Product Description

A thrilling search for a missing man amidst the scorching deserts and perilous mountains of Africa. In 1885, H. Rider Haggard's publisher considered King Solomon's Mines 'the most amazing book ever written.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100874 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Fortune favours the brave
This classical story about the search for wealth (diamonds), for a lost brother and a lost kingdom is heavily tainted by the colonial mentality of the British Empire, 'the wisdom of the white people'.

It has a racial undertone: 'Can the sun mate with the moon, or the white with the black?'
It extolls war: 'It was a splendid sight to see brave battalions come on time after time over the barriers of their death'.
It asks full obedience to the powerful: 'Behold your king! fight and fall for him, as is the duty of the brave man.'
It shows the 'pleasures' of merciless shooting of elephants for their tusks.

But on the other hand, it contains general human insights: 'the eyes of mankind are blind to the discredited and he who is defenseless and undone finds few friends and little mercy.'
And what is life? 'It is a feather, it is the seed of the grass, blown hither and tither, sometimes multiplying itself and dying in the act, sometimes carried hence into heavens.'
'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. Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the hand with which we hold off death.'

Apart from its biased mentality, this book about the 'journey that a man sets his heart to', remains a classic adventure story of the battle of the brave against evil, hostile environments and adverse fortune.

Not to be missed.

A taste of adventure
This is one of my favourite novels and in this modern age it is still a timeless classic, i first read this book two years ago on a long and boring flight to New Zealand and i couldn't put it down. This is a must read to add to your book collection and i promise you will read it more than once.

An unforgettable adventure
This is one of my favourite books of all time the story is rich and exciting the characters are interesting and alternative a book of this type has not been written so well since this one. The story follows hunter Allan quatermain and his search the diamond mines of king Solomon. He meets up with his friends Sir Henry Curtis and captain John good. Together they set of into the heart of africa with only the map of a dead man and their courage. When they arrive they find more than the bargained for in the country of the Kukuan a lost african tribe who ive atop the mountains in africa. After many battle and a civil war they finnaly find king Solomons mines but the treachery of the kings witch hunter could mean the end of them. If you like this book i suggest you get your hands on other books like allan and the holy flower and the ivory child. Those books are hard to find but definitely worth reading.