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, though: 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.

Lost treasure, the roar of the lion and high adventure

These are the first two adventures of H. Rider Haggard's famous character-Allan Quatermain. Quatermain is the ultimate white man in Africa--the Great White Hunter, adventurer and guide. These are stories brim full of action, romance, big game hunting, hairsbreadth escapes from dangerous animals and the fierce peoples of the Dark Continent, fantastical landscapes and strange hidden cultures--with lost cities from a time when vast expanses of this mysterious land remained untrodden by the feet of Western man and it seemed that anything was yet possible. In this first volume of the complete Quatermain novels and short stories--available from Leonaur in hard and soft cover--are the ever popular 'King Solomon's Mines' and 'Allan Quatermain'. These books will be a joy for all collectors who will relish the opportunity to own all the adventures in a coordinated collection.

'Don't you see that we are buried alive?'

When Allan Quatermain is approached by Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to search for Sir Henry's missing brother, deep in the African interior, he agrees to lead their expedition. Quatermain has a map to the fabled King Solomon's Mines, whose treasure the missing man sought to attain. Their journey takes them to Kukuanaland, where they find a warrior tribe in thrall to King Twala. Soon the white men are embroiled in a desperate tribal battle, and Quatermain's expedition can only reach its goal with the aid of Gagool, the ancient 'mother' no one trusts.

Haggard's exciting adventure story captivated readers when it was first published in 1885. It helped inaugurate a wave of 'lost world' romances inspired by the exploits of British explorers in colonial Africa. This new edition looks at Haggard's own African experiences and unlikely literary success, and his ambivalent attitude to the native tribes and the ravages of the British Empire.

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A peculiarly thrilling and vigorous tale of adventure. -- Andrew Lang
It goes and it grips and it moves with all the freshness of youth. -- Rudyard Kipling
When Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was first published, H. Rider Haggard made a five-shilling bet that he could write a better adventure tale. In 1885, he created King Solomon's Mines, a story in which Allan Quatermain, a gentleman adventurer, is hired to locate a man who had disappeared into the heart of Africa while hunting for the legendary lost diamond mines of King Solomon. The book became an instant sensation and has remained popular ever since.
Tales of adventure in exotic settings were the hallmark of Haggard's art; and King Solomon's Mines was no exception. Here were all the elements for which his novels were famous: a gripping tale in a foreign setting, supernatural adventures, terror, passion, and discovery. Praised as the most amazing story ever written, the book went on to become one of the bestselling novels of the 19th century.

Drawing on his knowledge of Africa and of ancient legends, adventure writer H. Rider Haggard weaves this disturbing tale of Ayesha, the mysterious and immortal white queen of a Central African tribe. She, or She-who-must-be-obeyed, is the embodiment of the mythological female figure who is both monstrous and desirable, and deadlier than the male. She is a pioneering work in the Lost World genre.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Intrepid adventurer and explorer Allan Quatermain can't turn away from a challenge, especially if an injustice has been perpetrated. In this tale of a hunting trip that goes horribly awry, Quatermain has met his match, joining forces with an African warrior princess who is dead-set on revenge.

King Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It 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. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre.The book was first published in September 1885 amid considerable fanfare, with billboards and posters around London announcing The Most Amazing Book Ever Written. It became an immediate best seller. By the late 19th century, explorers were uncovering ancient civilisations around the world, such as Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and the empire of Assyria. Inner Africa remained largely unexplored and King Solomon's Mines, the first novel of African adventure published in English, captured the public's imagination. The King Solomon of the book's title is the Biblical king renowned both for his wisdom and for his wealth. A number of sites have been suggested as the location of his mines, including the workings at the Timna valley near Eilat. Research published in September 2013 has shown that this site was in use during the 10th century BC as a copper mine possibly by the Edomites, who the Bible reports were rivals of and frequently at war with King Solomon. Haggard knew Africa well, having travelled deep within the continent as a 19-year-old during the Anglo-Zulu War and the First Boer War, where he had been impressed by South Africa's vast mineral wealth and by the ruins of ancient lost cities being uncovered, such as Great Zimbabwe. His original Allan Quatermain character was based in large part on Frederick Courtney Selous, the famous British white hunter and explorer of Colonial Africa. Selous's real-life experiences provided Haggard with the background and inspiration for this and many later stories.

