Published by Penguin Books Ltd, 1970, softcover, 190 pages, condition: new.
A crazy, breathless, steam-powered adventure of the First World War.
C.S. Forester is at his most entertaining in this story of the missionary woman and the Cockney mechanic marooned in German Central Africa. As they fight their ramshackle old launch downriver 'to strike a blow for England'. the 'African Queen' seems to breathe the spirit of Hornblower himself.
In the remote German colony of East Africa, now Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, comprising 7 million natives and ten thousand Europeans, today 75 million, they finally learn war has begun in faraway Europe, this is August 1914, the most lethal conflict in history, twenty years later a bigger one commences, but that is another story, you'd think nobody cares here about distant Europe...wrong, people bring their loyalties, suspicions and loathings with them. The Great Lakes area of central Africa in the Rift Valley is larger than North Americas, still not many people know it exists, this, is where the action starts. On the Ulanga River appears the African Queen a small steam- powered launch owned by a Belgian gold mining corporation in the where else, the Belgian Congo, the only person onboard, Charles Allnutt 30, ( is this a pun?) he prefers Charlie, a Cockney mechanic working in the mine, likes to take a drink or two
for medicinal purposes only, lets give him the benefit of the doubt, ( the boat owners also do a little trading on the side) flowing down the stream, I say this since the wood fueled vessel's top speed is 4 knots. The grubby looking man feels concern about fellow citizens, the British missionary couple Samuel and sister Rose Sayer, age 33, he travels to the mission to find out their situation. The German campaign has just come through here, destroying anything which could be a possible threat, looting and capturing Africans living at the mission, others fled, as did the "Captain's" Mr. Allnutt's crew, all two members. Ten years of hard work for nought, illness and failure cause Samuel's death...The new passenger on the African Queen has a preposterous idea, insane maybe, go down the dangerous Ulanga River, still unmapped, the patriotic lady urges the quite reluctant Englishman, forget the hazards, remember your duty, we need to journey, plenty of wood in the forests and river for fuel and initiate action...revenge will be sweet. Through the numerous, ominous rapids, primeval jungles on both banks, risking their lives, in insect infested swamps, malaria sure to follow and the always present bugs, unceasing mosquitoes biting , sucking your precious blood , past a German fort that will give no quarter to man or woman, go to fictitious Lake Wittelsach, if a connection is discovered, sink a well armed large gunboat the Luisa, Rose surprisingly is made of harder substance than Charlie the dubious, soon agrees though, helping good old England to win the war... The highlight is shooting the endless rapids on the wide, wild river, soaked to the gills...yes they have explosives and begin to really, really like each other, the dirtier their clothes become , the little left they wear, when the bodies unpleasant scents permeates the atmosphere, so the affections accelerate. A magnificent romantic nonsense, which thrills lovers of books, as a new couple form an unlikely alliance, a happy ending is for the reader to imagine. . And I believe in happy endings....A few changes from the classic film be warned, but Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn were brilliant.
