Bosambo is a very intriguing native character, sort of a charming trickster type, and I am hoping some of the stories are told from his point of view.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The White Man's Burden at work, July 15, 2006

By 

Daniel R. KilloranPhD (Lynn, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sanders of the River (Paperback)

If you are a "politically correct" person, I advise you to avoid this book, and all of Wallace's africa books, to avoid apoplexy. Alas for you, reality - both then and now - is simply not politically correct. (You might avoid Africa, too, if you don't want to get eaten!) For any one still having an open mind, this book provides an illuminating window on the life of a very primitive people, and one view of a practical way to deal with them.