King salomon
Páginas: 14 (3281 palabras)
Publicado: 4 de julio de 2011
Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
level
E 1 2
King Solomon’s Mines
by H Rider Haggard
3 4 5
6
INTERMEDIATE
S U M M A R Y
A man called Neville has disappeared whilst searching for the legendary diamonds of King Solomon’s Mines in Southern Africa. His brother, Sir Henry Curtis and Curtis’friend, Captain Good, enlist the help of Allen Quatermain, a soldier,trader, hunter and prospector, to find Neville in return for the diamonds, should they find them.
J
happily re-united with his brother. Quatermain is happy too. On the way out of the treasure room, he fills his coat pockets with diamonds which make him an extremely wealthy man.
ABOUT H RIDER HAGGARD
Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born on June 22, 1856, in Norfolk in the east of England.Haggard was well-educated. He went to grammar school, a type of high school for bright pupils, and also had private tutors. His father was, in the phraseology of the time, a wellconnected man. At the age of only 19, Haggard went to Africa to become secretary to the governor of Natal. Only two years later he was one of the first Englishmen to go into the Transvaal when Britain made it a colony. Hereturned to England when he was 25 and wrote a history of 19th Century southern Africa. Then he followed his father into the law. Haggard wrote two unsuccessful novels, then achieved success with his classic adventure story King Solomon’s Mines which was published in 1885. Haggard died on May 14, 1925 in London,
As luck would have it, Quatermain knows something of the diamonds and the mines becausehe has a map drawn hundreds of years before by a Portuguese explorer who found the mines but died in the attempt. The three adventurers set out to follow the directions in the map, helped by a mysterious black man who calls himself Umbopa. After much hardship and the death of one of their number, they reach the land in which the mines are located, but find that it is ruled over by a despotic andcapricious tyrant, Twala, with the help of an evil old woman, Gagool. Twala is not the rightful king but everyone believes that Ignosi, the true monarch, died many years earlier as a young child. Gagool wishes the strangers to be put to death, especially Umbopa, but they are saved by the belief that they have come from the stars, a belief strengthened by Captain Good’s eyeglass and his ability toremove his false teeth, plus the fact that they can strike animals dead from a distance with the aid of guns, unknown up till then to the natives. At this point, Umbopa reveals that he is really Ignosi, and some of the natives agree to support him in an attempt to regain the throne, provided, that is, that he can give a sign of his majesty. Good has been counting the days and realises that aneclipse of the moon is due for that area on the following evening and they state therefore that they will make the moon disappear as a sign. The Greys, an elite fighting force, will then rise up on the side of Ignosi. In the event, they need to use their knowledge of the eclipse also to save the life of a dancing girl, Foulata, who falls in love with Good. After a bloody battle, Ignosi is crowned kingand forces Gagool to help them find the treasure room of the mine. She does so, and the treasure is truly awesome, three boxes full of diamonds. But she has tricked them and the secret door of the treasure room closes, trapping them inside. Foulata tries to prevent Gagool escaping and does indeed ensure that Gagool dies under the closing door, but she, herself, receives mortal wounds and dies inGood’s arms. After beginning to believe that they will perish in the treasure room, they find another way out and return to Ignosi and then home. On their way, they find Neville and he is
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
Haggard published King Solomon’s Mines at a time when Africa was still, for most British people, ‘ the dark continent’, mysterious and largely unexplored where impossible things could...
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
level
E 1 2
King Solomon’s Mines
by H Rider Haggard
3 4 5
6
INTERMEDIATE
S U M M A R Y
A man called Neville has disappeared whilst searching for the legendary diamonds of King Solomon’s Mines in Southern Africa. His brother, Sir Henry Curtis and Curtis’friend, Captain Good, enlist the help of Allen Quatermain, a soldier,trader, hunter and prospector, to find Neville in return for the diamonds, should they find them.
J
happily re-united with his brother. Quatermain is happy too. On the way out of the treasure room, he fills his coat pockets with diamonds which make him an extremely wealthy man.
ABOUT H RIDER HAGGARD
Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born on June 22, 1856, in Norfolk in the east of England.Haggard was well-educated. He went to grammar school, a type of high school for bright pupils, and also had private tutors. His father was, in the phraseology of the time, a wellconnected man. At the age of only 19, Haggard went to Africa to become secretary to the governor of Natal. Only two years later he was one of the first Englishmen to go into the Transvaal when Britain made it a colony. Hereturned to England when he was 25 and wrote a history of 19th Century southern Africa. Then he followed his father into the law. Haggard wrote two unsuccessful novels, then achieved success with his classic adventure story King Solomon’s Mines which was published in 1885. Haggard died on May 14, 1925 in London,
As luck would have it, Quatermain knows something of the diamonds and the mines becausehe has a map drawn hundreds of years before by a Portuguese explorer who found the mines but died in the attempt. The three adventurers set out to follow the directions in the map, helped by a mysterious black man who calls himself Umbopa. After much hardship and the death of one of their number, they reach the land in which the mines are located, but find that it is ruled over by a despotic andcapricious tyrant, Twala, with the help of an evil old woman, Gagool. Twala is not the rightful king but everyone believes that Ignosi, the true monarch, died many years earlier as a young child. Gagool wishes the strangers to be put to death, especially Umbopa, but they are saved by the belief that they have come from the stars, a belief strengthened by Captain Good’s eyeglass and his ability toremove his false teeth, plus the fact that they can strike animals dead from a distance with the aid of guns, unknown up till then to the natives. At this point, Umbopa reveals that he is really Ignosi, and some of the natives agree to support him in an attempt to regain the throne, provided, that is, that he can give a sign of his majesty. Good has been counting the days and realises that aneclipse of the moon is due for that area on the following evening and they state therefore that they will make the moon disappear as a sign. The Greys, an elite fighting force, will then rise up on the side of Ignosi. In the event, they need to use their knowledge of the eclipse also to save the life of a dancing girl, Foulata, who falls in love with Good. After a bloody battle, Ignosi is crowned kingand forces Gagool to help them find the treasure room of the mine. She does so, and the treasure is truly awesome, three boxes full of diamonds. But she has tricked them and the secret door of the treasure room closes, trapping them inside. Foulata tries to prevent Gagool escaping and does indeed ensure that Gagool dies under the closing door, but she, herself, receives mortal wounds and dies inGood’s arms. After beginning to believe that they will perish in the treasure room, they find another way out and return to Ignosi and then home. On their way, they find Neville and he is
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
Haggard published King Solomon’s Mines at a time when Africa was still, for most British people, ‘ the dark continent’, mysterious and largely unexplored where impossible things could...
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