Rating: 
Summary: The Near Zenith of High Adventure
Review: The book, Allan Quartermain appears to be the last of a series of books penned by H. Rider Haggard about the exploits of a fictitious Englishman and African big-game hunter. In it, the leading man, Allan, is a bit more philosophical about life and his place on earth, and we follow his last great adventure in deepest, darkest Africa before he passes on, fully satisfied with his life and accomplishments, to the final Beyond.
Once again, Quartermain teams up with his good friends, Captain Good and Sir Henry Curtis, this time around to find a fabled lost race of people(whom Quartermain later suspects as being a lost tribe of Persians when he finally finds them). Once in Africa, the intrepid English trio re-unite with the Mighty Umslopogaas, a bloodthirsty Zulu warrior and loyal friend and servant who also happens to have a heart of gold. Then, the Fabulous Four sally forth, and take on in short order a tribe of savage Masai, save a proper English damsel (of course very much in distress), undertake a perilous journey to an uncharted region of Africa, and inadvertently begin (and bloodily end) a civil war amongst the lost tribe they have sought.
Without a doubt, the best character in this book is Mighty Umslopogaas and his trusty axe, Inkosi-kaas. Quartermain also puts in a good showing, especially as the old sage entangled in palace intrigues charged with amorous feelings and their attendant, homicidal jealousies.
The first third of the book reads quickly, and is packed with action, while the second third gets bogged down in descriptive detail of the lost tribe- its people, customs and the land it occupies. The final third works the reader up to a rousing finish, and we see Mighty Umslopogaas bearing deadly Inkosi-kaas with skill and valor. England nor America could never hope to produce and officer and a gentleman as fine a soldier (and a man) as The Mighty Umslopogaas, who singlehandedly saves the Queen of the Lost Tribe and her kingdom to boot.
In this final outing, Quartermain's age and dering-do finally catch up with him, but he has just enough mettle left in him to save his old friend Captain Good from the greedy paws of the Grim Reaper. And yet, though he lived loudly, Quatermain manages to exit the Stage of Life quietly with his friends Good and Curtis at his side, and by story's end, Good resurrects his sea legs among the Lost Tribe and Sir Henry manages to snare the Queen's heart and hand in marriage. All in all, the reader doesn't feel bad about the ending, and comes away thinking that all worked out as it should have.
High adventure never gets better than this. Haggard wrote at a time when expansionism and imperialism were all the rage, and even then, his book were viewed as sensationalist. Now we know better, or at least we should, but back then, Haggard still managed to give Africa and her people, via The Mighty Umslopogaas, a small slice of dignity that many during his time were reticent to the point of belligerence to give. Haggard's Umslopogaas takes his rightful place in literary history alongside many noble, yet magnificient and exotic savages much like his contemporary, Robert B. Parker's Hawk of the Spenser mysteries, does today.
In sum, this book and the others preceding it, make for good escapist fun, and writers today are hard-pressed to top, let alone equal, these classic masterpieces.
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