The prolific late Victorian author Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) mesmerized the British public with his stirring, romantic tales of adventure. He wrote 68 books altogether, many of which are set in Africa. Along with his friend Rudyard Kipling, who also set his stories in far-off corners of the British Empire, Haggard both defended and glorified Britain’s imperial aspirations. King Solomon’s Mines, the book that brought him overnight celebrity in 1885, is based on the author’s personal experience in British South Africa. Haggard went to South Africa in 1875 as a 19-yearold assistant to the lieutenant-governor of the British colony of Natal. Holding posts of increasing responsibility, he traveled widely in Africa over the next six years, returning to Britain in 1881. His experiences gave him material not only for King Solomon’s Mines, but also for his later books, which include She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887), Maiwa’s Revenge (1888), Nada the Lily (1892), and Queen Sheba’s Ring (1910). A number of them feature Allan Quatermain, the big-game hunter who narrates King Solomon’s Mines and who became Haggard’s most popular character.
Zulus, Boers, and British in South Africa.
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