{{short description|1834 novel}} {{italic title}} thumb|alt=Refer to caption|Front cover of ''Makanna'' '''''Makanna; or, the Land of the Savage''''' is an anonymous 1834 novel. It is a captivity narrative that received mixed reviews in the press.

== Synopsis == Paul Laroon (a French operative of ambiguous or mixed ethnicity{{sfn|Van Wyk Smith|2009|p=108}}) and Makanna (a character based on the prophet Makhanda ka Nxele) jointly fight against British imperial ambitions.{{sfn|Shaw|2020|pp=115–116}} Makanna is the leader of the Amakhossae (Xhosa), and together they save Bertha Falkland, the daughter of a British official.{{sfn|Glenn|2019|p=71}}

== Publication == ''Makanna'' was first published anonymously in 1834{{sfn|Shaw|2020|p=115}} by Simpkin & Marshall in London.{{sfn|''Makanna''|1834|loc=cover}} It was published in three volumes,{{sfn|''Literary Gazette''|1834|p=210}} and received a second edition.{{sfn|Shaw|2020|p=115}} Scholars do not know the identity of ''Makanna''{{'s}} author, although they did publish another novel called ''Picaroon''.{{sfn|Glenn|2019|p=70}}

== Reception == Upon its release, the novel received a mixed review in the ''Literary Gazette'', which complained that the writing was "as a whole ... incongruous, forced, and extravagant".{{sfn|''Literary Gazette''|1834|p=210}} A writer for ''The Athenaeum'' positively reviewed the work, writing that the author "has made that region" – the southern tip of Africa and the Indian Ocean – "his own", although the writer complained about extraneous prefatory information that was included in the first edition.{{sfn|''The Athenaeum''|1834|p=195}} One article in ''Leigh Hunt's London Journal'' understands the novel as "defective in artifice of management, but very interesting on the whole", particularly for its descriptions of the rhinoceros, which the article describes as "a sort of hog-elephant, or mixture of elephant, hog, tapir, and ''cattle-mouth'', cased in compartments of armour".{{sfn|''Leigh Hunt's London Journal''|1834|p=44}}

Literary scholar Ian Glenn understands ''Makanna'' as a captivity narrative that ultimately reads as a "conventional romance".{{sfn|Glenn|2019|pp=70, 75}} He describes it as the "first substantial South African novel".{{sfn|Glenn|2007|p=24}}

== References == ===Citations=== {{reflist}}

===Works cited=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal |last=Glenn |first=Ian |title=Classical black |journal=English in Africa |volume=34 |issue=2 |date=2007 |pages=19–33 |jstor=40239076}} * {{cite journal |last=Glenn |first=Ian |title=Captivity novels as critique of South African colonialism |journal=English in Africa |volume=46 |issue=2 |date=2019 |pages=67–84 |doi=10.4314/eia.v46i2.4 |jstor=48563142|s2cid=204474782 }} * {{cite journal |last=Shaw |first=Dan |title=''Makanna, or, the Land of the Savage'': Makhanda ka Nxele in English literature |journal=English Studies in Africa |volume=63 |issue=2 |date=2020 |pages=112–122 |doi=10.1080/00138398.2020.1852700|s2cid=231588680 }} * {{cite journal |last=Van Wyk Smith |first=Malvern |title='The affections of a man of feeling in the midst of the wilderness': François Le Vaillant on the South African border |journal=English in Africa |volume=36 |issue=2 |date=2009 |pages=99–111 |id={{ProQuest|194935622}}}} <!-- No authors --> * {{cite magazine |title=A rhinoceros hunt |magazine=Leigh Hunt's London Journal |date=7 May 1834 |pages=44–45 |ref={{harvid|''Leigh Hunt's London Journal''|1834}} |id={{ProQuest|2565113}}}} * {{cite magazine |title=''Makanna; or, the Land of the Savage'' |magazine=Literary Gazette |date=22 March 1834 |page=210 |ref={{harvid|''Literary Gazette''|1834}} |id={{ProQuest|5224351}}}} * {{cite book |title=Makanna; or, the Land of the Savage |volume=1 |date=1834 |publisher=Simpkin & Marshall |location=London |ref={{harvid|''Makanna''|1834}} |id={{Gale|XDYZDN727877505}}}} * {{cite magazine |title=''Makanna; or, the Land of the Savage'' |magazine=The Athenaeum |date=15 March 1834 |pages=195–197 |ref={{harvid|''The Athenaeum''|1834}} |id={{ProQuest|8917680}}}} {{refend}}

Category:Works published anonymously Category:1834 British novels Category:Novels set in South Africa