The Ivory Child

The Ivory Child was published in 1916, set fictionally in the 1870s, and is one of the later Allan Quatermain novels. The plot moves between two settings. In the first half Quatermain is in England, hired by Lord Ragnall to investigate the kidnapping of his American-born wife by a strange cult. In the second half Quatermain is back in Africa, traveling north into the country of the Kendah, an inland people who worship a god in the shape of an elephant. The lost wife is at the centre of the cult.

Haggard mixes his usual elements here: a long African journey, set-piece battles, a holy elephant called Jana that Quatermain is supposed to kill, and a supernatural climax involving the ivory child amulet of the title. The Kendah and their priests Harut and Marut are among Haggard’s more interestingly drawn fictional Africans, less stereotyped than some earlier books. The novel sits somewhere in the middle of the Quatermain ranking. Worth reading after the famous books for completists, or as a standalone if elephant gods and English country-house mystery sound appealing.