Name: Allan Quatermain
SKU: 61323775
Author: Henry Rider Haggard
ISBN: 9781540849113

Type

Physical Book

Author

Henry Rider Haggard

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

436

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x2.3 cm

Weight

0.58 kg.

ISBN13

9781540849113

Synopsis "Allan Quatermain"

Allan Quatermain's only son has died and he longs to get back into the wilderness. He persuades Sir Henry Curtis, Captain John Good, and the Zulu chief Umslopogaas to accompany him, and they set out from the coast of east Africa into the territory of the Maasai. While staying with a Scottish missionary, Mr. Mackenzie, they run into a group of Maasai who kidnap Mr. Mackenzie's daughter. The Maasai demand the life of Allan Quatermain as ransom, but he instead leads an attack on the Maasai, catching them by surprise and slaughtering them. The group then travel by canoe along an underground river to a lake (which turns out to be the sacred lake of Zu-Vendis) in the kingdom of Zu-Vendis beyond a range of mountains. The Zu-Vendi are a warlike race of white-skinned people isolated from other African races; their capital is called Milosis.

Henry Rider Haggard

(Author)

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Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was a prolific British novelist, a pioneer of the adventure genre, and known for his stories set in Africa and ancient Egypt. Born in Bradenham, Norfolk, he was the son of a lawyer and a writer. After studying at Ipswich high school and working in South Africa as the secretary to the governor of Natal, Haggard returned to England in 1882. There, he wrote a story about the Zulus and prepared to enter the Bar, although his literary career soon eclipsed his legal practice.

His greatest success came with King Solomon's Mines (1885), an African adventure novel that introduced the character Allan Quatermain. This book marked the beginning of the "lost worlds" subgenre and was followed by She (1887), which became a classic of fantasy literature. The protagonist of She, Ayesha, was cited by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung as a prototype of the feminine.

Throughout his career, Haggard wrote more than 60 novels, many of them set in Africa or other parts of the British Empire. His work influenced later writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was knighted in 1912 for his services in the agricultural reform of the British Empire. He died in 1925 in London and was buried at St. Mary's Church in Ditchingham, Norfolk.

Although his novels reflect the imperialist ideals of his time, they also show a remarkable sympathy towards the native African populations, which distinguishes them from other colonial works of his time.
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