Author - Henry Rider Haggard

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• Author - Henry Rider Haggard

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• This book was first published in 1885 by Cassel
  company who was more of a middle class publisher
  of mostly magazines Until King Solomons mines .

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Authors other works

• Haggard is most famous as the author of the
  novels King Solomon's Mines and its sequel Allan
  Quatermain, and She and its sequel Ayesha, all
  swashbuckling adventure novels set in the context
  of the Scramble for Africa. He is also remembered
  for the epic Viking romance, Eric Brighteye

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Author summary

• Henry Rider Haggard was born at Bradenham
  Norfolk, to Sir William Meybohm Rider Haggard,
  abarrister, and Ella Doveton , an author and
  poet. He was the eighth of ten children.born june
  22 1856 He was initially sent to
  GarsingtonRectory in Oxfordshireto study under
  Reverend H. J. Graham, but unlike his older
  brothers who graduated from various Public
  schools , he ended up attending Ipswich grammar
  school This was because his father, who perhaps
  regarded him as somebody who was not going to
  amount to much, could no longer afford to
  maintain his expensive private education
  .Haggards father sent him to what is now South
  Africa in an unpaid position as assistant to the
  secretary to lieutenant governor of the Colony of
  Natal.

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Story setting

• The story of King Solomon's Mines takes place in
  the mid-nineteenth century, a period roughly with
  Haggard's own lifetime. The cities, rivers,
  landmarks, and tribes in the story are all real,
  though at the time, little was known about this
  part of southern Africa. The fact that Africa was
  unexplored increased readers' interest in the
  story. Many readers in fact took the book as an
  actual account of the author's adventures.

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Plot summary
Beginning

• Allan quatermain, an English adventurer and
  hunter based in Durban , South Africa, is
  approached by an English aristocrat, Sir Henry
  Curtis, and his friend Captain Good, seeking his
  help finding Sir Henry's brother, who was last
  seen traveling north into the unexplored
  interior, on a quest for the fabled King
  Solomon's Mines. Quatermain possesses a
  mysterious map purporting to lead to the mines,
  but had never taken it seriously. However, he
  agrees to lead an expedition in return for part
  of the treasure, or a stipend for his son if he
  is killed along the way. He has little hope they
  will return alive. They also bring along a
  mysterious native, umbopa, who seems more regal,
  handsome and well spoken than most porters of his
  class, but who is very anxious to join the party

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Middle

• They are brought before King Twala, who rules
  over his people with ruthless violence. He came
  to power years before when he murdered his
  brother, the previous king, and drove his
  brother's wife and infant son, Ignosi, out into
  the desert to die. Twala's rule is unchallenged
  and an evil, impossibly ancient hag named Gagool
  is his chief advisor. She roots out any potential
  opposition by ordering regular witch hunts and
  murdering without trial all those identified as
  traitors. When she singles out Umbopa for this
  fate, it takes all Quatermain's skill to save his
  life.

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End

• The Englishmen bid farewell to a sorrowful Ignosi
  and return to the desert. Taking a different
  route, they find Sir Henry's brother stranded in
  an oasis by a broken leg, unable to go forward or
  back. They return to Durban and eventually to
  England, wealthy enough to live comfortable
  lives.

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Literary themes

• The book's immense success was the result of
  Haggard's ability to present such fantastic
  adventures in a gritty, realistic narrative.
  Using a first-person point of view, Quatermain
  tells the story in what he calls a "plain,
  straightforward manner the book is a adventure
  story with many real places and facts the
  conflict was a man lost his brother in the jungle
  and mountains of south Africa.

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Quotes

• The Almighty gave us our lives, and I suppose He
  meant us to defend them, at least I have always
  acted on that, and I hope it will not be brought
  up against me when my clock strikes
• Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go.
  Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of
  the Nowhere for a moment our wings are seen in
  the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again
  into the Nowhere.
• Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go.
  Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of
  the Nowhere for a moment our wings are seen in
  the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again
  into the Nowhere.
• Truly the universe is full of ghosts, not sheeted
  churchyard spectres, but the inextinguishable
  elements of individual life, which having once
  been, can never die, though they blend and
  change, and change again for ever