Sir H Rider Haggard

Marie annotated Sir H Rider Haggard

Marie was first published in 1912. The setting is British Colonial South Africa in 1836. The Boars hate English rule and have decided to resettle farther north en masse and start their own colony. But the story starts a bit earlier with Allan Quartermain as a boy. His father, a minister, sends him to a neighboring farm to study French. The farmer, though a Boar, is of French Huguenot descent. There he meets the farmer's daughter, Marie, his fellow student with a French tutor. Allan is in love before he's a man, and his love never flags from that moment on. Marie returns his love. How Allan overcomes incredible obstacles to win her, and the consequences, is the substance of this dramatic story. There are adventures in plenty, involving a bloodthirsty Zulu chief: a fair-minded but foolhardy Boar leader destined for tragedy; a selfish, cowardly, scheming Portuguese villain; Allan's ugly Hottentot servant whose devious mind is invaluable when Allan is in danger, and Allan's bride-to-be, as brave as she is beautiful. Allan is good at picking up native languages. But his big talent in life is sharpshooting, and in this book he engages in shooting matches that would try nerves of steel. Human lives are at stake on how straight he shoots. The fact that Allan is a small man, who looks more boy than man at eighteen when he has these adventures, makes his acts of unselfish heroism all the more endearing.