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Sanders of the River #11
Sanders
Employing his unique style of innocent and endearing humour, Bones has written to the newspapers The Surrey Star and The Middlesex Plain Dealer inviting the Foreign Secretary to pay a visit to the African territories which they administer. It is against the regulations and his boss Hamilton is furious. While world powers vie for colonial honours, Sanders and his assistants attempt to administer an uneasy peace in a climate of ju-ju and witch doctors, and all the while Bosambo, chief of the Ochori, watches closely.
- GenresFiction
194 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1926
14 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Wallace
2,121 books260 followersRichard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 24, 2020
Gosh - what to say about this book?
It was written a hundred years ago and is very much of its time. It has all the prejudices, attitudes and views of the time - which are very different from the bigotries, attitudes and views of our own time.
The action is set in an unnamed British colony in West Africa. The main heroes are the three British officials who administer the part of the colony based around a river with its peoples, problems and crimes. The title hero is Commissioner Sanders - an incorruptible and upright civilian official who collects taxes, administers justice and deals with any intruding Europeans. He is assisted by two military officers who command the locally recruited regiment. Hamilton is a competent soldier, while his junior Tibbets is what would have been termed back then "a perfect ass". Again both are honest, upright and doing their best to do what is right for the peoples of the area they look after. To modern eyes their attitudes to the locals is extremely paternalistic to the point of racism - and their notions of dispensing justice might be politely described as being "rough and ready", involving as they do summary executions without trial.
On the other hand, the white folks in the books do not come out of it very well. The Africans might be engaged in murder, robbery and such but for pure downright cold blooded evil you have to turn to the white characters.
The author spent several years in Africa as a journalist. Among the things he covered were the horrific brutalities meted out in the Congo by the Belgians. The death toll is unclear but certainly ran into the millions. The Belgians were concerned only with profit and used their superior weaponry ruthlessly to trample over what we would today term human rights and cultural sensitivities. It is probably not too much of a stretch to see the fictional Commissioner Sanders as being the author's view of what a good colonial regime should be. I suppose he was portraying the British Empire to a British audience in the idealised form that the British audience wanted the British Empire to be. Whether it was or not is another question.
Anyway, if you can get past the attitudes and views of the author and the characters he creates, these are absolutely cracking adventure tales. well drawn characters, plot twists and turns in plenty and more action than you could reasonably expect to be packed into the number of pages.
It was written a hundred years ago and is very much of its time. It has all the prejudices, attitudes and views of the time - which are very different from the bigotries, attitudes and views of our own time.
The action is set in an unnamed British colony in West Africa. The main heroes are the three British officials who administer the part of the colony based around a river with its peoples, problems and crimes. The title hero is Commissioner Sanders - an incorruptible and upright civilian official who collects taxes, administers justice and deals with any intruding Europeans. He is assisted by two military officers who command the locally recruited regiment. Hamilton is a competent soldier, while his junior Tibbets is what would have been termed back then "a perfect ass". Again both are honest, upright and doing their best to do what is right for the peoples of the area they look after. To modern eyes their attitudes to the locals is extremely paternalistic to the point of racism - and their notions of dispensing justice might be politely described as being "rough and ready", involving as they do summary executions without trial.
On the other hand, the white folks in the books do not come out of it very well. The Africans might be engaged in murder, robbery and such but for pure downright cold blooded evil you have to turn to the white characters.
The author spent several years in Africa as a journalist. Among the things he covered were the horrific brutalities meted out in the Congo by the Belgians. The death toll is unclear but certainly ran into the millions. The Belgians were concerned only with profit and used their superior weaponry ruthlessly to trample over what we would today term human rights and cultural sensitivities. It is probably not too much of a stretch to see the fictional Commissioner Sanders as being the author's view of what a good colonial regime should be. I suppose he was portraying the British Empire to a British audience in the idealised form that the British audience wanted the British Empire to be. Whether it was or not is another question.
Anyway, if you can get past the attitudes and views of the author and the characters he creates, these are absolutely cracking adventure tales. well drawn characters, plot twists and turns in plenty and more action than you could reasonably expect to be packed into the number of pages.
