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Lady Lion Hunters: An Imperial Femininity

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Hunting Africa

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

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Abstract

In Hunters Three, an 1895 novel by Thomas Knox, three young men hunting in Africa meet two English women pursuing elephants. That ladies would be hunting with only hired hands for an escort was ‘enough to take any man’s breath away’, but the men quickly recover and set to debating the more important issues: namely, how might they make the acquaintance of these independent women and what should they call them? Is an ‘amazon [sic] of the African woods’ a hunter or a ‘huntress’? Jack Delafield argues that, ‘in sport, as in science, there’s no distinction of sex,’ and after citing the precedent of female doctors concludes that, ‘hunting big game in South Africa is entitled to be called a science; anyhow, it requires a lot of science to succeed in it. She’s a hunter just as much as you or I.’1 Interestingly, this unisex categorization of the women does not negate their appeal. By the conclusion of the novel, the three men have made them no less than four offers of marriage, two of which were accepted.

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Notes

  1. Thomas W. Knox, Hunters Three: Sport and Adventure in South Africa (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1895), 14, 17, 19–20.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The College at Brockport, SUNY, USA

    Angela Thompsell (Assistant Professor of History)

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  1. Angela Thompsell
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© 2015 Angela Thompsell

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Thompsell, A. (2015). Lady Lion Hunters: An Imperial Femininity. In: Hunting Africa. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137494436_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137494436_5

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-49442-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49443-6

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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