I read this after Ayesha and was struck by the more vigorous prose, the faster pace of the story. It’s a wonderful adventure tale, even after all these years. To be sure all the black characters are either faithful servants, nobles, loyal 2-I-Cs or villains…but Haggard would later show with his writings that all his white characters fitted into one of those categories as well. Quartermain is an engaging hero – elderly, tiny, a crack shot and an admitted coward, as well as being a little sad – a long way from Stewart Granger or Richard Chamberlain, but both those actors could have been comfortably cast as Sir Henry Curtis.
The story has since become cliché but it still works – the offer to make the expedition; the mysterious back story; being joined by the Zulu with a past; voyaging up Sheba’s breast; trudging through the desert; using knowledge of eclipses to outsmart the locals; taking part in a massive insurrection to restore the rightful king; Gagool the witch; being stuck in the mines.
Two black servants die for Good (one of them a woman, who is glad she died – as is Quartermain - because she’s in love with him and she doesn’t want miscegenation); Quartermain refers to “kaffirs” and Haggard seems to be promoting “separate development” of the black race.
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