 My work here on YouTube is supported by viewers. Please take a look at the link in the description below and visit my page at 50th Street where you can become a sponsor. Published only one year after King Solomon's Mines in 1886, this book was every bit as successful. In fact, according to Wikipedia, it's never been out of print and it's been adapted into film at least 11 times. What you're seeing here is a 1930 film by the creator of King Kong. It is the autobiographical account of Ludwig Horace Holley and his handsome young adopted son, whose biological father left him a case full of letters and artifacts telling him that he was descended from an Egyptian ruler named Calicretes and that all of his ancestors have passed these belongings down over the ages with the hope that one of them would be able to get rid of him. He was able to travel to deepest, darkest Africa and rediscover the lost civilization that was their heritage. Well, the two men and their personal assistant are in a position to take the voyage, so they do, and in Alan Quartermain's style, they do discover the lost civilization and the immortal white goddess who rules over it and goes by the title, she who must be obeyed. I've known about the basic story of this book since I was young. I was introduced to it by comic book adaptations and parodies, but this is my first time to read the book and I greatly enjoyed it. The first half of the book, I couldn't put it down. In the middle of the book, it started to drag, though, especially when they finally met she who must be obeyed, because once she started talking, she wouldn't stop. And unfortunately, that problem continued pretty much for the rest of the book, but I'm definitely glad I read it all the way through. As with King Solomon's Minds, there are parts of the book that read like a video game, like Tomb Raider or Portal even. And again, Haggard has some points to make about racism and misogyny, unlike other Victorian imperialist writers of the time. The Lost Society of Core is a matriarchy and when the white men emerge into the streets, they are taken aback at how the women treat them like property. The women will just walk right up to them and touch them, grab them, talk about them like they own them and touch their hair. They didn't like their hair being touched. These are important points and I really noticed them. The character Holly openly refers to himself as an old misogynist. He actually uses that word. And I think that makes it clear that Haggard was making points about society and western-style gender roles. Near the end of the book, there's this remarkable passage in a footnote that I'm paraphrasing here. Haggard says, What a terrifying reflection it is that nearly all our deep love for women depends in the first instance upon their personal appearance. I think that's a remarkable thing for a writer of his time to have written in plain English like that. And I think this kind of thing really shames us when we dismiss authors or artists or creators of any kind from different eras, when we dismiss their bad attitudes as simply products of their time. Thank you for watching. Please subscribe to my channel here on YouTube and please be sure to press that thumbs up button. That's how videos get recommended and seen. And please take a look at the link in the description below and go to my 50th Street page where you can become a sponsor.