KING SOLOMON’S MINES by H. Rider Haggard (Oxford: $2.25)

First published in 1885, “King Solomon’s Mines” still ranks as one of the great adventure stories of all time, rivaling “The Man Who Would Be King” and “Beau Geste.” The quest for a fabulous cache of diamonds takes three English adventurers to the imaginary kingdom of Kukuanaland. The overthrow of the cruel despot, Twala, by his virtuous nephew, Ignosi, embodies the 19th-Century British beliefs in the noble savage and the civilizing effects of European culture. Modern readers will be amused to discover that Allan Quartermain, Haggard’s reluctant swashbuckler, is the obvious ancestor of Indiana Jones, Jack Flashman and countless other tongue-in-cheek heroes. Although the casual slaughter of African wildlife by Quartermain and his friends seems appalling by today’s standards, even ecological activists will find this dashing saga hard to resist.