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What secrets are forbidden in the world of the Inca Empire?
The Virgin of the Sun by H. Rider Haggard takes you into the Inca Empire, where forbidden secrets draw you toward the unknown. Love and honor stand at the heart of this epic adventure, giving its mystery a personal pull.
The promise lies in that meeting of the intimate and the hidden: love, the demands of honor, and secrets that remain out of reach. Haggard’s story invites you to enter this world with curiosity, following its romance while wondering what those forbidden secrets hold.
What you’ll discover
- An epic adventure Enter a story that brings the sweep of adventure to the Inca Empire.
- Love at its heart Discover the romantic thread at the heart of Haggard’s adventure.
- The question of honor Explore honor as a central theme alongside love and forbidden secrets.
- Secrets to explore Let the promise of forbidden knowledge draw you into the story.
- The Inca Empire Step into the setting that brings this romance and adventure together.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy lost empires, swords with prophecies, ships and storms, rival kings, and a love story that keeps crossing oceans and mountains.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A burning home begins Hubert's exile
- Wealth brings warnings and a friend
- Love leads Hubert past every warning
- Survival depends on trust in Kari
- Quilla arrives beneath the full moon
- Love must answer to public duty
- Sacred law divides loyal hearts
- A recovered manuscript carries Hubert's voice
- Honor remains when fortune turns
Who’s who
- Hubert of HastingsA fisherman's son and later a rich London merchant who carries an ancestral sword and wants to win love, safety and a home.
- KariA hunted prince from Tavantinsuyu who is rescued by Hubert and is determined to return home and take back his rightful place.
- QuillaA Chanca princess called the Daughter of the Moon, who loves Hubert yet is bound by a promise that guards her people.
- Lady Blanche AleysA beautiful gentlewoman of Sussex whom Hubert saves at Hastings and wishes to marry, though she keeps a dangerous secret.
- Lord DeleroyA showy favourite of the King who borrows and forges, and who holds Sir Robert Aleys and his daughter in his power.
- John GrimmerHubert's uncle, a goldsmith and moneylender who teaches him trade and tells him that all is vanity.
- HuarachaThe soldier king of the Chancas, who plans war against the Incas and uses his daughter's marriage to buy time.
- LaricoThe cunning high priest of the Sun, who serves the old Inca and bargains with all sides to keep his own power.
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The Virgin of the Sun in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Virgin of the Sun
by H. Rider Haggard · 1922
A merchant from burned Hastings carries a Viking sword to the Inca's golden empire and the woman it hides.
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 your town burned, your mother died in the flames, and all you had left was a sword from a dead Viking? That is where Hubert of Hastings begins.
The Virgin of the Sun at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 25 min5 h 5 min fast, 7 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 91,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1922by 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 burning town and a sword begin everything
Hubert is about twenty-three when he comes home from a night of fishing. In the morning fog he slips through a French fleet bearing down on Hastings. He runs through the streets shouting the alarm, and the church bells ring out.
At home, his frail mother unwraps Wave-Flame, the sword of her Norse ancestor Thorgrimmer. A rune cut into the blade says its bearer will find love, die in battle, cross wide seas and make his home in strange lands. She gives him the sword, a bag of gold and an old ring, and tells him to seek his uncle in London.
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Which edition is right for me
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Haggard, H. Rider. The Virgin of the Sun. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-virgin-of-the-sun.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). The virgin of the sun. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-virgin-of-the-sun (Original work published 1922)
Haggard, H. Rider. The Virgin of the Sun. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-virgin-of-the-sun.
@book{haggard2026virgin,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {The Virgin of the Sun},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-virgin-of-the-sun},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is The Virgin of the Sun about?
It follows Hubert of Hastings, an English merchant who flees London and is cast ashore in Peru before the Spanish. There he becomes a war leader among the Chancas and falls in love with Quilla, a princess tied to the Inca's religion.
Who is Kari in The Virgin of the Sun?
Kari is a stranger Hubert rescues on the London wharf. He proves to be a prince of the Inca house who has been poisoned and exiled. He guides Hubert across the sea and becomes his friend, then later his rival.
What does Virgin of the Sun mean in the book?
A Virgin of the Sun is a woman consecrated as a bride of the Sun god in the House of the Virgins at Cuzco. No man may see or touch her, and breaking the rule is the worst crime in the Inca law.
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.
“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”
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