King Solomon's Mines  By  cover art

King Solomon's Mines

By: H. Rider Haggard
Narrated by: Toby Stephens

Publisher's summary

Exclusively from Audible

On board a ship bound for Natal, adventurer Allan Quatermain meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. His new friends have set out to find Sir Henry's younger brother, who vanished while seeking King Solomon's legendary diamond mines in the African interior. By strange chance, Quatermain has a map to the mines, drawn in blood, and agrees to join the others on their perilous journey.

The travellers face many dangers on their quest - the baking desert heat, the hostile lost tribe they discover and the evil 'wise woman' who holds the secret of the diamond mines. King Solomon's Mines is an exciting adventure that has gripped generations.

It is the first English story set in Africa and is considered to be the origin of the Lost World literary genre that inspired others such as Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King and HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother to see whether he could write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883). The novel ended up becoming the best seller of 1885.

Narrator Biography

Toby Stephens is an award winning actor who has an extensive array of credits over stage, film, television and audiobooks. He narrated Ian Fleming's Bond, From Russia with Love, along with Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche: A James Bond Novel. Throughout his stage appearances he has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in a number of their productions; Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Almeida, The Donmar Warehouse and The Old Vic.

Toby Stephens film credits include the James Bond film, Die Another Day where he plays the villain Gustav Graves, All Things To All Men, Believe, The Journey and the Oscar-nominated film 13 Hours. He is well known for his role of Captain Flint in the Starz series Black Sails, other notable television credits include, And Then There Were None, the role of Edward Fairfax Rochester in a BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, Walking The Dead, Robin Hood and Wired. In 2018 he will appear as John Robinson in the Netflix remake of the 1965 TV Series, Lost In Space.

©1951 H. Rider Haggard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about King Solomon's Mines

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    4 out of 5 stars

John Carter and Conan's African Daddy

H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885) is worth listening to if for no other reason than because of its seminal influence on the adventure genre, especially of the "lost world" or "planetary romance" variety wherein an intrepid hero explores an exotic hidden civilization in an inaccessible place and thereby acts as a catalyst for Big Change, ala Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.

Allan Quartermain, who leads the expedition to King Solomon's mines hidden among the mountains of Africa and finds much more than he expected, is an interesting narrator-protagonist: honest, middle-aged, experienced, physically unimposing, and none too brave. The story he tells is variously suspenseful, violent, humorous, horrifying, moving, and sublime. Its views of animals ("beasts" to be hunted for food or sport), of women (baby-bearers, damsels in distress, or witches ideally to be avoided), of indigenous people ("natives" not to be mated with or lived among permanently) are unpleasant to me today. But Quartermain also impressively (given his Victorian era) admires exceptional "natives" and recognizes them as being at least the equal of their white counterparts, pointedly refuses to use the n-word, poignantly depicts an inter-racial romance, and even expresses the destructive side of the involvement of white "civilization" with native cultures. And the story has neat themes about the dangerous pursuit of wealth, the transitory nature of life, the wonders of nature, and the mysteries of the past.

The reader, Toby Stephens, does an excellent job breathing wit and life into the characters; I particularly enjoyed his Gagaoola, the wizened, wicked, possibly immortal, stick-like crone, whose raspy high-pitched merry malevolence was appealingly creepy to hear. An entertaining listen indeed.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Allen Quatermain=Sean Connery

I discovered this book after watching League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and learning that Sean Connery's character in the movie, Allen Quatermain, is taken from HR Haggard's books.

This story is unlikely to disappointment fans of Indiana Jones-type adventure; the plot is well-written and only occasionally requires suspension of disbelief to get through. The narration as well is very good. Overall, a remarkable novel from a different time.

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Toby Stephens is an AMAZING narrator

What did you love best about King Solomon's Mines?

This rollicking tale invented the lost world / jungle opera genre and spawned a host of imitators and hangers-on who variously copied the book’s vibe and ethos or just its specific devices (like the “white witchcraft” of the hunter’s guns or the terrifying of an ignorant native race by pretending to bring on an eclipse which luckily happened to occur just when it was needed. It’s old, colonialist, and racist (though very mildly so in comparison with most of literature of the day), but it’s a humdinger of a thrill ride. Special mention goes to the incredible narrator Toby Stephens, whose accents make it all worthwhile.

What does Toby Stephens bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The accents! My goodness, the man's accents are AMAZING. I wish I could read books to my kids like that. His reading of Gagool actually made shivers run up and down my spine.

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Great story, great narration but barely audible

I loved the story and the narrator was really great (other than butchering the pronunciation of the afrikaans words) but I really struggled with the volume of the recording. It was way too low, it became very cumbersome to constantly have to struggle to hear the narration. Other than the volume issue I can highly recommend it

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Narrator couldn't be better

I tried to read this book about ten years ago, and I literally fell asleep every single time I grabbed the book. I could not go beyond the first eight or ten pages. However, I wanted to give it a try, because so many people had recommended it. It is a classic. In my personal case, Toby Stephens' performance made all the difference. It was like watching a movie in my head, or even better. It is an amazing performance; because of his own wonderful voice, as well as, the different accents and voices he is able to produce. I just loved the pace, rhythm, volume, and intensity of his reading. He made it an interesting and exciting story. I felt kind of sad when "The End" arrived. It is a fun adventure story, but it's old style definitely requires a good narrator.

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very well preformed classic!

without a doubt one of the best preformed audiobooks I've purchased yet. As for the story: at this point in history this story is very dated and culturally insensitive. However, like any antique, if you can appreciate it for what it is instead of degrading it for what it isnt I think you will find a very good literary example of its era.

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A Rip-Roaring Victorian Adventure!

I first learn of Allen Quartermain and his adventures in Africa via the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic, not the movie). This was every bit the adventure I'd been promised!

You really get a sense of just how exciting it was back in the Victorian era with all of the lost civilizations being discovered and adventures braving the thickest of jungles. The was never a dull moment and all with something new to discover, with that posh Victorian flare I've come to adore.

Obviously, Quartermain is the quintessential Great White Hunter, so their was a bit of big game hunting along the way; thankfully it was mostly brief and did serve to flavor the story. As for the African characters, they were present surprisingly tastefully written given time when the novel was written. Quartermain even comment that some Africans are more respectable than Europeans he has known, and never once uses derogator terms to describe them. The rest of Quartermain's party were also great characters as well. And it had a happy ending and it all worked (mostly) well for everyone.

All in all one of the best Victorian novels I've read in a while. Discover this gem for yourself!

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Amazing Reading

When I first saw who was reading this book, I became very excited! Let me tell you I was not disappointed. I had first seen Toby Stephens as the captain in Black Sails, and absolutely adored the character he played. He is a brilliant actor, and now I realize a brilliant voice actor as well. He is able to do multiple voices with consistency and you truly do forget that there is only one person reading this novel. I have read the actual novel and loved it then and now love it even more thanks to this rendition. This is a must listen, and a must read!

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Excellent adventure that is extremely humorous when read from a 21st century perspective. When experienced with that in mind it is a rip roaring adventure worthy of your time.

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What a great story!

It’s no wonder this book inspired an entire generation of young men and boys! Fantastic story! The narrator was excellent, too!

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