The African Queen

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The African Queen:  The Boat, the River…or Rose?

We recently watched 1951’s classic movie The African Queen featuring Kathryn Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.  It inspired me to find C.S. Forester’s novel on which the movie was based, since the general rule is the book is always better than the movie.  In this case—as entertaining as the movie is—the book, sure enough, is even better. 

Published in 1932, The African Queen, of course, is the tale of Charlie and Rose—two dissimilar souls who are suddenly cast together on an unlikely adventure during the first world war.  Down a wild African river, Forester takes us on their spur-of-the-moment cruise fraught with one calamity after another. 

Along the way, both grow as they become more dependent on each other in their fight to overcome their voyage’s challenges.  Forester focuses on the evolution of Rose as she moves from the oppressive influence of her missionary brother to partnering with Charlie to simply survive from one day to another.  Her development is as fascinating as the journey down the river.  As Forester puts it:

Rose had never known such happiness before, nor perhaps had Allnut either.  They could laugh and joke together; Rose had never laughed nor joked like that in the whole thirty-three years of her existence.

Forester is a master in the way he conveys the complexity of the African scenery and the situations in which Charlie and Rose find themselves. His descriptive narratives are sufficiently detailed to put the reader in the midst of the scene, but not overly exhaustive to bog you down.

If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll want to read the book. It takes you places the movie doesn’t.  And it may have you asking:  is it the battered little boat or the woman Rose who is really The African Queen?

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Quotes

Rose had never known such happiness before, nor perhaps had Allnut either.  They could laugh and joke together; Rose had never laughed nor joked like that in the whole thirty-three years of her existence.  Her father had taken shopkeeping as seriously as he (and her brother) had taken religion.  She had never realized before that friendliness and merriment could exist along with a serious purpose in life.

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