King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard

Here's another African adventure story by Mr. Haggard.  If I'm remembering my Wikipedia reading from a long time ago, this book was basically written as a response to Treasure Island.  After reading Treasure Island, Henry thought that he could write an adventure book such as that.  If I remember correctly, this book actually was more successful than Treasure Island.  I haven't read TI, yet, but I think this one was pretty good.


It begins with our narrator, a Mr. Allan Quartermain, being approached by someone, a Sir Henry, trying to enlist him on a search for his brother in the heart of Africa.  Allan had met the missing man before, and knew the area he had been heading toward.  An area said to contain inexhaustible diamond mines. He had actually been given a map by someone who had tried to get the treasure in the past.  A picture of the map can be found below.

From Wikipedia

Allan is an aging elephant hunter, and knew that the adventure he was being asked to embark on would almost certainly lead to his death.  He hadn't managed to amass any sort of fortune during his life, and has a son who was studying medicine in London.  When considering whether or not he would go on the expedition, he thought only of his son.  He knew that he wasn't likely to live much longer anyway, as he's far outlived the average lifespan of an elephant hunter, and Sir Henry was offering to fulfill any terms required to get Allan to go with him.  Given this opportunity to provide for his son, Allan agrees to go with Sir Henry.



The account of the adventure, written in the first person by Mr. Quartermain.  He mentions that he's a hunter, and not a writer at several points in the book, but I found it to be pretty well-written all the same.  Although, given that it is written in the first person, you know that Allan gets through the story alive.  He also mentions in the beginning that he is wealthy, which implies a successful expedition.  Although, given the terms he gave to Sir Henry, there are different levels of success that may have been achieved.



This book has quite a few similarities to The People of the Mist, which Haggard wrote later.  There's a lost civilization, which a member of the expedition happens to be from.  This civilization has access to incredible wealth.  And it can only be reached by an extremely perilous route (this time through the desert and over some mountains).  When the civilization is finally reached, the adventurers are taken for gods.  There's also a little bit of racism in the book, but it is treated very similarly.  There's the status quo that almost nobody questions, although the main characters don't really behave as racists.



I won't go into any more detail on the plot, or other events in the book.  I will say that some of the events seem a little too convenient.  Also, at one point, Allan details all the equipment they're taking with them.  Then later, the characters go and use something that wasn't on that list.  Not only wasn't it on the list, I can't imagine what possible reason they would have thought to bring the item in question.  This may just be a sign that it's the man's first book.  These issues aren't enough to diminish the quality of the read too much, however.


All in all, I really enjoyed this book.  It is a great adventure story and the pacing was good. I recommend it.



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