Lion Adventure

Last updated

First UK edition (publ. Jonathan Cape) Willard Price Lion Adventure.jpg
First UK edition (publ. Jonathan Cape)

Lion Adventure is a 1967 children's novel by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts their attempts to capture a lion for a zoo, which is hampered by a dangerous man-eating lion who parallels the well-known Tsavo maneaters.

Contents

Allies

Enemies

Animals captured

Animals captured in Lion Adventure
SpeciesNameDetails
Lion cubFlopHis mother was killed whilst attacking Hal, and Roger adopted him. He is very playful, though unaware of his own strength.
Male lionBlack ManeFlop's father, and a man-eater, responsible for countless deaths. He was gently coaxed into a cage by Roger at the end of the novel and, distracted by the love for his cub, Black Mane was captured without incident. The two lions, accompanied by Roger's inspirational story, were sold to Bronx Zoo for $15,000.

Notes

The hydrogen balloon, the Jules Verne, is named after the author Jules Verne, who wrote the novel Five Weeks in a Balloon , whose plot mirrors the adventures Hal and Roger have in their balloon.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews reviewed it negatively, saying, "Gore plus stultifying stereotypes equals jungle rot (and unintentional camp)." [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jules Verne</span> French writer (1828–1905)

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well-researched according to the scientific knowledge then available, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.

<i>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas</i> 1870 novel by Jules Verne

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It is often considered a classic within both its genres and world literature. The novel was originally serialised from March 1869 to June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's French fortnightly periodical, the Magasin d'éducation et de récréation. A deluxe octavo edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.

<i>The Man-eaters of Tsavo</i> Book by John Henry Patterson

The Man-eaters of Tsavo is a semi-autobiographical book written by Anglo-Irish military officer and hunter John Henry Patterson. Published in 1907, it recounts his experiences in East Africa while supervising the construction of a railroad bridge over the Tsavo river in Kenya, in 1898. It is titled after a pair of man-eating lions that terrorized the undertaking for nine months until they were shot by Patterson. His recounting of this incident projected him to fame, and it remains the subject of debate to this day. It has also been the basis of numerous films, the best known being The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas.

<i>The Ghost and the Darkness</i> 1996 film

The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 American historical adventure film directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. The screenplay, written by William Goldman, is a fictionalized account of the Tsavo man-eaters, a pair of male lions that terrorized workers in and around Tsavo, Kenya during the building of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway in East Africa in 1898.

<i>The Mysterious Island</i> 1875 novel by Jules Verne

The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, serialised from August 1874 to September 1875 and then published in book form in November 1875. The first edition, published by Hetzel, contains illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and In Search of the Castaways (1867–68), though its themes are vastly different from those books. An early draft of the novel, rejected by Verne's publisher and wholly reconceived before publication, was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson, indicating the influence of the novels Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Verne developed a similar theme in his novel, Godfrey Morgan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phileas Fogg</span> Fictional character created by Jules Verne

Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg.

Tsavo East National Park is a national park in Kenya with an area of 13,747 km2 (5,308 sq mi). It was established in April 1948 and covers a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Together with the Tsavo West National Park, it forms an area of about 22,000 square kilometers. The Tsavo River flows west to east through the national park, which is located in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsavo Man-Eaters</span> Dangerous lions in the Tsavo region

The Tsavo Man-Eaters were a pair of large man-eating male lions in the Tsavo region of Kenya, which were responsible for the deaths of many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway between March and December 1898. The lion pair was said to have killed dozens of people, with some early estimates reaching over a hundred deaths. While the terrors of man-eating lions were not new in the British public perception, the Tsavo Man-Eaters became one of the most notorious instances of dangers posed to Indian and native African workers of the Uganda Railway. They were eventually killed by Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, who wrote his account of his hunting experience in a semi-biography The Man-eaters of Tsavo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henry Patterson (author)</span> British Army officer, hunter and author (1867–1947)

Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson was a British Army officer, hunter, and author best known for his book The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), which details Patterson's experiences during the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in the East Africa Protectorate from 1898 to 1899. The book went on to inspire three films: Bwana Devil (1952), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959), and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). During World War I, Patterson served as the commander of the Jewish Legion, which has been described as the first precursor to the Israel Defense Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Ruark</span> American novelist

Robert Ruark was an American author, syndicated columnist, and big game hunter.

