King Solomon’s Mines

Author: H. Rider. Haggard

Genre: Classics; Fiction

Publisher: Puffin Classics

Format: Paperback

Pages: 292

Rating: 3.5/5 (3 on Goodreads).

Synopsis (taken from Goodreads):

Touted by its 1885 publisher as “the most amazing story ever written,” King Solomon’s Mines was one of the bestselling novels of the nineteenth century. H. Rider Haggard’s thrilling saga of elephant hunter Allan Quatermain and his search for fabled treasure is more than just an adventure story: as Alexandra Fuller explains in her Introduction, in its vivid portrayal of the alliances and battles of white colonials and African tribesmen, King Solomon’s Mines “brings us the world of extremes, of the absurdly tall tales and of the illogical loyalty between disparate people that still informs this part of the world.”

The novel 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. The men find danger, hardship, myth, lost tribes, cruel kings, and evil sorceress, and overcome all. Through a series of adventures the men escape near-certain death, with pocketfuls of diamonds from “King Solomon’s Mines”, enough to make them rich for life. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre.

This is the first book in what was to be a long running and prolific series.

Review:

This book was an interesting read as it was not what I expected at all. Although, I am not sure what I fully expected. When I was in university studying for my history degree, I took an introductory British History class. We had to choose a novel from British History and write an essay on one the historical themes found in the novel. I chose Mary Barton, but this book was an option on the reading list. I always thought it looked interesting, and I finally got around to reading it.

I expected it to be less action-packed. I thought they were going to explain how they got to the diamond mine, and how they took advantage of the local work force to mine the diamonds (kinda like in the Congo). This book, however, was a bit different in that it went into depth on the tribal civil war that was going on, and the European’s involvement in it. Yes it described them traversing the desert to get to the mines, but there was much more violence and mystery than I expected.

What I did expect, and what was evident in the novel, was the racism that comes from a 19th century European imperialist. If you look into the background of the author, he spent a lot of time in Africa. This makes him a good man to write novels about Africa during the 19th century, since he knew much about the landscape and the customs. It is important to keep in mind that at that time, many Europeans honestly believed that they were the superior race. Social Darwinism was becoming more and more popular, and British imperialism was at its height. I am not making excuses for the racial statements made in the book, but I would encourage those who read the novel to put their minds back to the 19th century in order to get a sense of why there is a sense of racial superiority in the book, and why the author paints the African’s as uncivilized. The book can be used to study the time period, and can put us in the mind of a British imperialist!

While I rated the book 3.5/5 stars, I did enjoy the story and it was a good classic novel. The adventure was exciting, but it was a violent novel, and if you do not like books that describe violence in a bloody way, then this is not the book for you.

Happy reading friends!