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jazzylemon's review against another edition
5.0
Kingsley loved Africa, this is the tale of her first excursion on a scientific expedition as a young, single woman. She rallied against popular English belief and Christian missionaries and fell in love with the people.
cmjustice's review against another edition
3.0
This was one plucky lady. Mostly excellent narrative of her adventures in locations from a time long past. Her observations and opinions from extensive visits into the interior and along the coast remain a record of the attitudes, beliefs and expectations of an imperialist culture convinced of it's own superiority. Her scathingly pithy, sometimes complimentary reflections on the local characters she met give good insight into the person she was and the folks who lived and visited west Africa. Much has altered yet the geography continues to rule.
Once past the dreadful preface she occasionally produced some lovely commentary:
Once past the dreadful preface she occasionally produced some lovely commentary:
" The day closed with a magnificent dramatic beauty. dead ahead of us, up through a bank of dun-coloured mist rose the moon, a great orb of crimson, spreading down the oil-like, still river, a streak of blood red reflection. Right astern, the sun sank down into the mist, a vaster orb of crimson, and when he had gone out of view, sent up flushes of amethyst, gold carmine and serpent-green, before he left the moon in undisputed possession of the black purple sky"
and" Before boiling the water you can carefully filter it if you like. A good filter is a very fine thing for clearing drinking water of hippopotami,crocodiles, catfish etc., and I daresay it will stop back sixty per cent. of the live or dead African natives that may be in it; but if you think it is going to stop back the microbe of the marsh fever - my good sir, you are mistaken."
"Next in danger to the diseases come the remedies for them."
A bit of a slog to get through, this edition is missing 9 chapters and 3 appendices possibly to make it more palatable. I might have enjoyed reading about the Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptra. The collection of which was, after all, why she went there in the first place.
vankoy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
amerynth's review against another edition
4.0
What Mary Kingsley did was pretty incredible.... in 1893, she decided -- skirts and all-- to travel to West Africa to explore, collect fish and learn more about the religion of native people. Her account "Travels in West Africa" follows her adventures as she traipses through the jungle, paddles down rivers in canoes, and hikes up a mountain in the Cameroons in a storm. Her spirit of adventure and pluck is incredibly admirable and pulls together a wide ranging story, as she travels across the country and battles mosquitoes and leeches, is stalked by wild animals and meets with tribes who are shocked to see a white woman emerge from the forest. Sometimes the book gets a little bogged down in detail (...it could use a bit of an edit...) but otherwise it's an amazing tale of the adventures of an amazing woman.
bookwormmichelle's review against another edition
3.0
Well, I finally finished this, reading bits and pieces between other books. I enjoyed Mary Kingsley's writing style and wit, but the endless jungle descriptions wore on me and I could not read a lot at a time while sustaining interest. I think Kingsley is more interesting than the West African jungle. :-)
lwb's review against another edition
4.0
Remarkable journey up river, overland, and up mountain, done solo apart from native guides, in full Victorian garb (!). While she was engaged in collecting fish, her real interests were ethnographic and the contents reflect that. The prose was engaging, made even more charming by her playful wit.
theowinch's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.0
Super interesting account of a time gone by. Naturally, the informative style of the book means that sections were a real slog, especially in the 3rd/4. The ‘fishes’ and general adventure sections were fascinating where as the in depth descriptions of ‘fetishes’ could get rather boggy.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
We need an official DNF category on Goodreads, lol.
This was a Literature by Women selection for September 2007, I would never have picked it because travel memoir is not my bag (usually) and this is definitely not my bag. As courageous as Mary Kingsley was, I just have no inclination to finish this (that's right, I'm the group moderator and I couldn't finish...says a lot - it wasn't the most popular group).
This was a Literature by Women selection for September 2007, I would never have picked it because travel memoir is not my bag (usually) and this is definitely not my bag. As courageous as Mary Kingsley was, I just have no inclination to finish this (that's right, I'm the group moderator and I couldn't finish...says a lot - it wasn't the most popular group).
chouhelen27's review against another edition
2.0
Not sure how I feel about this book- some of her comments! But does provide an interesting account of English 19th century superiority