Book Group: Allan Quatermain

A few of us are reading KING SOLOMON'S MINES for the first time. We're taking it slow and just starting Chapter V: Our March Into The Desert.

I can see why this was such a hit in 1885 with the exploration of Africa, exotic animals, and mankind's never-ending thirst for tales of untapped riches. But what jumps out as me is how this plot has been mimicked so many times since. It starts with a back story of other adventurers lost or missing, a reluctant hero, and a trail laced with hidden dangers. Originality points (remarkable after 126 years) go to a fifty-year-old protagonist and no busty bimbo in tow. As a matter of fact, one of Quatermain's sidekicks has a glass eye, false teeth, and is a bad shot. The story is taking longer to build than say a RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or Doc Savage adventure but it's far from boring.

The above illustration of Allan Quatermain is by Thure de Thulstrup from "Maiwa's Revenge" (1888). (Source: Wikipedia)

New Classic Adventure

I need to read more for fun, not work. And I want to roam outside my usual western and crime arenas. So, I went into Kindle and found many classics are available for $0.00, and I would have gone hogwild, but I opted for just one, Henry Rider Haggard’s KING SOLOMON’S MINES. I’ve never read this 1885 novel but I’ve seen the Stewart Granger and the Richard Chamberlain films though neither left an indelible impression on me. After all, my generation was hooked on Indiana Jones.

Anyway, I downloaded the book and beginning tomorrow will read a chapter a day, savoring each page, until I reach the end and then I'll do a short post about it. I may comment on the book during the middle if something jumps out at me. This'll give me the incentive I need to bolster my classic book diet. Anyone care to join me?

The Picture of Dorian Gray

"The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."

-- from THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde that first appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890. Another classic I've never read and that I just downloaded from Project Gutenberg.