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King Solomon's Mines

By: H. Rider Haggard
Narrated by: Toby Stephens
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Publisher's Summary

Exclusively from Audible

On board a ship bound for Natal, adventurer Allan Quatermain meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. His new friends have set out to find Sir Henry's younger brother, who vanished while seeking King Solomon's legendary diamond mines in the African interior. By strange chance, Quatermain has a map to the mines, drawn in blood, and agrees to join the others on their perilous journey.

The travellers face many dangers on their quest - the baking desert heat, the hostile lost tribe they discover and the evil 'wise woman' who holds the secret of the diamond mines. King Solomon's Mines is an exciting adventure that has gripped generations.

It is the first English story set in Africa and is considered to be the origin of the Lost World literary genre that inspired others such as Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King and HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

Haggard wrote the novel as a result of a five-shilling wager with his brother to see whether he could write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883). The novel ended up becoming the best seller of 1885.

Narrator Biography

Toby Stephens is an award winning actor who has an extensive array of credits over stage, film, television and audiobooks. He narrated Ian Fleming's Bond, From Russia with Love, along with Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche: A James Bond Novel. Throughout his stage appearances he has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in a number of their productions; Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Almeida, The Donmar Warehouse and The Old Vic.

Toby Stephens film credits include the James Bond film, Die Another Day where he plays the villain Gustav Graves, All Things To All Men, Believe, The Journey and the Oscar-nominated film 13 Hours. He is well known for his role of Captain Flint in the Starz series Black Sails, other notable television credits include, And Then There Were None, the role of Edward Fairfax Rochester in a BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, Walking The Dead, Robin Hood and Wired. In 2018 he will appear as John Robinson in the Netflix remake of the 1965 TV Series, Lost In Space.

©1951 H. Rider Haggard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about King Solomon's Mines

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A story of its time.

Reflecting the times of white supremacy, paternalistic attitudes and slaughter of animals, ripping yarn?
Read it as a 13 year old 1966.

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  • Overall
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Who wouldn't want Captain Flint to read to them?!

Toby Stephens as a narrator is so versatile and brings so much depth to each of the characters. A very enjoyable "read".

Also it's Captain Flint from Black Sails reading to me on my drive home...come on..It's the greatest.

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Never gets old

Toby Stephen’s narration was first rate and totally nailed the atmosphere of the period in which the book was written

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic adventure!

This old fashioned rollicking adventure story is wonderfully narrated by Toby Stephens. It’s 150year old colonial attitudes to hunting, indigenous populations and women sometimes jar but if you can get past that this is the epitome of high adventure.

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A classic of early pulp fiction

It was well read, good tale really enjoyable ripping yarn. The reader must excuse it being a product of a colonial time but its still an excellent story.

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A rollicking yarn.

For the intrepid: Inspiration from that great pantheon of childhood. I was sorry to finish it. Settle down with a whisky and listen.

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Great story read by brilliant narrator

Thoroughly enjoyed this story - never boring. Took a little while to get use to references to killing game - obviously the writer had no idea of preservation . Also a shock at remarks which would be considered racist today . These however were normal for the period in which the writer lived. Toby was the perfect narrator for this book . Look forward to hearing more from him. Now onto more books by H. Rider Haggard.

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Was hoping for an adventure tale though found the

This was a good tale of an African adventure and was never tedious. Excellent narration by Mr Stephen's who I particularly liked acting in 'Black Sail'. Perfect selection for this narrative. I loathe racism and animal abuse so that took an edge off, though in the end it's historic as poor as it was. Good read in essence.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.