A few weeks ago I rented a really wretched movie called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It is essentially a superhero movie, except that the superheros are 19th century literary characters. The characters include Tom Sawyer, Mina Harker (from Dracula), Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll, Captain Nemo, and the Invisible Man (or I should say an invisible man, since he is not the original). The troupe of adventurers is led by Alan Quatermain (Sean Connery), a name that meant nothing to me.
As it turns out, Quatermain is the hero of a number of novels by one H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925), a Victorian adventure writer. The first of these books, King Solomon’s Mines, (1885) is regarded as one of the first books of the “lost world” genre. I decided to put the book on my holiday reading list.
I would have to say that while the book is historically interesting as a “first,” I don’t know that it has much to offer the modern, adult reader. It has a definite feel of adolescence about it, and, in fact, the book is dedicated to “all the big and little boys who read it.” That said, it isn’t very long and the pages do tend to keep turning easily.
The plot is fairly simple. Three adventurers, Quatermain, Sir Henry Curtis, and Captain John Good, set out on a quest into southern Africa in search of Curtis’s brother, who disappeared on a quest to find the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon. They take with them a mysterious native servant by the name of Umbopa. After crossing a vast desert, they find themselves in Kukuanaland, which is ruled by an evil tyrant named Twala. Twala, in turn, seems to be ruled by an ancient hag named Gagool (think Grima from The Lord of the Rings). Umbopa reveals himself as Ignosi, the true king of Kukuanaland, whose father was murdered by Twala. A war ensues between followers of Ignosi and Twala loyalists, which culminates in Curtis decapitating Twala. Ignosi takes the throne and abolishes the cruel practices of Twala and Gagool.
Still hoping to get some diamonds out of all this (they’d already given up on Curtis’s brother), the three adventurers force Gagool to take them to the mines. They display some very bad judgment regarding how to treat an unwilling guide who hates you and allow Gagool to trap them in the mines (although she gets herself crushed by a stone door in the process). Eventually they escape with enough diamonds to keep them comfortable and even find Curtis’s brother as a bonus.
In a novel of this sort, I was expecting some really appalling racism, but was pleasantly surprised. The most noble character is undoubtedly Ignosi, while the most ridiculous is Good. The black characters run the gamut from the majestic Ignosi to the cruel Twala and the positively demonic Gagool. There is a subplot involving Good’s romance with a native woman whom he rescues from a witch-hunt. She is conveniently killed by Gagool before the question of marriage can arise. Overall, the attitude of the book seems to be one of respect for African culture. The white explorers see themselves as strangers and guests in a foreign land, not its lords and masters.
Is it a great book? Not really. It is interesting to see the genesis of so many plot devises that have become clichés in more recent literature. And if you read it, it helps to picture Quatermain as Sean Connery.