For a book written in 1893, this was outstanding! The english terminology takes a little getting used to, but it is refreshing to read a book with some vocabulary in it that has some meat to it. It is a romance (by modern standards very tame) adventure book. It did not follow the common form of modern books, and a couple of times I was caught by surprise. The inevitable happy ending was in question, and the road a little tougher than the Indiana Jones format we are programmed to expect:)