I’ve kept this book waiting on my shelf for the better part of two
years. I’d bought the copy out of sheer
curiosity, and because it was being sold quite cheaply. The curiosity began in 2003 when they came
out with the movie “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” At that time, I didn’t know that Allan Moore
had made a graphic novel series on which the movie was based. But the idea of putting together several
central figures from beloved and memorable literary classics in one highly
commercialized mash-up of a Hollywood cash cow seemed quite intriguing to me. So I saw the flick, was sufficiently
entertained, and left with an itch to read or reread the books where those
characters came from.
H. Rider Haggard wrote “King Solomon’s Mines” and “Allan Quartermain” in
the late 1800’s. I don’t know much about
this period, but I assume that Haggard was one of the founding fathers of the
adventure genre (correct me if I’m wrong).
There have been so many stories, movies and TV shows that featured the
character of Allan Quartermain over the years.
He is a very popular example of the British gentleman-adventurer. In these two books, Quartermain takes the
voice of the narrator as he tells the stories of the many challenges and daring
adventures that he undergoes.
Surprisingly, Allan describes himself as a coward, preferring to run
away and confronting only when there is no other recourse. In the books, his actions are often motivated
by financial needs, but in Allan
Quartermain he set out adventuring for a deeper reason and well, just for
the heck of it. He has plenty of respect
for the Africans – calling them brave and noble. I never encountered a line that seemed
derogatory towards them. The book has
what you could only expect from the genre – perilous quests, girls in need of
rescuing, battles against hostile tribes, near-deaths by starvation and being
eaten by monstrous crabs, underground rivers and deep-sea volcanoes, falling
off of cliffs and waterfalls, being sucked by whirlpools, war and battle,
jealousy and betrayal, and (of course!) a long lost kingdom of riches with
stunningly beautiful princesses to fall in love with. Allan
Quartermain has it all. But this wouldn’t
be a classic if it didn’t have anything meaningful and timeless to it, and
there were plenty of these. Here are
some of my favourite lines from the book:
At the very beginning, he grieves for his lost son. “December 25. I have just buried
my boy, my handsome boy of whom I was so proud, and my heart is broken.” I
love how simple and honest this sentence is.
It being unembellished all the more adds to its emotional impact, knowing
that this grief comes from a man you assume to be a hardened, heroic
adventurer.
“Civilization is only savagery silver-gilt.”
“Man’s cleverness is almost infinite, and stretches
like an elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round and round it, you can polish
it highly, you can even flatten it a little on one side, whereby you will make
it bulge out on the other, but you will never, while the world endures
and man is man, increase its total circumference.”
“So when the heart is stricken, and the head is
humbled in the dust, civilization fails us utterly.”
“Although she was at an age when in England
girls are in the schoolroom and come down to dessert, this ‘child of the
wilderness’ had more courage, discretion, and power of mind than many a woman
of mature age nurtured in idleness and luxury, with minds carefully drilled and
educated out of any originality or self-resource that nature may have endowed
them with.” As a
teacher, I cannot ignore this line. I
have a niggling feeling that it is TRUE – that we are essentially educating our
children OUT of their creativity and originality, turning them merely into what
we think society deems “productive.” The
fact that the author observed this and wrote about in the 1800’s is just wow.
This is a beautiful description of a sunrise: “…till at length the east turned grey, and huge misty shapes moved over
the surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours rising from their watery
bed to greet the sun. Then the grey
turned to primrose, and the primrose grew to red. Next, the glorious bars of light sprang up
across the eastern sky, and now between them the messengers of dawn came speeding
upon their arrowy way, scattering ghostly vapours and touching the distant
mountain-tops, as they flew from range to range and longitude to
longitude. Another moment, and the
golden gates were open and the sun himself came forth gloriously, with pomp and
splendour and a flashing as of ten million spears, and covered up the night
with brightness, and it was day.”
If you are into this genre, or you happen to like adventuresome
characters like Indiana Jones and others like him, reading H. Rider Haggard’s
stories and getting to know Allan Quartermain will prove worthwhile. Enjoy!
