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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What use is a steady rifle when the danger reaches beyond everything a hunter knows?
In H. Rider Haggard’s The Ivory Child, Allan Quatermain trusts experience, a good rifle, and companions who keep their heads. But Lord Ragnall and Lady Ragnall become entangled with visitors from Africa whose purpose reaches beyond ordinary travel. A missing Englishwoman draws the hunter toward a conflict where practical courage may not be enough.
Alongside his resourceful companion Hans, Quatermain enters the struggle between the White Kendah and the Black Kendah. One community’s sacred world centers on the ivory child; the other is associated with Jana, a terrifying elephant. Dangerous travel and mysterious rites test his judgment, while loyalty matters as much as marksmanship.
What you’ll discover
- Courage beyond the rifle Follow a seasoned hunter as strange experiences challenge the practical knowledge he trusts.
- A companion who acts Meet Hans, whose sharp judgment and deep loyalty make him indispensable in danger.
- The terror of Jana Encounter a formidable elephant whose presence embodies the power associated with the Black Kendah.
- Rival sacred worlds Explore a conflict where religious claims resist the hunter’s usual measures of danger.
- Humor amid the danger Find moments of dry humor within an adventure shaped by an imperial outsider’s gaze.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hunter receives an unlikely invitation
- The conjurers know more than expected
- Grief turns friendship into a quest
- A promised release hides another danger
- Hans turns loyalty into rescue
- The mountain draws the rescuers onward
- Loyalty matters more than promised treasure
- Wonder and doubt remain side by side
- The rescue story rests on generosity
Who’s who
- Allan QuatermainA small, dry-humored elephant hunter from Natal who tells the tale and is drawn into a quest he did not choose.
- Lord RagnallA rich, brave English peer who crosses Africa in hope of finding his lost wife.
- Lady RagnallLuna Holmes, a dreamy young woman marked with a crescent moon, whom two strange priests believe is their oracle.
- HansAllan's old Hottentot servant, a crafty, boastful drinker whose whole loyalty belongs to his master.
- SavageLord Ragnall's proud butler, who drops his h's, hates snakes and follows his master into any danger.
- HarutHead priest of the White Kendah, a courteous, scheming old man who needs Allan to kill the elephant Jana.
- MarutHarut's younger, smiling fellow priest who guides Allan and shares his captivity.
- SimbaThe fierce king of the Black Kendah, who serves the elephant god Jana and wants the white men sacrificed.
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The Ivory Child
by H. Rider Haggard · 1916
A hunter follows a vanished lady into a hidden African land where a child god and an elephant god are at war.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Enchantment is just what this writer exercised; he fixed pictures in our minds that thirty years have been unable to wear away.”
In short
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.
The Ivory Child at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 103,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1916by H. Rider Haggard
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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Details
- First published
- 1916
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
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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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.
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.
“Love reigns, and I, Mameena, am its priestess”
More by H. Rider Haggard
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