November 30, 2021
Toate acestea s-au întâmplat în timpul absenţei Excelenţelor lor şi, dacă nu ar fi fost această absenţă, nu s-ar fi putut petrece.
Excelenţa Sa, Administratorul Teritoriilor Rezervate, ieşind la pensie, plecase însoţit de salve de tun şi de imnul naţional cântat de muzicanţii aproape albi, şi care toţi, dar mai ales trompeţii, aveau tendinţa să cânte fals. Noua Excelenţă suferea în acest timp chinurile picăturii chinezeşti în Devonshire, la Budleigh Salterton, de unde plecarea sa era mereu amânată.
Orice schimbare petrecută în Administraţie nu modifica aproape cu nimic existenţa locuitorilor din regiunea Marelui Fluviu, iar căpitanul Hamilton, care făcea parte din unitatea regală Hussa, îndreptându-se furios spre cabana care-l adăpostea pe tânărul său subordonat, era foarte puţin interesat de evenimentul care se desfăşura.
Nemulţumirea sa era legată însă de cu totul altceva şi anume, de faptul că subalternul său, Tibbetts, săvârşise greşeala de neiertat de a trimite corespondenţe la ziare, aceasta fiind una dintre slăbiciunile sale. Hamilton era ud de transpiraţie şi furios, deoarece soarele ardea îngrozitor, iar fierbinţeala pământului galben din cuptorul care se chema poligon de exerciţii îl ardea chiar şi prin tălpile pantofilor.
Clădirile cazărmii, care mărgineau pe una din laturi poligonul, erau învăluite într-o masă de abur dogoritor, iar căpitanul zărea palmierii ca printr-o ceaţă. Păsările tăceau apăsate de căldură.
Deschizând cu o lovitură de picior uşa cabanei în care se afla locotenentul, Hamilton intră strâmbându-se de scârbă. Locotenentul Tibbetts, supranumit Schelet, întins pe pat, era îmbrăcat în ceva care-ţi lua ochii: o pijama purpurie, cu dungi alternative de verde şi galben.
Hamilton aruncă pe masă foaia de ziar pe care o ţinea în mână, exact în clipa în care Schelet deschidea ochii.
― Bună ziua, domnule, zise acesta, uşor ameţit. Tot mai plouă?
― Bună ziua, scrâşni Hamilton. Schelet, masa se serveşte peste o oră şi am ceva să-ţi spun.
Celălalt adormi la loc.
― Scoală-te şi acoperă-ţi picioarele astea hidoase.
Pleoapele locotenentului se mişcară puţin. Murmură, abia auzit, că nu înţelegea despre ce este vorba, peşi văzuse ziarul pe care căpitanul îl aruncase pe masă, recunoscând şi caracterele gotice ale literelor din titlu.
Excelenţa Sa, Administratorul Teritoriilor Rezervate, ieşind la pensie, plecase însoţit de salve de tun şi de imnul naţional cântat de muzicanţii aproape albi, şi care toţi, dar mai ales trompeţii, aveau tendinţa să cânte fals. Noua Excelenţă suferea în acest timp chinurile picăturii chinezeşti în Devonshire, la Budleigh Salterton, de unde plecarea sa era mereu amânată.
Orice schimbare petrecută în Administraţie nu modifica aproape cu nimic existenţa locuitorilor din regiunea Marelui Fluviu, iar căpitanul Hamilton, care făcea parte din unitatea regală Hussa, îndreptându-se furios spre cabana care-l adăpostea pe tânărul său subordonat, era foarte puţin interesat de evenimentul care se desfăşura.
Nemulţumirea sa era legată însă de cu totul altceva şi anume, de faptul că subalternul său, Tibbetts, săvârşise greşeala de neiertat de a trimite corespondenţe la ziare, aceasta fiind una dintre slăbiciunile sale. Hamilton era ud de transpiraţie şi furios, deoarece soarele ardea îngrozitor, iar fierbinţeala pământului galben din cuptorul care se chema poligon de exerciţii îl ardea chiar şi prin tălpile pantofilor.
Clădirile cazărmii, care mărgineau pe una din laturi poligonul, erau învăluite într-o masă de abur dogoritor, iar căpitanul zărea palmierii ca printr-o ceaţă. Păsările tăceau apăsate de căldură.
