Patricia and the lion

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Patricia and the Lion (original title Le Lion ) is a French novel published in 1958 by Joseph Kessel . It is about a traveler, probably the author himself, who goes to a national park in Kenya and there meets a 13-year-old girl named Patricia. Patricia speaks all local languages ​​and can communicate with animals. Her best friend is a Leo named King, whom she has known since he was born and with whom she grew up. The only German-language transmission so far (2008) comes from Karl Rauch and was first published in 1959 by Zettner-Verlag, Würzburg and Vienna.

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An anonymous first-person narrator (male, a little older, probably Kessel himself) is on the last stop of an East Africa trip in the Kenya National Park. The story begins in medias res, the narrator is in the wilderness on a piece of land that he should not be allowed to enter without a ranger. He feels unobserved, it is early morning. Narrator watches a monkey and a gazelle when spoken to by a girl named Patricia. The two become friends as the narrator expresses his love for animals. Patricia tells about her life (she is multilingual, knows all the secrets of the animal world ...), but when she learns that the narrator is about to leave, she is upset and disappears again.

He feels drawn to the mysterious girl and ponders her when he is invited to his home by the park administrator's wife. So he gets to know Patricia's mother, Sybill, a petite, pale, nervous Englishwoman who tries to give him a semblance of European elegance. However, she seems affected to the narrator. He's hardly interested in her, just wants to see Patricia again. When John Bullit arrives, you immediately notice that the couple love each other, but there are also tensions - John Bullit is described as a large animal, she is described as a "sickly" but civilized person. In addition, Bullit used to be a famous hunter. Bullit doesn't like the narrator at first because he thinks he's a civilized ignoramus, but they soon become friends, drink whiskey and talk. Bullit asks the narrator to stay longer in the park. He actually wanted to leave the next day.

The next day Narrator goes on a tour of discovery in the park with a ranger and Bogo, his chauffeur on the trip. Fascinated by Kilimanjaro and the animals, he knows that he only sees as much as any other tourist. The group comes across two Maasai : they are beautiful, arrogant, aloof. Then Sybill invites him to tea, which he accepts to see Patricia again. Sybill tries to impress him with an English tea ceremony, but she looks tense. Worried that Patricia isn't home yet, she has a nervous breakdown and begs her husband to find Patricia. Then Kihoro comes home, then Patricia. Bullit leaves the room to get Patricia ready for tea. Meanwhile, Sybill confides in the narrator: She can no longer stand the rawness of nature and the people in the park. When Patricia and Bullit are back at the table, both should tell about their experiences, whereupon Pat reports about King. Sybill's nerves are on edge: King is a lion!

Narrator then returns to his hut, has the flight canceled and decides to stay longer in the park. The next morning he wakes up late. Pat is already ready to introduce him to the lion. You drive to a place agreed with the lion, Pat talks to the lion. When the narrator questions the girl's absolute control over the lion, she turns angry and proves it to him. He leaves her behind, drives past the Masai village and returns to his hut. The narrator is invited back to the Bullits for dinner: Pat plays the perfect daughter, wears a pretty dress, makes her mother happy and everyone is in a good mood. The Bullits report how the deep love between Pat and King came about: Kihoro found the little lion, Pat raised him, then he had to go because Sybill could no longer bear the lion. After dinner, Bullit has another whiskey with the narrator and they say goodbye. However, Pat then shows up in his room and arranges to meet him the next morning to watch the Masai setting up the new camp.

The next day everyone drives through the park with Land Rover, so that the narrator gets an insight into the beauty of the park. He admires the predators as well as the rhinos etc. Finally they meet King, Bullit plays with him, Pat is overjoyed. Then Pat and the narrator can be dropped off, she wants to visit King again, but two lionesses are staying with King. However, King protects the girl from the lionesses. The narrator notices that the young Masai Oriounga is watching them. Oriounga is attracted to Pat and wants to compete with King. Pat allows this, challenges the Masai, whereupon he comes, but without a lance. Oriounga then leaves, angry, because Pat keeps the lion under her control and does not let it out to fight freely.

On the same day, Sybill comes to the narrator's hut and asks him to convince Pat to go to a French boarding school. Then the old Masai dies and a ceremony for the new tribal head takes place. Everyone goes there (including Sybill), but Pat gets out of the car first, only to turn up there alone and offend everyone. At the ceremony everyone likes it until Oriounga asks Bullit for his daughter's hand. As a result, Sybill gets upset and everyone leaves the place except Bullit. The next day, Pat appears late because she first had to study with her mother. The narrator then takes her to the tree to meet King again when Oriounga shows up. A fight ensues in which King kills the Masai - shortly afterwards, however, Bullit appears and shoots the lion. Patricia is inconsolable, her paradise seems to have been destroyed by her own father - in the same night she leaves with the narrator for Nairobi, where she will henceforth go to boarding school.

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