An African Millionaire

By Grant Allen

Will update

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Nov 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312577596

Grant Allen

Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a Canadian novelist and science writer. While his early writing in the fields of psychology, botany, and entomology sought to support Charles Darwin’s work on evolutionary theory, Allen later turned to fiction and eventually wrote around 30 novels. Friends with Arthur Conan Doyle, Grant Allen was a lesser-known early innovator in crime and detective fiction. His wide-ranging literary output, which influenced William James, G.K. Chesterton, and Sigmund Freud, was often deemed controversial for its critical views on social constructs such as marriage, gender, and religion.

Reviews for An African Millionaire

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amusing stories about a rogue who assumes different identites to swindle a dishonest millionaire.

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories about a confidence trickster preying on the millionaire of the title.This con-man,who goes under the name of Colonel Clay is a master of disguise and can change his appearance to a remarkable degree.He first coup is to get himself invited to a seance as a 'Mexican Seer' and perform a series of seemingly supernatural acts. This in front of a group of people which include Sir Charles Vandrift and his secretary Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. As as result of his actions he relieves Sir Charles of some £5000.In most of the other stories he manages by various methods to extract money,diamonds,bonds and cheques from the increasingly desperate millionaire,who tries unsuccessfully to capture him.The thief pre-dates Hornung's A.J.Raffles by a few years,but is very much of the same type - a gentleman thief,that the reader can feel sympathy with. Although the stories begin to get somewhat similar as the book progresses and the feeling that the millionaire and his helpers are rather more stupid and gullible than necessary,this still,remains after all these years a good read.