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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a world of chiefs and warriors, one woman's beauty and ambition can be as dangerous as war.
In H. Rider Haggard's Child of Storm, Allan Quatermain looks back on his youth in southern Africa. The practical hunter and trader moves among the Zulu people and their rulers. He watches a world of royal courts, soldiers and healers—and finds himself drawn into its struggles.
At the center stands Mameena, a beautiful, sharp-witted woman who pursues her own aims among powerful men. Saduko binds his hopes to her, while kings and warriors consult the feared wizard Zikali. Love, ambition and betrayal meet in an adventure where desire brings danger and fate shadows human plans.
What you’ll discover
- A dangerous woman Meet Mameena, whose intelligence and force of will make beauty only part of her power.
- A watchful storyteller Follow Allan Quatermain as he recalls the people and struggles of his younger years.
- Royal power and ambition Enter a world where chiefs seek rank and followers look to powerful men for protection.
- The feared Opener of Roads Encounter Zikali, the old wizard whom kings and warriors both fear and turn to.
- Desire under fate's shadow Explore the pull of love and ambition in a land marked by conflict and change.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy African adventure, battle scenes, sharp-tongued heroines, prophecies that come true, and the fall of kings told by a dry-humoured narrator.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- One desire sets everything in motion
- Saduko chooses the road of spears
- A buffalo makes prophecy feel real
- Mameena offers charm and a kingdom
- Cattle cannot secure Saduko's love
- Private grudges threaten the kingdom
- Zikali opens roads toward revenge
- Personal ambition draws everyone into danger
Who’s who
- Allan QuatermainA white hunter and trader, the narrator, who wants to stay out of Zulu quarrels but is repeatedly pulled into them.
- MameenaUmbezi's daughter, a copper-skinned beauty of great wit, who wants to rise to the highest place a woman can hold.
- SadukoA tall young chief whose family was destroyed by Bangu, and who wants revenge, wealth and Mameena.
- ZikaliAn ancient dwarf and prophet, the Opener of Roads, who plots the fall of the royal House of Senzangakona.
- UmbeziMameena's boastful, genial father and a headman who wants cattle, comfort and a safe place beside the strong.
- NandieA daughter of King Panda and wife of Saduko, calm and honest, who wants to keep her husband and her family safe.
- UmbelaziPanda's tall, handsome and kind-hearted son, beloved of the people, who claims the throne against his brother.
- CetewayoPanda's fierce, able son and Umbelazi's rival, who believes the throne is rightfully his.
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Child of Storm
by H. Rider Haggard · 1913
A Zulu girl born in a storm sets a proud chief and a prince on a collision course, and Allan Quatermain watches.
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
A young trader stands in a Zulu kraal as an old gun fires by itself and slices the top off a wife's ear. Nothing about the scene looks dangerous.
Child of Storm at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h4 h 45 min fast, 7 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 86,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1913by 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
An Old Hunter Sets Down a Storm Story
Allan Quatermain writes from England, years after the events, and wants to save one story above all. It is mostly about Mameena, daughter of a headman named Umbezi, whom the Zulus also call Child of Storm.
Quatermain compares her to Helen of Troy but thinks Mameena had more fire. Both were lovely, both were unfaithful, and both cost hundreds of men their lives. Mameena, however, wanted to become the first woman of the Zulu world.
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Details
- First published
- 1913
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Haggard, H. Rider. Child of Storm. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/child-of-storm.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). Child of storm. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/child-of-storm (Original work published 1913)
Haggard, H. Rider. Child of Storm. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/child-of-storm.
@book{haggard2026child,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {Child of Storm},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/child-of-storm},
note = {First published 1913}
}
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What is Child of Storm about?
It tells how the beautiful Mameena, a Zulu headman's daughter, draws the chief Saduko, King Panda's sons and the white trader Allan Quatermain into a spiral of love, ambition and revenge that leads to a civil war.
Who is Zikali in Child of Storm?
Zikali is an ancient dwarf, healer and prophet, called the Opener of Roads. He hates the royal House of Senzangakona, sees the future, and quietly steers the characters toward the fall of the Zulu kings.
Is Child of Storm a true story?
The quarrel of the princes Cetewayo and Umbelazi and the battle of the Tugela in 1856 are real history, while Mameena and her story are Haggard's invention. He wrote it in 1912 as Quatermain's memoir.
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.
“When two young bulls quarrel, they must fight it out.”
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