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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adventure classic, September 23, 2002
..."Allan Quatermain" is another adventure story of the character of the same name. After the King Solomon's mines, Quatermain is back in England, where his son dies, and he's eager for new adventures. With his two best friends, Good and Curtis, they depart again to the heart of Africa, where they expect to discover a nation of white people undiscovered until now. This story, while a classic Haggard tale, has not all the good elements "King Solomon's mines" had. There is fighting, there's thrilling, but this book is somewhat slower. This might be because Allan Quatermain, telling the story in his point of view, is older, close to sixty-five years. In fact, there are some really anoying parts, where Quatermain is extra-shy and puritan, almost to the point of being ridiculous. And, as another reviewer wrote, there's no point in writing about a white race, civilized, organized and secret, in the heart of Africa, instead of a more plausible black one. This can only be excused in historical contexts. Back in the late XIX century, Africa was such a type of novelty and unknown that people thought almost everything could happen in there. But, today, if the reader doesn't have an open mind and doesn't know his History, this can be interpreted as pure racism, which is not. Haggard wrote this book in a time where the biggest thing about Africa was Livingstone trying to find where the Nile came from. So this is how this book should be taken. A classic adventure. Grade 7.6/10
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