This book was written for men like Haggard, stupid Victorian men with small minds and no heart. They are the brutes. They are the uncivilised savage. And this is what children were given to read at the time? This is what they saw as an “adventure?” How could Achebe attack Conrad when drivel like this is the cannon? This is a disgusting product of history, one the world is better off forgetting.Sure, you may argue that Haggard displays the Africans as civilised. And to an extent he does. They have their own martial culture. But through the eyes of his characters this still translates as primitive. Through a lens of Imperialism it is a patronising relationship. The African is ready to be guided and taught the errors of his culture’s ways. To the white man they are debased and primitive. But, for me, this wasn’t the most repulsive thing about the writing. What do the white men do when they go to Africa? This other world?They try to claim it. They go about shooting everything for no apparent reason. Is this how man shows his supposed superiority? Is this how a civilisation exerts its supremacy? Shooting a random giraffe through the neck is considered fair game, bagging a few lions is good sportsmanship and slaughtering an elephant is the best of the best: it is a real accomplishment: a real achievement for a Victorian adventurer. So not only do we have disgusting attitudes toward imperialism, but we have a blatant display of a terrible aspect of the Victorian mind set. We see deplorable men who think they are more than the natural world. The Romantic generation would vomit if they read such unsentimental literature. I want to vomit.