When George Neville vanishes while searching for King Solomon's diamond mines in Africa, his brother, Sir Henry Curtis, knows that he cannot find his brother without help. Said to be located in an unexplored and dangerous region, Curtis seeks out Allan Quatermain, an esteemed hunter and explorer. However, Quatermain is reluctant to help, due to the dangerous nature of the rescue mission, and out of concern for his son, who would be defenseless if Quatermain was unable to return. After making a deal to ensure his son's wellbeing in the event of an untimely death, Quatermain and Curtis start to assemble an expedition group. With the help of an old map said to have been used by a man who claimed to have found King Solomon's treasure, Quatermain and Curtis embark on a perilous rescue mission with their crew. As they trek across unfamiliar land with low supplies, they struggle to overcome the harsh conditions of the terrain, causing tragic accidents and breeding doubt that they will make it back home alive. But when they stumble into an unrelenting cave, the group of explorers make a shocking discovery and meet a native group on the brink of a civil war, complicating their mission even further.

First published in 1885, King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard was an innovative novel of the Victorian era, and is considered to be the novel that founded the lost world genre. King Solomon's Mines has since inspired many major authors, and adaptations in film, comics, and radio. Meant to be enjoyed by all ages, King Solomon's Mines caters to a wide audience and delivers an exciting narrative full of wit and imagination that remains relevant and fun for contemporary readers.

This edition of King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard features a new, eye-catching cover design and is printed in a font that is both modern and readable. With these accommodations, King Solomon's Mines caters to a contemporary audience while preserving the original innovation and adventure of H. Rider Haggard's work.

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The great man of Africa strides out with two more adventures

This is the third volume of the collected adventures of Allan Quatermain-hunter, trader, explorer and adventurer-set once again in the exotic landscape of nineteenth century South East Africa at a time when the continent was still truly 'dark'. Quatermain here ventures once more into the ever perilous lands of the mighty Zulu nation and there in 'The Child of the Storm', the first tale in this book he finds himself embroiled with a femme fatale, intrigue, treachery, sorcery and a battle for the throne of the kingship of the Zulu nation which erupts in into full scale civil war. In the second story 'Allan and the Holy Flower', our hero finds himself on the potentially more gentle activity of the quest for a rare orchid. Perhaps predictably that also involves conflict with slavers, abductions, fierce tribes, cannibalism and a demon god in the form of a giant gorilla.

Allan Quatermain, an adventurer and hunter, is approached by aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis, seeking his help finding Sir Henry's brother, who was last seen travelling north into the unexplored interior on a quest for the fabled King Solomon's Mines. Quartermain agrees to lead an expedition, but the travellers soon meet a party of Kukuana warriors who are ruled by a violent king.

King Solomon's Mines is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre. Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother, who said that he could not write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The book was published in 1885 and became the year's best seller, with printers struggling to print copies fast enough.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

ERIC BRIGHTEYES - A BOOK THAT INSPIRED TOLKIEN. With original illustrations.

Rider Haggard is among a small selection of Victorian and Edwardian writers whom Professor J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) acknowledged by name. In her introduction to this new edition Cecilia Dart-Thornton says, 'Haggard's classic is an action-packed adventure filled with Viking feasts duels, battles on land and sea, romance, treachery, magic, beautiful women and brave heroes. In a description that could be straight out of The Lord of the Rings, Haggard writes that Eric was strong and great of stature, his hair was yellow as gold, and his grey eyes shone with the light of swords.' 'For both authors, landscape plays as important a part as any character, and is described in concise yet evocative language. Haggard plunges his readers among the dizzying precipices, waterfalls, fast flowing rivers, icy winters and stormy seas of his fantastic Iceland, much as Tolkien sweeps us into Middle-Earth.' Enriched by almost sixty vibrant vignettes and illustrations by the hand of artist Lancelot Speed, this book is a close replica of the 1891 edition, published when Tolkien was one year old. He read it during the formative years of his youth, absorbing, no doubt, the lavish details of the pictures as he perused the tale. Speed was a highly accomplished and prolific fantasy illustrator during Tolkien's lifetime, and he illuminated many titles Tolkien is known to have read. A dwarf-forged sword wrested from Barrow Dwellers, its bright blade engraved with runes; the appellation: 'Ring-giver'; poetry and song; a hero with grey eyes - these and many more resemblances of style and content exist between Haggard's classic tale and 'The Lord of the Rings'.