<i>Five Weeks in a Balloon</i> 1863 novel by Jules Verne

Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, A Journey of Discovery by Three Englishmen in Africa is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1863. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a story line full of adventure and plot twists that keep the reader's interest through passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets.

<i>Amazon Adventure</i> Novel by Willard Price

Amazon Adventure is a 1949 children's novel by the Canadian-American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts an expedition to the Amazon River to capture animals for their father's wildlife collection business. Initially published by John Day in the US, the UK edition was published two years later by Jonathan Cape.

<i>Safari Adventure</i>

Safari Adventure is a 1966 children's book by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. The book was illustrated by Charles Sur.

The Adventure series is a collection of children's adventure novels by Willard Price. The original series, comprising 14 novels, was published between 1949 and 1980, and chronicles the adventures of teenagers Hal and Roger Hunt as they travel the world collecting exotic and dangerous animals. Beginning in 2012, Anthony McGowan published four more novels in the series, which featured Hal and Roger's children.

Tsavo West National Park is located in Taita-Taveta County of Kenya. The park covers an area of 9,065 square kilometres. The A109 road Nairobi-Mombasa and a railway divides it from the adjoining Tsavo East National Park. Together with adjoining ranches and protected areas, they comprise the Tsavo Conservation Area. Tsavo West is a more popular destination due to its magnificent scenery and the Mzima Springs, the rich and varied wildlife, a good road system, a rhino reserve, rock climbing potential and guided walks along the Tsavo River. The park is operated by Kenya Wildlife Service.

<i>The Man-Eater</i> Novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Man-Eater is a short adventure novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in May 1915, originally as a movie treatment. His working title for the piece was Ben, King of Beasts. The Man-Eater is one of Burrough's rarer works. It was first published as a serial in the New York Evening World newspaper under the present title from November 15–20, 1915, but did not appear in book form in Burroughs' lifetime. The first book edition was issued by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach's Fantasy Press fanzine in 1955; it then appeared in the collection Beyond Thirty and The Man-Eater, published by Science-Fiction & Fantasy Publications in 1957. It was reprinted in paperback as The Man Eater: Ben, King of Beasts by Fantasy House in 1974.

<i>Safari</i> (1956 film) British Cinemascope adventure film

Safari is a 1956 British CinemaScope adventure film directed by Terence Young and set during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. It stars Victor Mature, Janet Leigh, Roland Culver, John Justin, and Earl Cameron, and was intentionally cast to attract an American audience—both the hero and the lead female character are Americans, played by American actors.

<i>Five Weeks in a Balloon</i> (film) 1962 film by Irwin Allen

Five Weeks in a Balloon is a 1962 American adventure film loosely based on the 1863 novel of the same name by Jules Verne filmed in CinemaScope. It was produced and directed by Irwin Allen; his last feature film in the 1960s before moving to producing several science fiction television series. Although set in Africa, it was filmed in California. Balloonist Don Piccard acted as the film's technical advisor. For visual effects, a model of the balloon was used as well as a full-sized unicorn gondola hung from a crane. A novelisation of the screenplay was written by Gardner Fox.

<i>The Golden Volcano</i> Posthumously-published novel written by Jules Verne

The Golden Volcano is a novel by Jules Verne, edited by his son Michel Verne, and published posthumously in 1906.

<i>Journey Through the Impossible</i> Play by Jules Verne

Journey Through the Impossible is an 1882 fantasy play written by Jules Verne, with the collaboration of Adolphe d'Ennery. A stage spectacular in the féerie tradition, the play follows the adventures of a young man who, with the help of a magic potion and a varied assortment of friends and advisers, makes impossible voyages to the center of the Earth, the bottom of the sea, and a distant planet. The play is deeply influenced by Verne's own Voyages Extraordinaires series and includes characters and themes from some of his most famous novels, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and From the Earth to the Moon.

References

  1. "LION ADVENTURE". Kirkus Reviews. 1 April 1967. Retrieved 3 November 2024.