King Solomon's Mines (Paperback - 2015)

King Solomon’s Mines, the first English adventure novel set in Africa describes a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party.

The novel is Allan Quatermain’s adventurous account of his quest through a dangerous, unknown area of Africa, accompanied by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. Sir Henry retains Quatermain to guide their expedition to find Sir Henry’s brother, who had gone missing in the jungle to discover the legendary diamond mines of King Solomon. With the help of an ancient map, the adventurers set out from Durban, South Africa, and travel into the previously unexplored wilderness. For months they travel through the African bush, cross a great desert, where they almost die of thirst, and climb the snowy mountains known as “Sheba’s Breasts”, where it is so cold that they barely escape freezing to death. Eventually, they arrive in fertile Kukuanaland, where they help restore a native king to his rightful throne and discover the legendary diamond mines. Taking a different route, they find Sir Henry’s brother stranded in an oasis. He has a broken leg, and is unable to go forward or back, and is thus rescued. They return to Durban and eventually to England, wealthy enough to live comfortable lives.

King Solomon’s Mines is believed to have created a new genre, called the “Lost World”, which inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot; Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World; Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King; and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.

H. Rider Haggard (1856 – 1925) was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, mainly Africa. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential.

In 1875 he was sent to what is now South Africa to take up an unpaid position as assistant to the secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Natal. After returning to England in 1882, he published a book on the political situation in South Africa and a few other unsuccessful novels before writing his masterpiece King Solomon’s Mines. A sequel, Allan Quatermain, soon followed, and then She and its sequel Ayesha—two remarkable adventure novels set in the context of the Scramble for Africa. She is generally considered to be one of the classics of imaginative literature, and with 83 million copies sold by 1965, it is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Haggard’s novels portray many of the stereotypes associated with colonialism, and are uncanny for the degree of sympathy with which the native populations are portrayed. Africans often play heroic roles in the novels, although the protagonists are typically, though not always, European. The heroic Zulu warrior Umslopogaas and Ignosi, the rightful king of Kukuanaland, in King Solomon’s Mines are examples. Three of Haggard’s novels were written in collaboration with his friend Andrew Lang. They shared an interest in the spiritual realm and paranormal phenomena.

Haggard also wrote about agricultural and social reforms which were inspired by his experiences in Africa, and also based on what he saw in Europe. Towards the end of his life he was a staunch opponent of Bolshevism, a position he shared with his friend Rudyard Kipling.