Zusammenfassung von Der Mann, der das Richtige tat: Ein Liebesroman

Für wen es gedacht ist

You will enjoy this book if you like Victorian domestic comedy that grows into adventure, or stories where love, duty and conscience pull apart.

Worum es in diesem Buch geht

Picture a June Sunday in 1886 in the English village of Tilehurst. A young preacher called John Baines has just given his farewell sermon before leaving for Africa. His fiancée, Lucy Josling, waits in the sun outside the chapel, hot, polite and already a little unsure of what she has promised.

The Man Who Did the Right Thing is a novel by Harry Johnston, an explorer and colonial official who knew East Africa at first hand. He wrote it mainly in 1920, and says its central idea rests partly on real events. It is a romance with a sharp eye for church people, civil servants and ambitious women. You get a wide stage, and a woman and two men whose choices pull against each other.

Questions about Der Mann, der das Richtige tat: Ein Liebesroman

What is The Man Who Did the Right Thing about?

It follows Lucy Josling, an English schoolteacher who goes to East Africa to marry a missionary, and Captain Roger Brentham, the consul she meets on the voyage. The story weighs love, duty, religion and gossip against one another.

Who wrote The Man Who Did the Right Thing and when?

The dedication bears the date March 1921, and Harry Johnston wrote the novel. Johnston was an explorer and colonial official who had lived in East Africa, and he says the idea came to him there.

Is The Man Who Did the Right Thing a true story?

It is a novel, but the author says it is based in part on real events on Unguja and elsewhere. He changed details so that living people would not be hurt, and he calls it a romance.

Where does the story take place?

It moves from English villages in Berkshire and Hampshire to London, a steamer through the Mediterranean and Red Sea, the island of Unguja, a mission station in the hills of Ulunga, and a lake valley farther north.

What does doing the right thing mean in this book?

The phrase changes meaning from character to character. It can mean honoring a promise, resisting temptation, obeying a husband or marrying to protect a reputation, and the book keeps asking who decides.