Allan and the Holy Flower

Description

H. Rider Haggard is most known for his adventure books. Most of his stories unfold against exotic backgrounds such as Africa. He was a Victorian Man and a Renaissance Man as well, a master of various genres encompassing not only adventure, but fantasy, romance, fables, historical novels and sci-fi as well, Allan and the Holy Flower being one of the books he is the most famous for.

The novel is part of the Quartermain series – a total of 14 novels depicting the adventures of Allan Quartermain, a famous English hunter in the wilderness of Africa. The fast-paced, action-packed story of the novel is about Quartermain’s expedition to Africa to find a very rare orchid and to search the wilderness with the purpose of finding the kidnapped wife of one of the protagonist’s friends. We see a romanticized version of Africa – Quartermain’s adventures involve fighting against a powerful gorilla god, he encounters slave traders, even cannibals and wizards.

Quartermain’s character is funny and heroic at the same time. He fights like an epic hero, but he also has the sense of humor necessary for moving on and getting involved into new adventures. The character is capable of learning and he evolves and develops as he goes through his adventures, but the novel’s real forte is the thrilling succession of events. There is not one predictable event in the entire novel, making readers hold their breath all the way through and the way Haggard mixes in descriptions of different cultures also adds a lot to the quality of the entertainment the book offers.

Beautiful Victorian language, swift action and entertaining characters – these are the features that make Allan and the Holy Flower so much fun to read and these are the features that have made all the Quartermain stories so popular, even today, a century after they were first published.
[amz_corss_sell asin=”1775424057″]