Robert Michael Ballantyne (24 April 1825 - 8 February 1894) was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction who wrote more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist, and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1848 he published his first book Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America, and for some time was employed by the publishers Messrs Constable. In 1856 he gave up business to focus on his literary career, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.

The Gorilla Hunters ( illustrated ) book provides a reader with illustrations to interact with R.M. Ballantyne Adventure novel.The reader can appreciate the novel with striking illustrations. Cover illustration was inspired by artists for added interest the reader to know the end of the story H. Beam Piper novel.Cover illustration produced by the passage, "The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans ".There are a few illustrations have been made to make this a really interesting Adventure and Juvenile fiction . The editor also believe that illustrations can help reader develop critical thinking skills, as their brains take in the illustrations and the text and make connections between the two.When reader read books with illustrations, they are able to envision the story in a way that helps them relate to the characters.Illustrations also enable the reader to explore the world within their imagination and make connections between what they have just read and a visual image. When a reader connects what they have read with pictures, it can make the book more real to them.Illustrations are powerful ways of helping this Juvenile fiction novel come alive.NOTE: - The new structure of chapter headings in the novel. They are added here by the editor to assist the reader.- This Book follows the original text.The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island and set in "darkest Africa", its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans

The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel[1] by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island and set in "darkest Africa,"[2] its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans

A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel set in "darkest Africa" to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island, its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal newly known to the Western world, that came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans

The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island and set in "darkest Africa", its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans.

Complete and unabridged paperback edition. The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island and set in "darkest Africa", its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans. Description from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa (1861) is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. A sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island and set in "darkest Africa", its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. The book's themes are similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world, which came to play an important role in contemporary debates on evolution and the relation between white Westerners and Africans.Hunting gorillas is taboo today, but in Ballantyne's day was not. The author acknowledges within the scope of the story the hypocracy of killing in order to study nature. This classic hunting story stands as an account of an exciting African adventure, anyway.The gorilla, knowledge of which was first spread in Europe in 1847, was responsible for further speculation in England about the evolutionary status of humans. In fact, many exploratory accounts by Westerners, as was argued by Jennifer Dickenson, "are permeated with 'gothic tropes-boundary transgressions, dark doubles, haunting pasts, and threats of regression-in order to play upon Victorian anxieties about the origins of man' in the aftermath of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species" (quoted in Giles-Vernick and Rupp). The arrival in England of Paul Du Chaillu, an anthropologist who had observed and studied gorillas in West Africa, prompted great public interest in the relation between gorillas and humans. Ballantyne was so "stimulated" by Du Chaillu's work (his direct inspiration) that he published two novels in 1861 dealing with gorillas, The Red Eric and The Gorilla Hunters. The idea of an imaginary double consisting of gorilla and hunter most likely resulted from the work of American missionary and naturalist Thomas S. Savage, who was the first (with Jeffries Wyman) to name the animal, in 1847, and explicitly set it in opposition to the hunter:They are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive in their habits, never running from man as does the Chimpanzee ... The hunter awaits his approach with his gun extended; if his aim is not sure he permits the animal to grasp the barrel, and as he carries it to his mouth (which is his habit) he fires; should the gun fail to go off, the barrel (that of an ordinary musket, which is thin) is crushed between his teeth, and the encounter soon proves fatal to the hunter.It was this image of the gorilla that became "a staple of adventure fiction", including Du Chaillu's works and Ballantyne's The Gorilla Hunters.[9] As John Miller argues, the figures of the hunter and the gorilla occur in a kind of doubling prevalent in Victorian primatology, and especially The Gorilla Hunters: "this complex relation perhaps most forcefully articulates post-Darwinian anxieties about the fixity of species and the meaning and status of humanity".Ballantyne already made some errors in his descriptions of nature in The Coral Island, and had apparently resolved whenever possible to write only about things of which he had personal experience.[10] Still, his gorillas are portrayed as dangerous man-eaters, snapping "great branches" in two while pursued by hunters; as a gorilla nutritionist said "that [Ballantyne's] fictional gorilla likely would have been peacefully nibbling on the branches' leaves". Ballantyne's gorilla, on the contrary, is a "man monkey ... a very unnatural monster".

Excerpt from The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa It was five o'clock in the afternoon. There can be no doubt whatever as to that. Old Agnes may say what she pleases, - she has a habit of doing so; but I know for certain (because I looked at my watch not ten minutes before it happened) that it was exactly five o'clock in the afternoon, when I received a most singular and every way remarkable visit - a visit which has left an indelible impression on my memory, as well it might, for, independent of its singularity and unexpectedness, one of its results was the series of strange adventures which are faithfully detailed in this volume. It happened thus: - I was seated in an arm chair in my private study in a small town on the west coast of England. It was a splendid afternoon, and it was exactly five o'clock. Mark that. Not that there is anything singular about the mere fact - neither is it in any way mixed up with the thread of this tale; but old Agnes is very obstinate - singularly positive - and I have a special desire that she should see it in print, that I have not given in on that point. Yes, it was five precisely, and a beautiful evening. I was ruminating, as I frequently do, on the pleasant memories of bygone days, especially the happy days that I spent long ago among the coral islands of the Pacific, when a tap at the door aroused me. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.