Novel
The Lion
Le Lion
Joseph Kessel · 1958
Synopsis
A traveller, who narrates, arrives in a royal park in Kenya where the animals live freely. There he meets Patricia, the daughter of the administrator, John Bullit, a former hunter, and of Sybil, who would like to give the child a proper upbringing. The little girl speaks the local languages, runs alone in the bush and lives in friendship with a lion, King, whom she has raised since he was a cub. A young Maasai warrior, Oriounga, seeks to show himself worthy of her.
Context
The novel appeared from Gallimard in 1958. The narrator, the author's double, watches and reports without becoming the hero of the story. The book sets wild life against civilisation: on one side a mother's wish to give her daughter a European education, on the other the child's accord with the animals and with the bush. Translated into English as early as 1959, it was adapted for the cinema in 1962 by Jack Cardiff, a former cinematographer, who shot in East Africa.
Who it is for
An easy novel to read; the bush and its animals take up as much room in it as the characters.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Peter Green under the title The Lion, it appeared in 1959; the film adaptation starred William Holden and Capucine.