King Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of 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. It is one of the first English adventure novels set in Africa and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre. Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother, who said that he could not write a novel ...
Read More
King Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of 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. It is one of the first English adventure novels set in Africa and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre. Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother, who said that he could not write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883). He wrote it in a short time, somewhere between six and sixteen weeks between January and 21 April 1885. However, the book was a complete novelty and was rejected by one publisher after another. After six months, King Solomon's Mines was published, and the book became the year's best seller, with printers struggling to print copies fast enough. Andrew Lang, reviewing King Solomon's Mines for the Saturday Review, praised the book. Lang described the book as a "peculiarly thrilling and vigorous tale of adventure" and added "we have only praise for the very remarkable and uncommon powers of invention and gift of "vision" which Mr. Haggard displays". In the process, King Solomon's Mines created a new genre known as the "Lost World", which would inspire 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. In The Return of Tarzan (1913), Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced his own lost city of Opar, in which the influence of King Solomon's Mines is evident. (Burroughs' Opar is supposedly the same as the Biblical Ophir with which King Solomon traded.) Opar reappeared in further Tarzan novels and was later taken up in the Khokarsa novels of Philip Jos� Farmer and various derivative works in other media. Burroughs also introduced other lost cities in various hidden corners of Africa for Tarzan to visit, such as a valley inhabited by stray Crusaders still maintaining a Medieval way of life. Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian also visited several lost cities, and Lee Falk's The Phantom was initially written in this genre. A much later Lost World novel is Michael Crichton's Congo, which is set in the 1970s and features characters seeking a trove of diamonds in the lost city of Zinj for use in electronic components rather than jewellery. As in Treasure Island, the narrator of King Solomon's Mines tells his tale in the first person, in an easy conversational style. Almost entirely missing (except in the speech of the Kukuanas) is the ornate language usually associated with novels of this era. Haggard's use of the first-person subjective perspective also contrasts with the omniscient third-person viewpoint then in vogue among influential writers such as Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, and George Eliot. (Wikipedia.org)
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Just as described. It arrived On time. I recommend iy Than you.
FanOfTimeLifeBooks
Mar 28, 2013
The Quintessential Adventure Story
Written in 1885, King Solomon's Mines is an exciting and suspenseful adventure story set in southern Africa in the late nineteenth century. The story is related to us by hunter and trader Allan Quatermain who, with the help of an old treasure map, goes in search of the legendary mines of King Solomon. Quatermain is accompanied by Captain Good, Sir Henry Curtis, and Umbopa who is one of many native peoples in the story; Sir Henry Curtis is also hoping to find his missing brother. All of the elements of great adventure story are present: an arduous journey through a parching desert and mountain snows, courageous and intriguing characters, an exotic location deep in Africa, a power struggle between rival groups among the native peoples, and, most importantly, H. Rider Haggard's fast-moving narrative style. Though the book contains words which today would be considered offensive and a scene in which an elephant is killed for its ivory, this book has stood the test of time and is truly a classic story of action and adventure.
Shepherdgirl
Mar 8, 2008
This is a very exciting adventure story, that you will not be able to put down.
librarianSpock
Aug 8, 2007
Great Adventure in the 1800s
Indiana Jones has nothing on Allan Quartermain. One of the greatest original adventures (written on a dare from the author's brother to write something half as good as Treasure Island), this story has it all - a lost civilization, untold treasures, humor, danger, treachery, war, and even a little mysticism. It's all told in engaging first person, and hard to put down.
RP86
Jul 30, 2007
A Real Treasure
A true boy's adventure, this book is action packed and exciting. Very fun to read together with the kids.