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Solomons Mines Research

Sir Henry Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in 1885 after travelling extensively in Africa as a young man. The adventure story follows English hunter Allan Quartermaine as he searches for his missing friend's brother and the fabled mines of King Solomon. Accompanied by an African man who is the lost heir to a kingdom, they find the mines filled with gold and diamonds but must escape traps set by an evil witch. The novel was influenced by Haggard's experiences in Africa and was adapted into several films and other works.

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295 views2 pages

Solomons Mines Research

Sir Henry Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon's Mines in 1885 after travelling extensively in Africa as a young man. The adventure story follows English hunter Allan Quartermaine as he searches for his missing friend's brother and the fabled mines of King Solomon. Accompanied by an African man who is the lost heir to a kingdom, they find the mines filled with gold and diamonds but must escape traps set by an evil witch. The novel was influenced by Haggard's experiences in Africa and was adapted into several films and other works.

Uploaded by

vikkikerslake
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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King Solomons Mines Research

About the Author


Sir Henry Rider Haggard was a British writer, born in 1856 and died in 1925. At the age of 19, he travelled to Africa, where he became the secretary to the governor of Natal. In 1878, he became Registrar of the High Court in the Transvaal. In later years, he wrote a book on the history of the nineteenth century Southern Africa. This time of his life is where he developed inspiration for his future novels, including King Solomons mines, which he wrote in 1885.

Plot Synopsis
It is said to be the first in the genre of adventure stories to be set in Africa. It tell the story of English wildlife hunter Allan Quartermaine, as he sets out to discover the fate of a missing brother of a companion; the wealthy Sir Henry Curtis. On the trail, Quartermaine finds a map giving the location of the fabled king Solomon's mines and decides to accompany a team of people to search out the mines for a cut of the treasure. He meets a regal African man who accompanies them, and who turns out to be the lost son and heir of the kingdom where Solomon's mine is located. After supporting the king to regain his throne, they are granted permission to enter the mine in hope of finding their treasure. The main supporter of the deposed false king; a strange witch-like woman called Gagool, assists the party into the cave and through a secret door which only she can operate. They eventually find the room filled with gold, ivory tusks, and the diamonds they were looking for, but Gagool decides to leave them to die. Gagool herself is crushed to death, and the explorers are left with all the riches they could dream of, to die.

Adaptations
The novel has been adapted into numerous films, simply titled King Solomons Mines:1937, 1950 and 1985. It was also adapted into an animated telemovie in 1986, and a mini-series in 2004. A National Geographic documentary was made in 2002. It has also been adapted into a comic, King Solomons Mines - an Avon comic. (1951)

What was going on at the time


The story has a number themes some of which are greed and british imperialism and colonisation. At the time, Victorian Britain was considered the most technologically advanced nation in the world, and also the richest, having an empire that stretched every continent. The empire regularly plundered the resources from other nations.

Influences
Haggard was influenced by his travels around Africa throughout his life. He was also inspired by the famous novel Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson), released in the same year as Solomons Mines. When The novel was released, He and his brother played a bet on wether haggard could write a novel just as good, in just 6 weeks.

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