Story summary
Trama e riassunto di Il Bambino d'Avorio
- 8 min di lettura
- 10 parts
- Audio a breve
A hunter follows a vanished lady into a hidden African land where a child god and an elephant god are at war.
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Il Bambino d'Avorio in breve
Riassunto: 8 min di lettura
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 35 min slow
- Durata
- 103.500 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Medio longer sentences, everyday words
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1916by H. Rider Haggard
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
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Il Bambino d'Avorio in short
The Ivory Child follows one long quest. A hunter wins a friend at an English shoot, then watches two conjurers try to carry off the friend's fiancée. Two years later the friend arrives in Durban in despair, and Allan leads him across Africa to a land where a child god and an elephant god are at war.
What Il Bambino d'Avorio is about
What would you do if a stranger told you that you alone could kill a god? Allan Quatermain, an old hunter living in Natal, hears exactly that from two white-robed conjurers in an English drawing room. It sounds like a party trick until a lady vanishes from a boat on the Nile.
The Ivory Child was written by H. Rider Haggard, and Quatermain tells it himself. It carries him from a pheasant shoot at an English castle to a hidden land inside a ring of desert, where one people worships a child and another worships an elephant. Along the way you meet a swindler, a faithful Hottentot named Hans and a butler who fears snakes. You get the story scene by scene, and then a look at how Haggard builds it.
A chi è rivolto. Readers who love lost-world adventure, with desert caravans, hidden temples and a giant elephant, will find it here. It suits anyone who enjoys a loyal servant, a plain-spoken hunter's voice and a quest driven by love.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A pigeon lesson and a bet win a friend
Allan Quatermain, a hunter from Natal, wanders into the grounds of Ragnall Castle in Essex. There he watches Lord Ragnall miss wood pigeons again and again with a small rifle. Allan tells him he is shooting a foot too high, then takes the rifle and shows how it is done.
Lord Ragnall is handsome, rich and kind, and he takes the lesson with good humor. He invites Allan to the great winter shoot the next day. Among the guests Allan meets Sir Junius Fortescue, once the swindler Van Koop, who cheated him of 250 pounds. Van Koop offers a bet on who kills more birds. Allan agrees, though he is ashamed of the whole affair.
The count ends level. Then the keeper drags a muddy pheasant from the lake, and the shot in its brain is Allan's. Van Koop must pay, and Allan hands the cheque to Lord Ragnall for the Cottage Hospital. A long friendship begins. A small act of honesty can win a friend for life.
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A dinner guest meets two strange conjurers
That night Allan escorts Miss Holmes, Lord Ragnall's fiancée, to dinner.
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A midnight rescue and a ruined gold mine
Before dawn Miss Holmes glides past Allan in her sleep, wearing the red necklace.
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Lord Ragnall comes to Africa in grief
Lord Ragnall and Savage arrive at Allan's door after traveling seven thousand miles.
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Captured by the Black Kendah and struck by hail
After weeks in the desert, the caravan reaches Kendahland.
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Jana the elephant god comes for Allan
The Black Kendah leave their prisoners on a dark moor with no weapons.
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The Holy Mount, a deadly cave and a bargain
Allan and Hans reach the White Kendah, where Harut rides out just in time to save them.
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Loyalty is the force that drives the story
The first great theme is loyalty, and it shows best in Hans.
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Belief, magic and coincidence are always in doubt
The second theme is the doubt between magic and chance.
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Allan tells the story with humor and shadows
Allan Quatermain tells the book in the first person, looking back from old age.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Allan Quatermain A small, dry-humored elephant hunter from Natal who tells the tale and is drawn into a quest he did not choose.
- Lord Ragnall A rich, brave English peer who crosses Africa in hope of finding his lost wife.
- Lady Ragnall Luna Holmes, a dreamy young woman marked with a crescent moon, whom two strange priests believe is their oracle.
- Hans Allan's old Hottentot servant, a crafty, boastful drinker whose whole loyalty belongs to his master.
- Savage Lord Ragnall's proud butler, who drops his h's, hates snakes and follows his master into any danger.
- Harut Head priest of the White Kendah, a courteous, scheming old man who needs Allan to kill the elephant Jana.
- Marut Harut's younger, smiling fellow priest who guides Allan and shares his captivity.
- Simba The fierce king of the Black Kendah, who serves the elephant god Jana and wants the white men sacrificed.
How it ends (spoiler)
In the temple courtyard Jana charges through the defenders, kills the lame priest and swings the king Simba to his death. The enormous elephant then snatches the Ivory Child from Lady Ragnall and smashes it, and he dies kneeling before her. The Black Kendah flee, and Lady Ragnall recovers her reason in her husband's arms. Hans is crushed in the fight and dies at sundown, loved to the last. The travelers cross the desert, though most of the ivory is lost in a sandstorm.
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Domande su Il Bambino d'Avorio
What is The Ivory Child about?
It follows the hunter Allan Quatermain as he joins Lord Ragnall on a quest into Africa. They seek the lord's lost wife and face a war between two peoples, one that worships a child and one that worships an elephant.
Who are Harut and Marut in The Ivory Child?
They are priests of the White Kendah, a hidden people in Central Africa. They arrive in an English drawing room in white robes, perform tricks and ask Allan to kill the elephant god Jana, promising ivory.
Who or what is Jana?
Jana is the huge elephant worshipped by the Black Kendah as the embodiment of evil. The White Kendah see him as an evil spirit in animal form, while Allan thinks he is an unusually large and savage rogue elephant.
Is The Ivory Child a true story, and when was it written?
No, it is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, one of his Allan Quatermain tales. The Kendah, Jana and the Holy Mount are invented, though the book draws on real African settings and on ancient Egyptian religion.
Is The Ivory Child worth reading today?
It offers a strong story told in a dry, humorous voice, with loyal friendships, desert journeys and a mystery about a lost wife. Hans and Savage supply comedy and heart, and the plot moves steadily from scene to scene.
Cita questa edizione
Haggard, H. Rider. The Ivory Child. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ivory-child.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). The ivory child. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ivory-child (Original work published 1916)
Haggard, H. Rider. The Ivory Child. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ivory-child.
@book{haggard2026ivory,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {The Ivory Child},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ivory-child},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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