Remember the cook - Alphonse was it?)

Oh yes, that was Alphonse. I'm just getting to the passage where Umslopagaas leads the battle he planned.

I love the multi-dimensioanality of the Native characters, and how different they are from one another in the books and across the books. I love that they are leaders, not servants. I love the strength of the women.

She, Benita, Yellow God, King Solomon's Mines, and Alan Quatermain are all available at audiobooksforfree.com, with good narrators. I'm going to hell for sure-- after several years using the free versions' bad sound quality for long drives with Hardi, I pay now for the cheap but much better sound quality. Totally hooked!

One aspect of these I have enjoyed so much is that the view Haggard and other "historical" writers' present need not remain my only view-- I love to do research during each book to learn more about the author, geography, cultures, and current events (of that time) of the regions. I learned a lot about France, for example, as a result of de-mystifiying a lot of The Count of Monte Cristo. Sure, the fictional views are limited and skewed in many ways; but they provide an opening from which much more can be viewed.

~Susan