13 h 30 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 30 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Beneath the Pacific lies a secret that brings three men face to face with a lost civilization and an ancient god.
In When the World Shook, H. Rider Haggard brings science fiction and adventure together around a discovery beneath the Pacific. Three men uncover a secret tied to a lost civilization and an ancient god. Their discovery opens a world of questions.
The promise is both vast and close at hand: a civilization lost, a god from the ancient past, and three men drawn into their secret. Haggard places human discovery beside the unknown, inviting you to follow the mystery beneath the ocean.
What you’ll discover
- A secret beneath the Pacific Follow three men toward a discovery hidden beneath a vast ocean.
- A lost civilization Explore the mystery of a civilization at the heart of this adventure.
- An ancient god Encounter an ancient god within a story of discovery and the unknown.
- Three men discovering Approach the secret through the three men who discover it beneath the Pacific.
- Science fiction meets adventure Let curiosity lead you into Haggard’s blend of mystery, discovery, and adventure.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy lost worlds, shipwrecks and secret caves, and those who like friends who argue warmly. It also suits anyone drawn to stories about love, faith and doubt, and what might wait beyond death.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich man who has lost his purpose
- Two friends who share nothing but affection
- Natalie, and a promise at the edge of death
- A dream calls him south
- A cyclone and a ruined ship
- Gods by courtesy of a lump
- The idol, the oven and the mountain
- The cave, the statue and the glowing coffins
- What the story is about, and how it is told
Who’s who
- Humphrey ArbuthnotThe narrator, a wealthy widower and former lawyer and financier who seeks wisdom and the wife he lost.
- Basil BastinA tactless, fearless High Church clergyman with simple faith, who wants to convert the islanders and speaks his mind to everyone.
- BickleyA gifted surgeon who trusts only what he can test, and who fights every marvel with reason and a sharp tongue.
- NatalieArbuthnot's late wife, who feels she will die young and urges him to look for her in a wonderful far place.
- OroAn ancient king and astronomer who wakes after a vast sleep, desires power again, and fears death above all.
- YvaOro's daughter, a luminous woman of lost wisdom who is gentle, curious, and eager to learn whether life continues after death.
- MaramaThe chief of Orofena, whom the visitors cure of a great growth, and who tries to keep both his people and the strangers safe.
- TommyNatalie's little black spaniel, loyal to Arbuthnot and drawn to the sleepers from the first moment.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 13 h 30 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Quand le monde trembla in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Quand le monde trembla
by H. Rider Haggard · 1919
Three friends wrecked on a South Sea island find two glowing coffins in a cave beneath a lake.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
When the World Shook is a romance of adventure by H. Rider Haggard, published in 1919 and dedicated to his friend Lord Curzon.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rich man who has lost his purpose
Humphrey Arbuthnot opens his story in the Devon village where he was born. His father, a learned and gentle High Church vicar, taught him at home until he went to Oxford. Humphrey is clever and handsome, yet he calls himself a failure. He blames two faults: a fastidious nature that finds flaws in everything, and a lack of perseverance.
He tries the law and wins a will case for a man he believes is a forger. The two women he ruins haunt his conscience, and he leaves the Bar. His first book is a great success, but his second is torn apart by critics, and a false charge of plagiarism is pressed against him. His father dies before the two can make peace after a quarrel.
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What is When the World Shook about?
It follows three English friends who are wrecked on a Pacific island in a cyclone. They find an ancient sleeping king and his daughter, and are drawn into the secrets of a vanished civilization and a plan to reshape the world.
Who are Bastin and Bickley?
Bastin is a High Church clergyman with simple, unshakable faith, and Bickley is a skeptical surgeon who trusts only evidence. Their friendly quarrels frame the novel, while Arbuthnot sits between them.
Who are Oro and Yva?
Oro is an ancient king and astronomer who claims to have slept for two hundred and fifty thousand years. Yva is his daughter, a gentle woman of vast learning who becomes close to Arbuthnot.
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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