Reviews

Allan and the Holy Flower by H. Rider Haggard

paul_cornelius's review against another edition

4.0

A return, in many ways, to its late Victorian origins, this volume in the Quatermain series seems to relish in adventure and fantasy for their own sake. At the same time, Haggard also returns to a sense of Victorian morality, especially as regards the issues of killing and justice. Odd, because the book first appeared in serial form just before the carnage of the First World War. In the book format, it was published during the war, in 1915. So here we have a work reaching back into the last century to find its bearings. Even more so, just a few years later, the Roaring Twenties would blow the doors off their hinges and usher in a cultural shift so radical that the pages Haggard penned, especially about empire, marriage, murder, and law, would come to be seen as quaint and out of place. Lucky for those reading the novel, now, that they can put themselves into two pairs of shoes--those of the readers whose world was about to be upended by World War I and the cultural cacophony that followed and those of the readers nostalgically looking towards the past, as Quatermain himself does in this volume and as the aging Haggard also was no doubt doing.

*One more note. Again, it appears that Haggard is making use of James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough to lace his work with allusions to taboos in place in far away lands. I also wonder if Merian C. Cooper read this book about this time or soon thereafter. Some resemblance to King Kong fills the novel.

vayeate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Such simple things Haggard describes money, greed, cowardice, vengeance and savages.
This was the seventh book I read by Henry and find his books entertaining. 
Far more entertaining for example than recent movies that were released this year(2022).
Anyway, I would recommend this book to anyone who has a thirst for adventure books. 

luftschlosseule's review against another edition

2.0

I was not prepared for this.

I've read King Salomo's Mines years ago and am a huge fan of Mary Henrietta Kingsley and travelogues from that time period, so I thought I'd know what I am getting into.

The plot: Quartermain meets an old friend who tells him of a very valuable orchid which is worshipped as a god by a tribe, the Pongo. They want to take it, take, not steal, because that would mean they had some inkling of what they were planning, some kind of moral conscience.

Quartermain has a trip to England sheduled, and ventures to find a sponsor willing to set them out for the expedition. He recruits a young guy, who clearly never achieved any kind of training he'd need for the adventure and who just was disinherited by his father. I wonder where he had the money from, since his father gave him none.

Back in Africa, I am left quite speechless at the level of racism portrayed here. Guy takes the wrong cup by accident and is nearly retching because on of the "stupid savages" has drunk from it before.
The white men see themselves in their right, save the day, are noble when it suits them.

I'm not sure I want to read Hagard's other books.