King Solomon's Mines (Modern Library Classics)

Touted by its 1885 publisher as “the most amazing story ever written,” King Solomon’s Mines was one of the bestselling novels of the nineteenth century. H. Rider Haggard’s thrilling saga of elephant hunter Allan Quatermain and his search for fabled treasure is more than just an adventure story, though: As Alexandra Fuller explains in her Introduction, in its vivid portrayal of the alliances and battles of white colonials and African tribesmen, King Solomon’s Mines “brings us the world of extremes, of the absurdly tall tales and of the illogical loyalty between disparate people that still informs this part of the world.”

Alexandra Fuller, the author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (available from Random House Trade Paperbacks), was born in England in 1969. In 1972 she moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). She has also lived in Malawi, Zambia, and Wyoming.