Hunter Quatermain’s Story The Uncollected Adventures of Allan Quatermain

This volume gathers short stories and novellas Haggard wrote about Allan Quatermain that did not fit into the main novel sequence, several of them previously hard to find. The title piece, Hunter Quatermain’s Story, is a tight novella in which Quatermain recounts an episode from his early hunting career in Zululand, complete with a doomed safari and a near-death encounter with a wounded elephant. The rest of the collection ranges in tone from straight hunting reminiscence to ghost story.

Readers of the main Quatermain novels will find the familiar voice: a slightly weary, slightly self-deprecating narrator in his late middle age remembering younger and more reckless days. The shorter form suits Haggard well. He had a tendency to overload his novels, and the discipline of a novella forces him to tighten things up. If you have read King Solomon’s Mines and want more Quatermain without committing to another full-length novel, this collection is a good way in.