One of the major writers at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century was Sir H. Rider Haggard. His adventure-romances attracted a large readership, with his Allan Quatermain series being his most famous and popular (followed closely by his books about She). The most famous of this tales, King Solomon’s Mines, has been made into several movies. Yet, his other Quatermain stories merit attention. They represent the ethos of the time, and Quatermain, it is said, often has similar theosophical beliefs as Haggard himself. Perhaps no novel represents this better than The Ancient Allan. This is an unusual story; going into it, I did not know what to expect. I picked up a used hardback edition of the book. It had no cover letting me know what the story was going to be about; all I knew is that it was a Quatermain story. And yet, it turns out, it is a different kind of Quatermain story, because it is also the story of “The Ancient Allan,” Allan as he was in another life, and the circumstances of that life in relation to the 19th century Quatermain. I’m not too interested in recounting the sequence of events, because it would reveal too much of the story. The only thing one needs to know: it is a story of high adventure, romance, involving ancient Egypt, Persia and Ethiopia, with Allan as an Egyptian official and warrior who is working to defend Egypt from Persia (leading to a rather interesting battle sequence at the end). It is a work which is best read going in with little insight as to what to expect; it has a few twists and turns which are worth discovering as Allan himself discovered them in the sequence of his learning about who he was in another lifetime.
Rather than telling more of the story here, I thought I would explain why I think this is an interesting work, and who I think would like it. The story reminded me both of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, especially the beginning sequence of the novel, and some of the war sequences of Tolkien. There is, though only in one brief paragraph, a sequence which reminded me of the siege at Minas Tirith, where the Riders of Rohan feared their victory was going to turn into defeat when they saw ships coming in from the distance. The opening of the work, with the mystery which Quatermain found himself in, even with the way he was to relive his past, reminded me of some of the best elements of Lovecraft’s stories, including At The Mountains of Madness, The Silver Key, and Through the Gates of the Silver Key. Although Dunsany has rightfully been pointed out as a common influence on Lovecraft and Tolkien, one should not neglect Haggard, especially when one is trying to understand Tolkien’s own time travel stories and where he might have got some of his ideas as to how it could occur (William Morris, for Tolkien, is certainly another possibility). For fans of Lovecraft and Tolkien, or even those of Lewis (who liked Haggard as well), I think this is a fine book, and indeed, one that can be read without any knowledge of Quatermain because its primary interest is in the past.
When reading Haggard, one must understand his prejudices are clearly the prejudices of his time; he has a love-hate relationship with Africa, sometimes looking at the noble simplicity of the people with awe, sometimes looking down upon them with racist and imperialistic eyes. In this, he is rather mixed; one of the main characters, Bes, is a giant of an Ethiopian dwarf (with secrets of his own). Bes is shown a great deal of respect, and even his own native religious traditions seem to be given more praise than that found in Egypt. Nonetheless, it is also clear that many of the people in the novel itself still look down on the simplicity of the Ethiopians, some even hate it when they have to live in Ethiopia for sometime (where there is a lot of rich glamour, but the kind which brings initial awe and boredom later). This probably best represents Haggard’s own views, where we can see his love-hate relationship with Africa more than other works, some which follow the tropes of his time, some which contradict them from his own actual knowledge of the land. Nonetheless, one can get a sense of Haggard’s English exceptionism in this novel. Seeing it, perhaps we can better appreciate the flaws of contemporary American exceptionism.
This is a rather entertaining read, though clearly a book written in a different time with different mores. I would recommend it, and in reading it, I think you will have a good chance encountering and learning from a different perspective than our own.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
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