This is the tale of the life of a man half English, half Spanish. The Story starts out in his rural village of Norfolk, where he and a young woman named Lily are in love and promise themselves to each other. The story then continues to Spain and then to the valley of Tenochtitlan, Mexico.
It's very entertaining and I love reading the history of the aztecs. It fascinates me what the Spaniards did to mexico, especially the creation of the machista: a man who has been emasculated by the Spaniards' conquest.
I didn't appreciate the parts where the Christian's God is praised and the Aztec's God is vilified; what hypocrisy.
Here are some excerpts that had a connection for me:
"...after all death cannot be so terrible, seeing that every human being is born to undergo it, together with all living things."

" 'It shall find you out I say, and not only you but the Church you serve. Both priest and Church shall be broken together and shall be a scorn in the mouths of men to come.' "
Said to a cruel priest from the Catholic Church who sentenced a young woman to death, all for the "crime" of a Spaniard who used her body and threw her to the side. It is coming true isn't it? John's curse? All the sex predators that are priests, making a mockery of their supposed"holiness."

"Montezuma did not these things of himself [betraying his people by cosying up to Cortez], but because the hand of destiny worked with his hand, and the voice of destiny spoke in his voice. The gods of the Aztecs were false gods indeed, but I for one believe that they had life and intelligence, for those hideous shapes of stone were the habitations of devils, and the priests spoke truth when they said that the sacrifice of men was pleasing to their gods."

"That Papantzin rose from the dead is true, though perhaps she only swooned and never really died. At the least she did not go back there for a while, for though I never saw her again, it is said that she lived to become a Christian and told strange tales of what she had seen in the land of Death.[6]"

"Now women who had been held virtuous proved themselves wantons," ( )

Having read the Quatermain and Ayesha series, I saw how Haggard's writing style transformed from the late Victorian prose style to a more rapidly paced narrative the later his works appeared. Montezuma's Daughter, then, was a return to the period of writing that earlier characterized Quatermain. And the writing style is similar, although the content, the story, the character, and even the dialog is markedly different. In fact, Haggard elevates his efforts, here. In some ways, Montezuma's Daughter is better than his earlier works of the 1880s, which themselves, by and large, were superior to the somewhat repetitive novels that appeared in the twentieth century.

What pervades all Haggard's work is the sentiment, which is overwhelmingly melancholic. He seems to have grappled with his mortality through his protagonists from the very beginning. Almost all his novels follow the same pattern of an elaborate flashback. There is never any secret of the ultimate outcome of the stories, all of which are told in advance. It is the telling of the tale that Haggard is most concerned. And with that, he fills his narratives with ideas, speculations, and wonder at the mysteries of death to come. All of that is especially true of Montezuma's Daughter. Here, the story ranges over oceans and continents and back to the embrace of origins, where the ultimate rest awaits. How do the lives of those who remained in England compare to the Thomas', who gained fame and wealth in Spain, all to lose it to slavery and then rise again in the context of the epic wars of Cortez against the Aztecs. And at the end? At the end, all are atoms dwelling away under the heavens of eternity. Always a fun and provocative read with Haggard. ( )

საინტერესო ისტორიული წიგნია. მაგრამ უფრო პატარა ასაკში რომ წამეკითხა უფრო მომეწონებოდა. (13-15) ( )

This is a rip-roaring slice of Haggard action and drama set in the 16th century at the time of Cortes's conquest of the Aztecs. Thomas Wingfield is an Englishman with a Spanish mother. She is killed by a Spaniard, De Garcia, and Thomas spends twenty years avenging her death, which brings him to Mexico where he joins the Aztecs against their common Spanish enemy, despite his revulsion at their practices of human sacrifice. He marries the eponymous Princess, betraying his vows to his sweetheart Lily back in England. He witnesses and fights against the Spanish Conquista, finally kills De Garcia, suffers the death of his wife and children, and returns to England and marries Lily who has waited for him. Full of cliches by modern standards of course, but a gripping read with many dramatic and even horrific scenes. Splendid stuff. 5/5 ( )

An excellent action-adventure book rich with South American history. Edge of your sit reader that keeps you up all night. ( )