The One that Started it All

King Solomon's Mine by H. Rider Haggard - The novel that started it all. For me at least. Allan Quartermain's adventures through the unexplored region of Africa, over the humid and scorching deserts, up the Suliman's Berg and their climb to one of the two peaks of Sheba's Breast captured me completely, making me a die hard fan - hogging for more and more - of adventure novels.

People often asked me why I rarely read romance novels. They questioned my choices for novels to be read. Brows were raised over the lists of novels I mentioned as my favorite in book reviewers gathering (among friends who read). One of my friends called me 'weirdo' for being a fanatic of adventure novels. I would say, blame it on Haggard and his King Solomon's Mine and his wise and experienced explorer Allan Quartermain.

Not only the novel was captivating, the proragonist - in which the story was told in his point of view - Allan Quartermain himself is a mesmerizing character. He is not as romantic as the Twilight's heart throb Edward Cullen. He is not as young as the heroic dragon rider Eragon. Quartermain is not a charming prince who would make female readers swoon over him. He is a retiree and a grandfather. But still, I fell in love with Quartermain's charisma.

So when Sean Connery played Allan Quartermain in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I was dancing on cloud nine - none can do Quartermain better than Connery. Though old, he's hot...hahaha!

Owh yeah, back to Mr. Quartermain - the novel. So captivating this character, film makers started making money by filming films on Allan Quartermain. So changes were made to meet the audience's wants and my dear Quartermain was turned into another Indiana Jones. The energetic and handsome (for the 1985 audience at least), younger than the old Mr. Quartermain, Richard Chamberlain was trusted with the character. Alongside him in King Solomon's Mine the movie was the famous sex icon of the 80's, Sharon Stone.

I liked the movie but I love the novel best. Bear in mind, the novel never had a white female character and they were not seeking for a lost husband. The mission in the novel was to seek the lost brother of the English aristrocrat Sir Henry Curtis. Romance blossomed in the novel, but not between Quartermain and the character played by Stone (I can't remember her name) but it was between the village's beauty, Foulata and Captain Good. Their love story however ended with Foulata's death.

There was integrations of romance with a blend of politics and actions in King Solomon's Mines. I tipped my hat to Haggard for writing them so well, they seemed like real. I've never been to Africa but the imageries he used to described the deserts, the mountains, the caves and even the village were so vivid they came to life in front of me. The novel was written in 1885, so expect the language to be old English (well...Allan Quartermain along with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good are Englishmen). It took me three times to read and understand everything in the story and I was only 17 with English being my second language. But I never resented the times I took to read this novel. I am NEVER going to regret reading Haggard's King Solomon's Mines.

...because it was the first English novel that I ever read and it started everything - my love towards adventure novels and movies, and most importantly my love towards reading. Now I have the book no more...but for what it had done for me, I'd remember it forever as the one that started it all.