 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 I listened to this audiobook I believe 15 years ago or so and I remember thinking how enjoyable it was The other thing I noted was that it was very predictable There were no real surprises for me It hit all of the story points and story elements that I expected from the Indiana Jones Tomb Raider style lost world epic adventure What I didn't think at the time was that this is the book that established all of those expected story points when H Ryder Haggard wrote the book in the summer of 1885 over the course of a few weeks It was the result of a five shilling bet with his brother that he could write a book as good as Treasure Island And it became the best-selling book in the world later that year as I said it established a new genre and Everyone who followed namely Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs All of them used Haggard's work as their springboard. The book definitely falls into the Victorian Imperialist category However, when you read it and you should you will find that it differs from what you expect from this period In that it is not the overwhelmingly racist Experience that you would expect the hero Alan Quartermain Refuses to use the n-word and he becomes very angry with members of his party who do use it and he lectures them that the African locals are gentlemen and are to be treated as such he is not there to murder the locals and to Exploit their resources. He is an explorer and an archaeologist and that's it. You certainly won't find that attitude in Kipling or Wells 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