A short and very amusing little novel (88p). Our hero, Tartarin, is a Quixote-like character, his imagination fired by adventure stories and his accumulation of weapons. But while he finds life in provincial southern France dull - at local hunting trips the men are reduced to throwing their caps in the air and shooting at them due to a paucity of wildlife - Tartarin also has a luxury-loving Sancho Panza side to his character, and consequently has never had a real adventure.
"Quixote-Tartarin firing up on the stories of Gustave Aimard and shouting "Up and at 'em!" and Sancho-Tartarin thinking only of the rheumatics ahead and murmuring "I mean to stay at home."
But after an encounter with a lion in a local menagerie, the rumour goes about that Tartarin is off to hunt lions in Algeria, and reluctantly he has to make the journey...
His adventures in Africa are highly entertaining and comical featuring a Moorish lady-of-the-night, a camel, a not-to-be-trusted Montenegrin prince ... and even a lion.
Great translation renders the original in convincing Victorian English. ( )

Tartarin is the prefiguration of a Mediterranian type, being rather economical with the truth. He could be Quijote and Sancho in one person.