Quatermain and Umslopogaas embark on more adventures

This is volume seven, the final book of the Leonaur complete adventures of Allan Quatermain, H. Rider Haggard's famous adventurer, guide, trader and big game hunter-the consummate white man on the Dark Continent of the nineteenth century. This volume contains four shorter stories as well as the seventeenth adventure, 'Allan and the Ice Gods' and the eighteenth, Nada the Lily. Both, predictably encompass all the vital ingredients that make a Quatermain story such compulsive reading. Haggard also devoted a novel to the origins and early adventures of Quatermain's stalwart Zulu warrior companion, the mighty Umslopogaas. Although the tale only references Quatermain its principal character is an essential and important component of the Quatermain saga and so his story deserves its place in this collection. Readers will also be delighted to learn that 'Nada the Lily' is highly regarded in the Haggard canon and will deliver a satisfying, riveting and exciting read in its own right.

Quatermain loads his elephant gun and embarks on more adventures

This is the fifth volume of Leonaur's seven volume complete coordinated collection of the epic adventure stories of Allan Quatermain, Rider-Haggard's consummate nineteenth century white man in Africa. The Quatermain tales include many that are much less familiar than the first story-the famous King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain is a man of his time and place so most of his adventures included the wild, warlike, tribal nations of South East Africa, its beautiful and untamed landscape and its spectacular and often dangerous fauna. Historically accurate elements such as slavers and the imperial domination of Victorian powers are also common. But Rider-Haggard always held a space open for the fantastical. Wizardry, ghosts, hidden peoples, bizarre cults and incredible creatures-which seemed to have the potential to be hidden somewhere in the dark heart of the Dark Continent-and all are likely to make appearances in their turn. This volume includes the two novels The Ancient Allan & She and Allan to delight Quatermain's enthusiastic aficionados.

An addition to the Leonaur Ancient Adventures series by H. Rider Haggard

Rider Haggard is one of the most famous authors of adventure fiction in the English language. Almost everyone has heard of Allan Quatermain-the hero of King Solomon's Mines-and the beautiful, ruthless, magically immortal Ayesha-She 'who must be obeyed.' All of Haggard's novels and stories featuring both characters are available in handsome Leonaur editions. Haggard was a prolific writer so it is not surprising that only a few of his titles are widely known-and read-by an audience which would enjoy them all. The essential elements of his most famous creations-the great African continent and ancient civilisations, mysterious and exotic, mythical, imagined or real, are combined in a number of his novels and stories and these too have now been collected by Leonaur into a special four volume set-African Adventures. Readers will therefore be unsurprised to learn that Haggard could not resist writing a number of tales about ancient civilisations, or that in these he naturally gravitated towards the most evocative of them all-the world of the Ancient Egyptians and the other peoples of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. This is a stunning body of fiction which Leonaur has gathered together into a five volume set-each successive volume following a chronological time-line along the sweeping march of history.
Volume five-an additional volume-in the Rider Haggard series of stories set in the Ancient world contains a single novel, 'Belshazzar.' Ramose is the offspring of an Egyptian Pharaoh and a Greek woman. Brought up in a life of luxury he is catapulted into a life of adventure which leads him to the fall of Babylon at the hand of the Persian Empire under Cyrus. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket.

A Victorian Indiana Jones, Allan Quatermain triumphs over deserts, snowy mountains, tribal warfare, and witches, and unearths the mythical treasure of King Solomon's mines. Includes four additional short stories featuring Quatermain.

