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What happens when the promise of gold becomes stronger than the sense of danger?
In A Yellow God, H. Rider Haggard sends a small group of Europeans away from a safe, ordered world and into the African interior. Their quest gathers around a golden idol: an object that some people want, others worship, and others fear. Each stage of the journey brings greater danger, while the hope of wealth keeps drawing the travellers onward.
Travel and treasure drive the action, but obsession gives the adventure its deeper pull. Haggard explores what happens when desire grows too large and loyalties divide under pressure. The landscape becomes a test as well as a setting. Behind the chase lies a question that reaches beyond gold: how much will people risk for the thing they cannot stop wanting?
What you’ll discover
- An idol at the centre Follow the golden object that draws greed, worship and fear into the same dangerous pursuit.
- A journey beyond safety Leave an ordered world behind as each stage of the quest raises the danger.
- Loyalties under strain Watch competing desires put trust at risk and pull people toward different choices.
- Landscapes with weight Enter an African setting shaped by Haggard's experience of living in southern Africa.
- The cost of wanting Look beneath the treasure hunt at an obsession that threatens to overwhelm good sense.
Who will love it
Readers who love lost kingdoms, buried gold, and perilous journeys will enjoy this. So will those who like loyal, funny sidekicks and love tested by greed and danger.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Gold links two different worlds
- Alan refuses money built on deceit
- Jeekie's story unsettles the financiers
- Barbara refuses to be bought
- A threatened home starts the journey
- The mask turns enemies into helpers
- The gold comes with a trap
- Gold tests conscience more than wealth
- Comedy and dread travel together
Who’s who
- Alan VernonA retired army engineer, honest and slow to suspect evil, who leaves a corrupt firm and goes to Africa to earn the right to marry Barbara.
- Barbara ChampersA brave, quick-witted heiress who sees through her uncle's circle and promises to wait for Alan, whatever her guardian says.
- JeekieAlan's tall, white-haired African servant, a boastful rascal and fierce friend who knows the way to the Asiki and means to get everyone out alive.
- Sir Robert AylwardA cold, ambitious financier who hides behind a mask of calm, wants Barbara for his wife, and cannot bear to lose.
- Mr. Champers-HaswellBarbara's guardian and Sir Robert's partner, a jolly, whistling promoter who is greedy and weak of heart.
- The AsikaThe beautiful, cruel priestess-queen of the Asiki, who believes one spirit has lived in every Asika and decides that Alan is her destined husband.
- FahniThe chief of the cannibal Ogula, rescued by Alan from a lioness and loyal to him ever after.
- The MunganaThe painted, haunted husband of the Asika, doomed to die at the end of his year and desperate to escape his fate.
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A Yellow God
by H. Rider Haggard · 1908
A City financier credits a golden idol with his luck, while its honest owner eventually carries it back into Africa.
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
Sir Robert Aylward sits in his teak-paneled office in the City of London and works out on the back of a letter that he is about to be very rich. His face looks like a wax mask, and it slips only when he is alone.
A Yellow God at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 5 min4 h 50 min fast, 7 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 86,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by 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 honest man learns what his partners sell
The story opens in the London office of Aylward and Champers-Haswell, a firm that promotes companies. Their newest scheme is Sahara Limited, a plan to flood the desert. The third partner, Major Alan Vernon, is a thin man weakened by fever. He is quick to trust and late to suspect evil in others.
When the newspaper called The Judge refuses the firm's advertisement, Sir Robert sends Alan to talk its old editor round. Mr. Jackson knew Alan's father. He tells Alan plainly that the firm lives by trickery and that the shares are priced far above their worth. He hands Alan a typed history of the firm's earlier companies and of the people who lost their money in them.
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Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Haggard, H. Rider. A Yellow God. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-yellow-god.
Haggard, H. R. (2026). A yellow god. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-yellow-god (Original work published 1908)
Haggard, H. Rider. A Yellow God. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-yellow-god.
@book{haggard2026yellow,
author = {Haggard, H. Rider},
title = {A Yellow God},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-yellow-god},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is A Yellow God about?
It follows Alan Vernon, an honest engineer who quits a crooked London firm, then travels to West Africa to return a golden idol to a hidden people and win enough gold to marry Barbara.
Who is Jeekie in A Yellow God?
Jeekie is Alan's African servant, born among the Asiki and rescued as a boy by Alan's uncle. He is boastful, loyal, funny, and clever, and he guides Alan through dangers.
What is the Yellow God, Little Bonsa?
Little Bonsa is an ancient gold mask with a woman's face, worshipped by the Asiki as the wife of Big Bonsa. Visitors to London see it in the firm's office and call it lucky or cursed.
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.
“Sufficient for the day was its own trouble”
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