King Solomon's Mines (Annotated)

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Heart of Darkness, I would argue, is by far the preeminent cultural representation of Western imperialism, particularly in Africa. More than King Solomon's Mines.

King Solomon's Mines is the journey into the heart of Africa that is swashbuckling, that is ultimately an optimistic story, that is jolly, that never questions, I think, ultimately, the right of the adventurers to be there.

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With Sir Ryder Haggard thing that we talked about in Solomon's Mines.

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We did a podcast, didn't we, about King Solomon's Mines, about the H Rider Haggard, kind of great classic of Victorian imperial fiction.

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We did that podcast about King Solomon's mines published what 20 years earlier, obsession with manliness, with brotherhood, with kind of people in tight trousers riding up and down promising civil wars.

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So that Dominic is a thrilling moment from King Solomon's Mines, which was published in 1885, written by Henry Rider Haggard.

Basically, even if you've never read it, you will be familiar with it because it was one of the bestselling novels of the Victorian age.

King Solomon's Mines is not just an enormously influential kind of text of empire, of the British empire and of Britain's involvement in Africa, but I would argue it's a foundational text of modern popular culture actually.

And when you read King Solomon's Mines now, almost every chapter seems stock full of stereotypes and cliches.

The heroes live to fight another day, and they emerge triumphant at the end of the story.

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So that, Dominic, is a thrilling moment from King Solomon's Minds, which was published in 1885, written by Henry Rider Haggard.

King Solomon's Minds was not just an enormously influential text of empire, of the British Empire and of Britain's involvement in Africa. But I would argue it's a foundational text of modern popular culture, actually.

He wrote a sequel called Alan Quartermain and another book, which you'll come to a little bit later called She, which is another absolutely foundational text in our kind of popular imagination.

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He also read the stories of Rider Haggard, the Imperial Adventure stories, which are always quests. So King Solomon's Mines or Shee, which both were written in the 1880s, about people going to Africa and discovering lost cities and mysterious queens.

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King Solomon's Mines or She, which both were written in the 1880s, about people going to Africa and discovering lost cities and mysterious queens.

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I'm sure he read King Solomon's Mines, being a British child of that era.

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And it's a book called King Solomon's Mines.

And it was written by a fellow named H. Ryder Haggard.

King Solomon's Mines is generally regarded as the first example of a book in the lost world genre of fiction.

It inspired probably tens of thousands of particularly white British kids, but a lot of Americans too to go to Africa and overthrow fucking countries.

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It has diamonds that you can pick up It has, like there are books which it's unclear if that represents like you write an adventure novel like King Solomon's Mines or you write a naturalist guide or you write an ethnography but you're writing some sort of book that is based on how you despoiled the African continent

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I read a lot like King Solomon's Mines and stuff.

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I'm sure he read King Solomon's Mines, being a British child of that era.

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And it was written by a fellow named H. Ryder Haggard. And H. Ryder Haggard is like the colonial fiction writer of the 1800s and early 1900s.

It's the first novel to star big game hunter and explorer Alan Quartermaine, who was like kind of like the James Bond of colonialism.

And like, yeah, like the guy in fucking Jumanji, like the white guy hunter is based off of Alan Quartermaine.

King Solomon's Minds is like the first example of that kind of book.

It inspired probably tens of thousands of particularly white British kids, but a lot of Americans too to go to Africa and overthrow fucking countries.

"

It has diamonds that you can pick up It has, like there are books which it's unclear if that represents like you write an adventure novel like King Solomon's Mines or you write a naturalist guide or you write an ethnography but you're writing some sort of book that is based on how you despoiled the African continent

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I'm sure he read King Solomon's Mines, being a British child of that era.

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It was written by a fellow named H. Ryder Haggard. And H. Ryder Haggard is like the colonial fiction writer of the 1800s and early 1900s.

And King Solomon's Minds is considered to be like the quintessential classic of British colonialist leadership.

It's the first novel to star big game hunter and explorer Alan Quartermaine, who was like kind of like the James Bond of colonialism.

He's like the, and if you've never even read one of these books, you've been influenced by this guy because he's, Alan Quartermaine is like the archetype of like the British big game hunting, like safari dude.

King Solomon's Mines is like the first example of that kind of book. I feel like, I feel like I can picture what this guy looks like.

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And it's a book called King Solomon's Minds.

It's the first novel to star big game hunter and explorer Alan Quartermaine, who was like kind of like the James Bond of colonialism.

And King Solomon's Minds is generally regarded as the first example of a book in the lost world genre of fiction.

So the basic gist of the story is that a group of explorers led by Alan Quartermaine go on the search for a lost European who went missing looking for the fabled King Solomon's Minds.

You can draw a straight line from King Solomon's mind to the thinking that led us to war in Iraq, if you really like it. It's not hard.