This faithful but unpretending record of a remarkable adventure is hereby respectfully dedicated by the narrator to all the big boys and little boys who read it. I offer apologies for my blunt way of writing. I can but say in excuse of it that I am more accustomed to handle a rifle than a pen. This is the strange history of our journey into the heart of Kukuanaland; a trek into the interior of the dark continent to find a lost friend and discover the diamond mines of King Solomon. In the course of a long life of shaves, I never had such shaves as those which I had recently experienced. --Allan Quatermain, of Durban, Natal, Gentleman

Now I, Allan Quatermain, come to the weirdest (with one or two exceptions perhaps) of all the experiences which it has amused me to employ my idle hours in recording here in a strange land, for after all England is strange to me. I grow elderly. I have, a

The master story teller's view of the Ancient World

Rider Haggard is one of the most famous authors of adventure fiction in the English language. Almost everyone has heard of Allan Quatermain-the hero of King Solomon's Mines-and the beautiful, ruthless, magically immortal Ayesha-She 'who must be obeyed.' All of Haggard's novels and stories featuring both characters are available in handsome Leonaur editions. Haggard was a prolific writer so it is not surprising that only a few of his titles are widely known-and read-by an audience which would enjoy them all. The essential elements of his most famous creations-the great African continent and ancient civilisations, mysterious and exotic, mythical, imagined or real, are combined in a number of his novels and stories and these too have now been collected by Leonaur into a special four volume set-African Adventures. Readers will therefore be unsurprised to learn that Haggard could not resist writing a number of tales about ancient civilisations, or that in these he naturally gravitated towards the most evocative of them all-the world of the Ancient Egyptians and the other peoples of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. This is a stunning body of fiction which Leonaur has gathered together into a four volume set-each successive volume following a chronological time-line along the sweeping march of history.
In this first volume of Adventures in the Ancient World, Haggard has set his stage almost as far back in recorded civilisation as possible. Queen of the Dawn, the first novel, is set in Egypt one thousand eight hundred years before the time of Christ in the time of the Shepherd King Apepi. The second novel, Moon of Israel, is also set in Egypt-in the 13th Century BC at the time of Pharaoh Amenmeses-and centres around the Biblical Exodus. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket for collectors.

Caught between the red and the black-Quatermain at war

In this, the fourth volume of Allan Quatermain's adventures in the turbulent world of nineteenth century Africa, our hero once again finds it impossible to lead the simple outdoor life of a hunter and trader that he always craves. Now it is the late 1870s and the imperial world powers are overtaking the remaining primitive corners of the globe. The British Empire now borders on Zululand and nothing will satisfy the British but the dissolution of the Zulu Impis themselves-in fact the destruction of the Zulu way of life. In 'Finished' Allan finds himself caught up in these momentous times. In 1879 the Zulu War breaks out and Allan finds himself at Isandlwhana within the doomed ranks of red soldiery. In the 'Ivory Child', Quatermain's adventures become more personal. A beautiful young woman has been abducted into Africa's dark heart to become an unholy priestess. She must be rescued but there are many perils and once again a war erupts between rival native factions which threatens to destroy Allan and his friends.

Allan Quatermain set out on more breathtaking adventures

Leonaur have set out to create the definitive collection of the stories of Allan Quatermain-H. Rider-Haggard's famous white man of Africa-the ultimate hunter, trader, guide and adventurer. The quality of these tales of nineteenth century Africa simply cannot be overstated, particularly as many of them are little known even by those who would eagerly read them. Now there is the opportunity to own the complete Quatermain in hardcover with dust jacket or soft back with coordinating cover designs to enjoy time and again. This is the sixth volume containing two complete and colourful novels-Heu-Heu or the Monster and The Treasure of the Lake.

Two more fabulous adventures from the dark heart of Africa

These are the third, fourth and fifth adventures featuring H. Rider Haggard's famous character--Allan Quatermain. Quatermain is the ultimate white man in Africa--the Great White Hunter, adventurer and guide. These are stories brim full of action, romance, big game hunting, hairsbreadth escapes from dangerous animals and the fierce peoples of the Dark Continent, fantastical landscapes and strange hidden cultures--with lost cities from a time when vast expanses of this mysterious land remained untrodden by the feet of Western man and it seemed that anything was yet possible. In this second volume of the complete Quatermain novels and short stories--available from Leonaur in hard and soft cover--are the lesser known 'Allan's Wife, ' 'Maiwa's Revenge' & 'Marie.' These books will be a joy for all collectors who will relish the opportunity to own all the adventures in a coordinated collection.