Adventurer and big game hunter Allan Quartermain is asked by Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to assist the pair in finding Sir Henry’s brother, last seen headed north into Africa’s uncharted interior in search of the famous King Solomon’s Mines. Quartermain, known for his adventures in Africa, has a map that claims to lead to the Mines, but he has never taken the map to be authentic. Quartermain accepts the job however, because he understands he’s lived longer than most of the other men in his profession. He strikes a deal: He’ll lead the expedition for a share of the treasure or, if he’s killed along the way, a stipend for his son. Quartermain assembles a group to accompany the excursion. The Hottentot Ventvogel is famous for his tracking abilities. Umbopa, a hunter who claims to be Zulu, joins the group. Quartermain distrusts Umbopa at first, due to the man’s attitude and presence which seem to indicate he’s not what he claims to be, but Quartermain relents. The party reaches the edge of the desert, and one of the laborers is killed by a wounded elephant. They almost die of thirst as they walk across the desert, finally reaching an oasis indicated on Quartermain’s map. Then they arrive at Suliman Berg, a mountain range. At the top of one of the peaks, they enter a cave and find the frozen body of José Silvestre, the Portuguese explorer responsible for the map. Ventvogel dies overnight, and they leave his body in the cave to keep José Silvestre company. The other side of the mountain is discovered to be full of game and foliage, so the men pause to hunt and refresh themselves in a stream. The next morning, Captain Good is confronted by a group of native hunters. Quartermain notices the similarities between these hunters and Umbopa. The Kukuana warriors are about to kill the captain, at which point he fidgets with his false teeth. Seeing this alarms the native warriors, who run in fear. The explorers decide to play the part of sorcerer gods from that point on as protection. That includes an episode where the men are brought before the king of the local natives. King Twala ruthlessly rules his people. He claimed the throne by killing his brother and casting his wife and infant son, Ignosi, into the desert. His chief advisor is a grizzled old crone. She supports the king’s rule through witch hunts and murder, and she targets Umbopa for this sort of treatment. Umbopa then reveals his secret: He is, in fact, Ignosi, and the rightful king. The Englishmen take Ignosi’s side, using their knowledge of a lunar eclipse as proof of Ignosi’s legitimacy. When rebellion breaks out, a furious battle ensues. Though the rebels are outnumbered, they win with the help of the English explorers, and Sir Henry decapitates King Twala in a duel. The explorers also capture the old lady. She is forced to lead the men to King Solomon’s Mines, to a treasure room full of gold, diamonds, and ivory. The old lady sneaks out while the men are gathering treasure, shutting a large stone door that traps the men. She dies after a scuffle with another native woman who has grown attached to Captain Good. Trapped inside the room, with their food and water supplies dwindling, the men prepare to die. After a few days, though, they find an escape route, and leave the treasure room with their pockets full of diamonds. The explorers say their goodbyes to Ignosi who promises they will be remembered as heroes, and the Englishmen make their way toward home. Following a different route than before, they find Sir Henry’s brother at an oasis with a broken leg. They all eventually make their way out of the wilderness, and then back to England, wealthy beyond their dreams. Though the book originally struggled to find a publisher, when it finally did get published, the book quickly became a success. It was the year’s best-seller, and the publisher struggled to print enough copies to meet the public’s demand. King Solomon’s Mines gave birth to a genre now referred to as the “Lost World” genre, which applies to a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy where characters meet civilizations that are stuck out of time or place. Other writers quickly wrote their own Lost World stories, including Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Land That Time Forgot), Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World), and Rudyard Kipling (The Man Who Would Be King). Many of these books present views toward colonialism that now are considered racist, though Haggard’s characters are much less prejudiced than others within the genre. The book has been adapted to film six times, and it has inspired many more films, television series, and other works of literature. Allan Quartermain appears in a number of other books by Haggard, and has been borrowed by, or inspired, a number of other writers and filmmakers.

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H. Rider Haggard

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