First edition, third issue, with publisher's catalogue at the end with the dates 5 G.10.85 and 5 B.10.85 and the typographic errors corrected, 320 pages, folding map as frontispiece torn at the first fold, bound by Bayntun (Riviere) Bath in half red morocco titled and decorated gilt on the spine, beige cloth sides, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges uncut, original decorated red cloth covers and spine bound in at the end, light foxing.
Sometimes described and the second issue with three typographical errors corrected; page 10: “Bamamgwato” for “Bamangwato” page 122: “to let twins to live” for “to let twins live” and page 307: “wrod” for “word”.
Haggard conceived the novel partly in response to the success of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. His intention was to produce an adventure story that would appeal to a broad popular readership. The novel was written in early 1885 and follows Allan Quatermain, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good through the African interior in search of the legendary diamond mines of King Solomon.
Published in September 1885 with a considerable marketing campaign by Cassell & Co., which proclaimed it "The Most Amazing Book Ever Written," Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines achieved immediate commercial success. The novel’s publication coincided with a period of intense public fascination with archaeology, driven by high-profile excavations in Assyria and Egypt's Valley of the Kings. By setting his narrative in the largely unmapped interior of sub-Saharan Africa, Haggard pioneered the English "lost world" adventure genre, effectively capitalising on contemporary imperial curiosity and Victorian interest in Africa after Livingstone, Burton and the search for the source of the Nile.
The text draws directly on Haggard’s personal observations during the Anglo-Zulu and First Boer Wars. His narrative reflects a preoccupation with Southern Africa's vast mineral resources and archaeological sites such as Great Zimbabwe, which challenged prevailing colonial assumptions about African history.
- Overall Condition: Very good
- Size: 8vo (190 x 130 mm)
