From Library Journal:
Kingsley's Travels in West Africa (1897) still makes wonderfully entertaining reading; she is a hard act to follow. Although travel to Africa has shed its exoticism, it still offers plenty of challenges, and Alexander found her share in equatorial Gabon, retracing the route up the Ogooue River taken by Kingsley nearly 100 years ago. Weaving a narrative pattern of "then and now," Alexander evokes images of chugging river steamers packed with passengers, roads of red dust, pirogues paddled against the current, and more. As she travels in the footsteps of others, she reflects on the different faces of interpretive writing, selective recollection, and the disparity between fact and fiction. But ultimately this is Alexander's own story of discovery and can be read and enjoyed as such. She avoids the patronizing, exaggerated tone of much contemporary travel writing about Africa; she is sympathetic and gently self-effacing. Recommended for libraries developing travel literature collections and for Africana collections.
-Janet L. Stanley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly:
British wayfarer Kingsley's 1893 West African odyssey is retraced by a modern-day adventurer in an effort to juxtapose the less "civilized" past with new realities. "Alexander may come up short in her desire to 'make contact with the past,' but the record of her attempt will fascinate," PW concluded.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.