5 h 43 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 43 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does love mean to a hunter whose life is shaped by solitude, danger, and the wilderness?
In H. Rider Haggard's Allan's Wife, Allan Quatermain tells the story of his marriage to Stella. A seasoned hunter and trader, he speaks as a practical man rather than a polished hero. His account brings love and loss into a life already familiar with risk.
Around Allan and Stella lies nineteenth-century southern Africa: open veldt, rivers, mountains, and wild animals. This country shapes their choices, not just their surroundings. Far from towns and laws, their life together unfolds amid danger. Through Allan's eyes, the tale also reveals the Victorian view of Africa as a place of mystery.
What you’ll discover
- The hunter behind the adventures Meet Allan as a husband, with more at stake than his own survival.
- A marriage under threat Follow Allan and Stella into a shared life where love meets the dangers of the wilderness.
- Country that shapes lives Enter a landscape of veldt, rivers, and mountains that shapes every choice.
- A plainspoken storyteller Hear a modest, practical hunter tell his own story without a polished hero's manner.
- A Victorian lens Explore Africa as Haggard's European narrator pictures it, through mystery, danger, and frontier adventure.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy Victorian adventure, hunters and trekkers, mysteries of the African veld, and old-fashioned love stories told by a narrator who has seen a great deal of life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Squire Flees England With His Daughter
- A Wizard's Duel and a First Elephant Hunt
- A Zulu Regiment Stalks a Boer Laager
- A Duel and a Trick Save Allan
- Through the Desert to a Girl Named Stella
- The Baboon-Woman and the Marble Kraals
- Love, a Dream, and a Wedding Day
- The Star Is Taken and Magic Points the Way
- Fate, Jealousy and the Voice of an Old Man
Who’s who
- Allan QuatermainA small, tough hunter and trader called Macumazahn, who tells the story as an old man and wants to find a place to belong.
- Stella CarsonA dark-eyed English girl raised in the wilderness, loving, brave and educated by her father, who longs for an English gentleman and finds Allan.
- Indaba-zimbiAn old Zulu-born witch-doctor with a white lock of hair, who prophesies, protects Allan and speaks in riddles about death and loss.
- HendrikaA strong, white woman raised by baboons, fiercely devoted to Stella and jealous of everyone else who wins her love.
- Mr. CarsonStella's father, once an English squire, who hides from the world in the marble valley and rules a thousand people as their father.
- TotaA small Boer girl, rescued by Allan after her father's laager falls, who grows close to Stella in the valley.
- Hans BothaA restless Boer trekker who knew Allan at the Cape and must defend his wagons and his little daughter against the Zulu army.
- BombyaneA huge Zulu warrior who guards Allan and demands a duel with assegais over the life of a Boer child.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 43 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 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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La moglie di Allan
by H. Rider Haggard · 1889
Allan Quatermain carries a dying Boer child through a desert to a hidden valley where a girl from his past waits.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Allan's Wife is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, the English writer who gave the world the hunter Allan Quatermain.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Squire Flees England With His Daughter
The story opens with an old man's memory of Oxfordshire. Allan Quatermain is the youngest son of a country curate, and one Christmas the family is invited to the Hall, home of Squire Carson. The squire's wife, half Spanish and lively, laughs at the small boy's bristling hair. Her daughter Stella, dressed as Father Christmas, hands out the gifts from the tree.
Then Stella's cotton-wool sleeve touches a candle and flames run up toward her throat. Everyone else freezes. Allan throws himself on her and beats out the fire with his bare hands, and his wrists are burned for it. Stella is left with one small scar on her neck. Allan, looking back as an old man, calls it the moment he saved the woman who would become his wife.
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What is Allan's Wife about?
It is the story, told by Allan Quatermain, of how he met and married Stella Carson in a hidden valley beneath a mountain full of baboons, with elephant hunts, a Zulu army and an old witch-doctor along the way.
Who is Indaba-zimbi?
Indaba-zimbi, whose name means tongue of iron, is an old witch-doctor with a white lock of hair. He joins Allan's journey, makes accurate prophecies, saves his life and uses strange powers to find the missing.
Is Allan's Wife part of the Allan Quatermain series?
Yes, it is one of H. Rider Haggard's tales of Allan Quatermain, the hunter who narrates King Solomon's Mines. It fills in the story of his wife and early adventures, and stands well as a separate novel.
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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