This is the first volume in a short series I plan to put together containing what are (IMHO) the best novels of the British Victorian adventure writer, Sir Henry Rider Haggard (who wrote under the name of "H. Rider Haggard"). With a couple of notable exceptions, his books are little read today, which is a great pity, because they are adventure stories on a par (again, IMHO) with the best "thriller" writers of today.

Many of his books are related, and should ideally be read in order. That order is, however, by no means obvious, so I hope to help people out by presenting his books in a suggested reading order in this series.

This volume contains four books, as follows:

1. King Solomon's Mines

This is the one book of Haggard's that everyone's heard of, and justifiably - it has been called one of the greatest adventure stories ever written. In it, hunter Allan Quatermain accompanies two Englishmen searching for lost diamond mines in Africa.

2. Allan Quatermain

The sequel to King Solomon's Mines. Allan, and the Zulu warrior, Umslopogaas, find a lost civilization in the heart of Africa.

3. Nada the Lily

A tie-in novel of sorts to Allan Quatermain, this is the story of the birth, childhood, and youth of Umslopogaas, who featured prominently in "Allan Quatermain". It is set against the background of the rise of the Zulu nation under their greatest (and cruelest) king, Chaka, and his nephew, Dingaan.

4. Allan's Wife

The story of Allan Quatermain's youth, and how he came to meet his wife, Stella.


More soon. Enjoy!

For those who have never read Haggard, I'd be very interested in hearing your opinion of his books.

Edit: 3 Apr 07. v2

Uploaded a new version with the following corrections:

1. "King Solomon's Mines" used the notation "/xxx/" to indicate that the word "xxx" is in italics. Replaced with proper italics.

2. There were a number of instances of English currencies being prefixed with "L" instead of a "£" sign. Replaced with a "£" sign.

Edit: 1 Nov 07

Version 3 uploaded. Major reformatting and cleaning. Preservation of dashes; fixing of line breaks; proper formatting of verse and songs, etc.

Edit: 6 Nov 07

Version 4 uploaded. There were unlinked TOC entries in both "King Solomon's Mines" and "Allan Quatermain". Now fixed.

EDIT: 26 Mar 08

Replaced "King Solomon's Mines" and "Nada the Lily" with new versions to correct a problem with incorrect paragraph breaks. Uploaded v6.

EDIT: 6 Apr 08

Read "King Solomon's Mines" and bookmarked a number of typos and formatting errors while doing so. Corrected these errors, and uploaded v7.

EDIT: 28 Aug 09

MR user "Sparrow" has kindly reported a number of errors in "King Solomon's Mines". Corrected, and uploaded a new v8.

EDIT: 28 Feb 10

Corrected some problems with the HTML which prevented a clean conversion to ePub format. Uploaded v9.

EDIT: 15 Aug 10.

A completely revision. I've painstakingly proof-read all four books against original page scans at Google books, and added all the missing formatting (accented letters, italics, the formatting of songs, etc.) as well as correcting a very large number of errors. For the latter three books in the volume, I've also added a total of 76 illustrations, which enormously enhance the book. The result of that, though, has been a drastic increase in the file size, but I think personally that the results are very well worthwhile. I now regard this book as "finished", so please tell me if you find even the smallest error in it. Uploaded v10.


Previous download count: 1026
Maybe you shouldn't put such major spoilers in the descriptions...
You're absolutely right - I sometimes forget that not everyone knows the stories. Now edited. Hope I didn't spoil it too much for you!
I remember King Solomon's Mines. It's an awesome story, and I am glad Harry picked it out for us again. Thanks for the hard work, dude!
You've got me eager to try them. So many books and so little time!
King Solomon's Mines I loved it when I was a child
So I started reading KSM and kept reading. Got up and put some Elgar on the stereo (it seemed to fit.) Read some more. It was 3 am when I looked up again.
That's wonderful to hear . Nothing like "discovering" a new author, is there? Haggard is just a great storyteller, and that's a skill that's timeless.

If you like his stuff you've got 50+ more novels of his to enjoy .
And I've got about 50 volumes of Harvard Classics to prepare. Maybe I could alternate -- prep one, read one, prep one, read one, ....

He is a great storyteller.
This started as a PM to Harry to curse him for posting the Haggard.

Between work (a four letter word) and other small things like eating, sleeping, and creating more volumes of the Harvard Classics series; I have been reading Volume 1 of the anthology series.

They just get better. I have completed three quarters of it so far and if not for other work related nonfiction reading (although to be honest a lot of it also reads as bad fiction) I would be much further along in the anthologies.

So I guess thanks rather than curses are in order. Thanks.