H. Rider Haggard
Allan Quatermain, an adventurer and hunter, is approached by aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis, seeking his help finding Sir Henry’s brother, who was last seen travelling north into the unexplored interior on a quest for the fabled King Solomon’s Mines. Quartermain agrees to lead an expedition, but the travellers soon meet a party of Kukuana warriors who are ruled by a violent king. King Solomon’s Mines is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre. Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother, who said that he could not write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. The book was published in 1885 and became the year’s best seller, with printers struggling to print copies fast enough.
