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Allan's Wife and Other Tales

H. Rider Haggard

In 1885, H. Rider Haggard introduced Allan Quatermain, elephant hunter extraordinaire, in his best-selling African adventure novel 'King Solomon's Mines'. Haggard went on to publish twelve Quatermain novels and several novellas and short stories, including the four in this collection. 'Allan's Wife' explains how Quatermain became a hunter early in life and recounts the tragedy of his brief marriage to Stella, his childhood sweetheart. The three shorter tales are hunting yarns narrated by Quatermain as an old man. In 'Hunter Quatermain', Allan is faced with a raging wounded buffalo and in 'A Tale of Three Lions' and 'Long Odds', he takes on no less than seven lions. First published in 1889, this collection was re-published as the twenty-fourth volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in 1980. - Summary by Phil Benson