King Solomon’s Mines is narrated by Allan Quatermain, an adventurer who has been “trading, hunting, fighting, or mining” for the greater part of his fifty-five years. At the beginning of the story, he lists four reasons why his “history” has been written. The first reason is because Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good asked him to write an account of the adventure the three had experienced in their search for Sir Henry’s brother. The search is the external motivating force of the story as these three Englishmen, in the highest tradition of heroism and empire building, accompanied by Umbopa, the embodiment of the noble savage, endure the heat of the desert, the cold of the mountains, and the strange customs and unabated violence of a primitive people.
The familiar trappings of the romance are all here: the savage as sojourner in civilization, the westerner as subduer of the wilderness, an exotic and distant land, bountiful and beautiful, a legend of treasure, a treasure map, the diversionf of an elephant hunt and a native revolution, and even the two extremes of romantic womanhood-the lovely and fated Foulata and the crafty and evil old witch, Gagool.
Weight | 0.2 kg |
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Author | |
ISBN | 9780804901406 |
Publisher | Airmont |
Publication Year | 1967 |
Pages | 221 |
Format | Paperback |