Shout at the Devil was published by William Heinemann in 1968. The novel is set in German East Africa (Tanzania) in 1913–1917. Flynn Patrick O’Flynn is an enormous, hard-drinking Irish-American ivory poacher who has been stealing from the territory of Herman Fleischer, a brutal German colonial commissioner. When Sebastian Dobie — a young Dobie Dobie — arrives seeking his fortune, O’Flynn recruits him as a partner. Sebastian marries O’Flynn’s daughter Rosa.
The tone is comic-adventure until Fleischer’s retaliation destroys everything: he burns O’Flynn’s camp, kills Rosa’s infant child, and leaves her disfigured. The rest of the novel is a revenge saga — O’Flynn and Sebastian wage a private war against Fleischer that coincides with World War I’s eruption in East Africa. The climax involves the sabotage of a German battle cruiser hidden in a delta — based loosely on the real SMS Königsberg.
The 1976 film starred Lee Marvin as O’Flynn and Roger Moore as Sebastian. The novel is Smith’s most purely entertaining work — less grim than The Dark of the Sun, less sprawling than the Dobie sagas, with a momentum that rarely flags across four hundred pages.
The SMS Königsberg
The naval climax is based on a real episode: the SMS Königsberg, a German light cruiser, took refuge in the Rufiji Delta in East Africa during World War I and was eventually destroyed by British forces in July 1915. Smith fictionalises the episode, making his characters participants in the destruction of the hidden warship — one of the most dramatic naval episodes of the African campaign.
Collecting Shout at the Devil
First edition (William Heinemann, London, 1968): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $100–$300
- Very good/very good: $40–$100
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate to strong appreciation. The film adaptation maintains awareness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Shout at the Devil made into a film? Yes. The 1976 film starred Lee Marvin and Roger Moore. It was a commercial success, particularly in the UK, and helped establish Smith’s reputation as a source of cinematic adventure stories.