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The African Queen

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The African Queen

By: C. S. Forester
Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
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About this listen

Upon her brother's death, missionary Rose Sayer and Charles Allnutt, disreputable skipper of the African Queen, become allies as, marooned in German Central Africa during World War I, they fight their old launch downriver 'to strike a blow for England'.

©1935 C.S. Forester (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

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Really enjoyed story until last 3 chapters. Must say I preferred to film ending. Almost the whole story and film were the same, but the filming was so much better than the book , just saying.

Good

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A thoughtful and thrilling exploration of an early 20th century wartime relationship between a spinster missionary and a Cockney engineer as they embark on a seemingly impossible enterprise to strike a blow for England against German Central Africa.

Better than the film and the film is 5 star.

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I enjoyed this story with it’s highs and lows as the main characters battle the challenges of Africa’s rivers.

Enjoyable

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Like most people I have seen the movie many times so it was nice to hear the book.
Obviously slightly different to the movie but still very enjoyable.
As for the narration, Michael Kitchen is sublime, in fact it should be mandatory for this kind of reading
Thoroughly enjoyed it

Great little story

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This was excellent. Full of drama and danger I could almost feel the oppressive heat of the African jungle. Two characters who make a perilous journey down river on a mission against the Germans in WWI. An ending that was a surprise and quite sad in many way to me.

Loved it

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spoiled by the better ending in the movie, I guess we will never know what happened to them lol.

Great book

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A great story, well written but for the ending which is very poor. The ending in the flim was better.

Great Story

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I bought this audio book because Michael Kitchen was the narrator, as I think he is one of the best actors around, I was quietly confident that his narrating skills would be just as wonderful, and indeed they are. He is very much an actor who understands the importance of the voice and dialect when creating a character and because of this he really brings the characters and the sense of time and place to life. From listening to the book it seems that C.S Forester is a details author, taking great care in describing the difficult journey Rose and Allnut take, so it was probably best that I listened to the audio book rather than reading it.



The story itself is actually a rather tragic. Rose and Allnut are two characters who seem to have always been somewhat - inconsequential in world and with the outbreak of the First World War nothing has changed. Their attempt to strike a blow for England comes across as a desperate need for purpose than an heroic grand scheme and needless to say the tone of the book suggests early on that things may not go quite to plan.

Great narration of a poignant story

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Micheal Kitchen's narration brings the characters and the background of C. S. Forester's book alive.
I think it will be a while, before I listen to something this good.

Brilliant 👏

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I loved this book with it’s innocence and almost childlike story telling. All the time I had in mind Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart from the film watched long ago with my parents. I was unsure about Michael Kitchen’s clipped voice at first but then decided he suited the story well and captured the voice of Charlie Allnutt perfectly for me.
I loved this gentle book (although the racist sentiment especially a phrase at the end spoke of it is time).

A gem!

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