King Solomon's Mines/YMMV

Fair for Its Day: Early in King Solomon's Mines, Quatermain explains that he doesn't use the N-word because he's met more gentlemen in Africa than England, and more people deserving of the N-word in England than Africa.
- On the other hand, the book also features an interracial romance between Captain Good and a native woman, which was quite cutting edge for its day. However the black woman dies in a heroic sacrifice. Afterwards Quatermain reflects this was for the best because Good couldn't spend the rest of his life in Africa, and the relationship would cause a scandal in England. Okay, he has a point -- the romance is doomed. But that doesn't mean her death is the best solution.
First Installment Wins

Moment of Awesome: Very many, but one of the best comes in Allan Quatermain when Umslopagaas the mighty Zulu, holds a stair against over a score of enemies in a Heroic Sacrifice, killing nearly every single one of them with his great axe Inkozi-kas 'the Woodpecker' before dying in defense of a young woman he'd only just recently met. The kicker? Umslopogaas was in his sixties.