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Incluye el nombre: Herbert Agnes

Créditos de la imagen: Found at catawiki.com

Obras de Agnes Herbert

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Heart Shots: Women Write About Hunting (2003) — Contribuidor — 6 copias

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Agnes Herbert has a droll sense of humor. She goes on this hunting trip with cousin Cecily, as she did in Africa, thus Two Dianas. She gives a small credit on the spine: "and a shikari" to a male friend, one of two that tags along. The other proposes to Cecily mid-safari. The same two crashed the African safari. Agnes gives them short shrift because she will not let them dethrone her hunting party. She does jokingly call the shikari The Leader in the book but we never learn a name. She also allows him to write a few chapters to give his views on the experience, but they pale in comparison to her writing since he has a florid style, possibly from trying too hard to top her writing. The women are both accomplished hunters and do their own dirty work. At one point Agnes shoots a longhorn sheep which then falls from the cliff. Agnes gamely attaches herself to a rope and is lowered to retrieve the sheep. She writes in an unusually colloquial manner for the time, which is what makes her books so engaging.… (más)
 
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SusanTahiti | Feb 19, 2022 |
Agnes and her cousin, Cecily (Two Dianas) set off on a trek starting in Somaliland at a time when upper class and (gasp!) unmarried British women did not pursue such adventures. At a time when young women worried about ‘being a spinster’, Agnes clearly dismissed the notion, stating, “Cecily says if someone doesn’t arrange a marriage for her soon, she’ll be left on the shelf, but one can see a lot from a shelf, provided it is high enough. Of course she’d be unpopular. Old maids always are. And this is just because a man sees in every unmarried woman a walking statistic against his irresistability.” I laughed myself into stitches over that sentiment.

Agnes’s Uncle dispensed advice on safari, additional firearms and finances, but in the end, the women succeeded by their own wits and organizational talents, managing a caravan of Somalis thusly: “I wondered if the extra large sum of money promised to each man of our caravan at the end of the trip, provided his conduct pleased us—quite my own idea—had kept things straight. Was it bribery and corruption? If so, in our case at least, the end justified the means”.

They were excellent sportswomen, with the right attitude to this adventure, for Agnes writes that “Not even marksmanship can make a good sportsman, if there is any temper or jealousy or smallness about one. A good sportsman is as happy on the chance as on the certainty”. Not the most gender-sensitive sentiment, but this was written in 1907, after all. Both women were very competent stalking and shooting, camping and coping with weather, recalcitrant porters and guides.

The descriptive passages as they travelled through the country was evocative of the beauty and austerity of the jungle and desert, but played down the rigours. Typical comments on meals ~
How I loved the breakfasts “out there” in the open, a permanent, everlasting picnic. Many insects came to breakfast too, but then, what would you? Were they not all part and parcel of this world of happiness?
And one about a meal Cecily was trying to cook, when it was obvious their so-called chef was shown up to be a fraud: “We were at lunch, battling with an altogether impossible curry Cecily had perpetrated, for she always said you can curry anything, even old boots, at a push, and they would be rendered appetising. Oryx beat her efforts culinary, and she had to admit at last, that curry powder and Oryx meat should be strangers.

If you’ve never encountered the shooting sports, you’ll perhaps find this a poor adventure and maybe not understand that their aspirations to fill their trophy bag was an acceptable objective for the day. In fact, Agnes found this ambition a disappointment, because much of the territory through which they travelled was sparse of game and the author wrote that “…there is not much hope of a truly great and representative bag”. Their pursuits exposed them to quite amazing perils that the faint of heart would discover to be terrifying. These exploits were described with an understated style of writing that belies the situation. I was especially aghast at some of the lion and leopard encounters. Not so surprising to read about disasters in stalking the rhinoceros, one of the most unpredictable of the African animals.

Towards the end of the book, the author refers to this shooting trip as “four months and a half”. It seemed so much longer, I felt that they covered an immense distance and surely it took them at least 7 or 8 months, no? How incredibly intrepid ~ they certainly did well in all manner of management and had a great time with their caravan of Somalis. Agnes writes fondly of the people ~ I liked this piece and admired her respect for the tribe ~
The Somalis, as I have explained before, are almost entirely a nation of nomads, and the only settled villages or townships are those run by Sheiks or Mullahs, or whatever name they elect to be known by. … They are tremendous aristocrats, these Somalis; immensely proud of their descent and origin, and even the most unlettered … can give you the names of his grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and all the other greats, until you know you must be going back to grope in the mists of centuries.

Lastly, the style of writing was refreshing and not pedantic in the least. However, I struggled with the vocabulary from time to time, looking up an astonishing number of completely unfamiliar words. The most unusual descriptors kept popping up, such as atrabilarious (in describing a tribe’s headman they encountered). Turns out to be an out-dated spelling of atrabilious (melancholy, gloomy). For me this travel adventure was definitely not gloomy at all!
… (más)
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SandyAMcPherson | Jul 23, 2019 |

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