Customer Reviews

When the World Shook

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I was only searching for this book; I was reading a book by the old master,R.A. HEINLEIN,(rocket ship galileo), when i caught a reference to Haggard's "when the earth TREMBLED". HOW COME THE NAME DISCREPENCY?

WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK is late Haggard, written during the Great War, not very long before his death in 1925. Sad to say, it's a retread of the themes and ideas that made such an impact in early works like SHE, KING SOLOMON'S MINES and ALLAN QUATERMAIN. Three English chaps are marooned on a mysterious South Seas island. The natives tell of their powerful god Oro; whom the chaps find has been sleeping for 250,000 years. They wake him, and his beautiful daughter, who is the spitting image of our hero's dead wife, while he is a dead ringer for her lost love...

The story continues along familiar HRH lines, building to a climax which is not too different from that of SHE. However, there are a couple of things which make this yarn worth investigation for HRH fans. Firstly, the 20th century intervenes, with its aeroplanes, Kodaks and telephones. This is a novelty in the otherwise strictly Victorian goings-on. Secondly, the Great War parts of the story, while revealing unpleasantly jingoistic aspects of HRH's writing, are also illuminating in so far as they give a view of that conflict that differs from that put forward by the War Poets, but is nevertheless penned by a writer with a powerful romantic imagination.