Three Adventure Novels

These three great novels of African adventure continue to be favorite reading of those who love a thrilling tale. Perhaps the reason that they continue to be part of the public imagination, delighting each new generation afresh, is that they are filled with qualities close to the human heart: adventure, discovery, desire for immortality, terror, the search for the primitive . . . for what is unadorned by civilization. As Kipling said of Haggard's work, "It goes, and it grips, and it moves with all the freshness of youth."Haggard had lived for many years among primitive peoples in Africa, and his knowledge of the Dark Continent was matched by few men. Yet beyond his personal knowledge of Africa, his experience of savage life and wild lands, and his faculty for making us believe impossible tales?lies a feeling for the supernatural. Adventure alone was not enough for Haggard.