Deschizând cu o lovitură de picior uşa cabanei în care se afla locotenentul, Hamilton intră strâmbându-se de scârbă. Locotenentul Tibbetts, supranumit Schelet, întins pe pat, era îmbrăcat în ceva care-ţi lua ochii: o pijama purpurie, cu dungi alternative de verde şi galben.
Hamilton aruncă pe masă foaia de ziar pe care o ţinea în mână, exact în clipa în care Schelet deschidea ochii.
― Bună ziua, domnule, zise acesta, uşor ameţit. Tot mai plouă?
― Bună ziua, scrâşni Hamilton. Schelet, masa se serveşte peste o oră şi am ceva să-ţi spun.
Celălalt adormi la loc.
― Scoală-te şi acoperă-ţi picioarele astea hidoase.
Pleoapele locotenentului se mişcară puţin. Murmură, abia auzit, că nu înţelegea despre ce este vorba, peşi văzuse ziarul pe care căpitanul îl aruncase pe masă, recunoscând şi caracterele gotice ale literelor din titlu.
November 16, 2021
This is one of the most stupid novel I've ever read!!
January 6, 2021
It didn't seem very well written. There were several stories with a unified theme and the same main characters, but they didn't flow smoothly together. When I reached the end, I had no idea what the purpose of all these stories were.
It seems as if the stories were meant for white Europeans who wanted to be thrilled while sitting safely in their peaceful homes. I hate the old thriller tales of exotic people because the authors just create a mishmash of war, murder, spouse-stealing, and cannibalism. Like wth!?
I also didn't like the implications that the African tribes needed a white man to keep the peace and basically be their saviour. It's fundamentally racist. Also, most of the African people were portrayed as if they had lower intelligence, which is unfair and not true.
I am not sure I like Sanders very much, even though he is the main character. I think there are more books with him in it, so I might have to read a couple more to better appreciate his character. He was like this big hero, always showing up in the nick of time, but he didn't really "do" anything.
The only thing that kept me from giving up was Lt. "Bones" and his Cpt. "Ham". Bones is genuinely funny and interesting. He has a lot of odd notions, and he may not be made of "soldier stuff", but when it is necessary, he is very brave and level-headed. And Ham, well, he is always upset and annoyed and irritated because of Bones. They were the only two characters who had some depth and breadth. Everyone else was a shallow prop.
I was kinda disappointed by the quality of this book. Edgar Wallace usually writes extraordinarily well.
But can I just say how wonderful it is to have time to read again! I know I'll be busy again once school start in January, but for now, I am going to enjoy it.
It seems as if the stories were meant for white Europeans who wanted to be thrilled while sitting safely in their peaceful homes. I hate the old thriller tales of exotic people because the authors just create a mishmash of war, murder, spouse-stealing, and cannibalism. Like wth!?
I also didn't like the implications that the African tribes needed a white man to keep the peace and basically be their saviour. It's fundamentally racist. Also, most of the African people were portrayed as if they had lower intelligence, which is unfair and not true.
I am not sure I like Sanders very much, even though he is the main character. I think there are more books with him in it, so I might have to read a couple more to better appreciate his character. He was like this big hero, always showing up in the nick of time, but he didn't really "do" anything.
The only thing that kept me from giving up was Lt. "Bones" and his Cpt. "Ham". Bones is genuinely funny and interesting. He has a lot of odd notions, and he may not be made of "soldier stuff", but when it is necessary, he is very brave and level-headed. And Ham, well, he is always upset and annoyed and irritated because of Bones. They were the only two characters who had some depth and breadth. Everyone else was a shallow prop.
I was kinda disappointed by the quality of this book. Edgar Wallace usually writes extraordinarily well.
But can I just say how wonderful it is to have time to read again! I know I'll be busy again once school start in January, but for now, I am going to enjoy it.
November 6, 2011
An above average collection of stories from the "Sanders of the river series." Like most of the later ones even though this one is called "Sanders" it very much stars Lieutenant Augustus "Bones" Tibbetts. Many of the stories in this volume concern visitors to Sander's territory and the racism isn't as prevalent as in earlier books, but still at times disturbing by today's standards.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews