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A review by odd_biscuit
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
2.0
If you can stomach the 19th century colonial perspective, there is some good storytelling ability on display here.
As an adventure story, this is hugely influential and gives us many elements of the now familiar 'ancient lost treasure' narrative. A rugged, experienced hero is recruited to go on a quest for a fabled historical treasure. There is an old map and we must follow the footsteps of a previous seeker who is now missing, and whose fate we will discover. There is an elaborate way to open a hidden door to the treasure's resting place, and villains you must have at your side with always the danger that they will take the upper hand. I won't detail the last act but you will recognise many more elements of what happens in it from a number of modern works.
It was written in 1885 but, the style of writing is surprisingly modern. There is nothing of Conan Doyle's ornate language here. Except, obviously, the characters talk like you would expect 19th century colonial types to ("By Jove!" "Great Heavens!" and all that.) Standing out to me is the way in which Haggard uses call backs to a gag about Captain Good's "beautiful white legs", which seems strangely familiar in light of today's scriptwriting.
The period racism is horrendous but reportedly less so than other works even written later than this. It is so bad that in an early scene in which the party finds desperately needed water, I was truly surprised that the white men do not insist on drinking first and making their black companions wait until after. What, I suppose, do we expect from a book written in the 1880's that is specifically about rich white men in Africa? We should remember that even the still beloved Sherlock Holmes shows up poorly in the one story of his in which he has significant interaction with a black man.
As an adventure story, this is hugely influential and gives us many elements of the now familiar 'ancient lost treasure' narrative. A rugged, experienced hero is recruited to go on a quest for a fabled historical treasure. There is an old map and we must follow the footsteps of a previous seeker who is now missing, and whose fate we will discover. There is an elaborate way to open a hidden door to the treasure's resting place, and villains you must have at your side with always the danger that they will take the upper hand. I won't detail the last act but you will recognise many more elements of what happens in it from a number of modern works.
It was written in 1885 but, the style of writing is surprisingly modern. There is nothing of Conan Doyle's ornate language here. Except, obviously, the characters talk like you would expect 19th century colonial types to ("By Jove!" "Great Heavens!" and all that.) Standing out to me is the way in which Haggard uses call backs to a gag about Captain Good's "beautiful white legs", which seems strangely familiar in light of today's scriptwriting.
The period racism is horrendous but reportedly less so than other works even written later than this. It is so bad that in an early scene in which the party finds desperately needed water, I was truly surprised that the white men do not insist on drinking first and making their black companions wait until after. What, I suppose, do we expect from a book written in the 1880's that is specifically about rich white men in Africa? We should remember that even the still beloved Sherlock Holmes shows up poorly in the one story of his in which he has significant interaction with a black man.