Other editions of book The Lion

Against the backdrop of Kilimanjaro, on a great game preserve in Kenya, the warden, once a great hunter, his ten-year-old daughter Patricia, Oriunga, a primitive Masai warrior, and King, the gorgeous lion the small girl loves and knows so well -- these are the characters in a vibrant, swift, and suspenseful novel in which love and hate and savagery clash inevitably and then explode. It is the story of a young girl's power over a majestic beast. Possessing a special understanding for the wildlife that roams securely in the huge man-made preserve where she has grown up, Patricia loves above all living creatures King, the lion she has raised from a cub. Then an arrogant, proud warrior enters this sanctuary, and man and lion instantly recognize each other as predestined enemies. The fateful encounter between the two is precipitated by Patricia's need to test her power, just as the warrior must test his manhood. And the astonishing climax brings the instincts of the jungle and the response of civilization into sudden and shattering action. The Lion is a great and beautiful adventure story that will also enchant you by its vivid picture of animal life in a vast game preserve. And it abounds in searching and unforgettable insights into human fears, courage, and love.

"Patricia Bullit is a child of two worlds. In her trim navy-blue dress, studying her lessons and moving in her parents' world, she is an ordinary ten year old, with ordinary tastes and interests; in her faded dungarees, slipping silently and freely among the great beasts in unexplored, forbidden parts of a vast Kenya game preserve, she enters a world utterly foreign to any ordinary person. Her human friends are fue- proud, fearless Kihoro, long ago crippled by a savage rhinocerous; Bull, Bullit, her warden fater, once known throughout Africa as a great hunter; and the narrator, who is swiftly caught up in a tightening snare of conflicting loves. In the jungle Pat's friends are without number, and her greatest love is for King, the mighty and magnificent lion she raised from a helpless cub. Slowly at first, and with gathering speed and violence, her two worlds overlap more and more dangerously, and deeply moving drama of love and growing up is played to its terrific climax. Internationally hailed as great and timeless literature, here is the Lion in a stunning illustrated version, with line cuts and color tip-ins by Harper Johnson bringing Kessel's flawless prose to its fullest realization." This extract is taken from the first page of this book.

Patricia lived with her parents on a vast game preserve in Kenya and her only friends were the animals. She knew them and loved them all, but it was King for whom she kept her greatest love. King, the noblest of beast, the mighty lion she has raised from a cub, wild and free. King the proud, the fearless, who would bring Patricia into a dangerous drama that had to be played out between the human and the animal world...a drama that would leave her a child no more.

Against the backdrop of kilimanjaro, on a great game preserve in Kenya, the warden, once a great hunter, his ten-year-old daughter Patricia, Oriunga, a primitive Masai warrior, and King, the gorgeous lion the small girl loves and knows well these are the characters in a vibrant, swift, and suspenseful novel in which love and hate and savagery clash inevitably and the explode