13 h 32 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 32 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the rare flower you want to collect is sacred to the people who protect it?
In H. Rider Haggard’s Allan and the Holy Flower, an extraordinary orchid draws Allan Quatermain into an African expedition. Stephen wants the living plant, not a description. Allan supplies the practical experience: travel, hunting, negotiation, and a clear sense of how quickly an ambitious search can become a struggle to survive.
With them travels Hans, whose unassuming appearance hides sharp judgment and courage. Their search leads toward the Pongo people, for whom the orchid holds a sacred place. Amid dangers involving slavery and sacred customs, a collector’s desire meets a community’s determination to protect what it values. Finding the flower is only part of the challenge.
What you’ll discover
- An unusual quest Follow an expedition driven by the desire for a living orchid rather than conventional treasure.
- A practical adventurer Meet Allan Quatermain, whose dry wit keeps extraordinary dangers close to the business of survival.
- Courage beneath the surface Get to know Hans, a resourceful companion with sharp judgment beneath an unassuming appearance.
- A flower worth protecting Encounter the Pongo people, whose sacred orchid means far more than a collector’s specimen.
- The cost of wanting Explore the distance between desiring something rare and understanding what taking it might mean.
Who will love it
Readers who love old-fashioned adventure, with hunters, lost peoples, forbidden lakes and loyal companions. It suits anyone who enjoys a narrator with a dry sense of humour and a taste for the fantastic.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A mad doctor appears with a golden flower
- An auction room brings a reckless partner
- A furious father cannot stop his son
- Durban gathers a strange and loyal company
- The slave road tests everyone in the party
- A magic mirror and a cup of coffee win time
- A death sentence waits on a prophecy
- The Pongo invite them to a forbidden land
- What the adventure is really about
Who’s who
- Allan QuatermainA veteran hunter and guide who tells the story, dry in speech, dutiful in action and firm in his belief in fate.
- Brother JohnAn American doctor and clergyman called Dogeetah, who wanders Africa with a butterfly net while searching for something far more precious.
- Stephen SomersA cheerful young orchid lover, cast out by his father, who follows his passion to the ends of the earth.
- MavovoA scarred Zulu chief, hunter and diviner, who trusts his Snake of foresight and fights like a buffalo.
- HansAn old Hottentot servant, once a drinker, who has courage and endless cunning, and who is devoted to Allan.
- SammyA small, nervous cook with grand speech and a firm belief in his Bible, who talks bravely and runs bravely too.
- BabembaA one-eyed Mazitu general who loves coffee and mirrors and becomes a faithful friend to the white men.
- KombaA cold, quick-witted Pongo noble who invites the white men to his land with plans of his own.
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- Hardcover
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Allan et la Fleur sacrée
by H. Rider Haggard · 1915
Allan Quatermain hunts a golden orchid guarded by a gorilla god, with a mad doctor and a Zulu seer.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What would you risk for a flower? Allan Quatermain, the hunter hero of H. Rider Haggard's African tales, risks everything for one orchid.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A mad doctor appears with a golden flower
Allan Quatermain, a hunter in South Africa, is nursing his friend Charles Scroope, who lies feverish after a leopard attack. Help arrives in a strange form. A tall, white-bearded American doctor walks into camp with a butterfly net fixed to a staff. Everyone calls him Brother John, and the Zulus call him Dogeetah.
He treats Scroope with boiled instruments and herbs, and the fever breaks. He says he set out in the night because he felt a call, at the very hour Allan had wished for help. Later he shows Allan a dried flower two feet wide, golden, with a black mark on its pouch shaped like an ape's head. He found it among the Mazitu, a Zulu-descended people far inland, and says a healthy root would be worth twenty thousand pounds.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 7 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 8 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Haggard, H. Rider. Allan and the Holy Flower. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/allan-and-the-holy-flower.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). Allan and the holy flower. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/allan-and-the-holy-flower (Original work published 1915)
Haggard, H. Rider. Allan and the Holy Flower. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/allan-and-the-holy-flower.
@book{haggard2026allan,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {Allan and the Holy Flower},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/allan-and-the-holy-flower},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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What is Allan and the Holy Flower about?
It follows hunter Allan Quatermain, a young orchid lover named Stephen Somers and a wandering doctor on an expedition to find a sacred golden orchid.
Who is Brother John in this book?
Brother John is an American doctor and clergyman who travels Africa with a butterfly net. The Africans call him Dogeetah. He is searching for more than butterflies, and he leads Allan toward the orchid.
Is Allan and the Holy Flower a true story?
No, it is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, told in the voice of his hunter Allan Quatermain. It uses real settings, such as Durban and the East African slave trade, as its backdrop.
The author
H. Rider Haggard
1856–1925 · English adventure novelist
Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English novelist. He was born in Norfolk, lived in southern Africa from 1875 to 1881, and later settled in Norfolk. He wrote King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She (1887), and Beatrice (1890). He also wrote about agriculture and rural life. He died in London.
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