A bold and spirited reimagining of the myth of Odysseus, The World's Desire begins with Odysseus utterly alone. His kingdom of Ithaca is an empty, abandoned wasteland. His beloved wife Penelope is dead and his patron goddess Athena has forsaken him. The famous wanderer is without kin and without purpose on an island he no longer knows. But then Aphrodite visits Odysseus and sends him on a quest to find the world's desire, the face that launched a thousand ships: the woman he once knew as Helen of Troy. Armed with his legendary bow, Odysseus's final journey takes him to a court riven by murderous factions, ruled by a queen who is haunted by dreams of Odysseus's face. . .

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

I am going to tell the strangest story that I remember. It may seem a queer thing to say, especially considering that there is no woman in it -- except Foulata. Stop, though! there is Gagaoola, if she was a woman, and not a fiend. But she was a hundred at least, and therefore not marriageable, so I don't count her. At any rate, I can safely say that there is not a _petticoat_ in the whole history.

An Englishman goes to Africa to seek his fortune -- and finds more than his share of excitement, winding up in a remote land, rescuing a beautiful woman, and ultimately finding himself. One of Haggard's very best adventure novels.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard is best known for his adventure novels, especially King Solomon's Mines and She. Born in England, he emigrated to South Africa briefly, before returning to seek a legal career. He eventually became one of the most popular British authors of all time. Written in 1895, Joan Haste is a romance, but has enough action to satisfy any of Haggard's fans.

This short story collection includes: "Smith and the Pharaohs," "Magepa the Buck," "The Blue Curtains," "Little Flower," "Only a Dream," and "Barbara Who Came Back."

This book, although it can be read as a separate story, is the third of the trilogy of which "Marie" and "Child of Storm" are the first two parts. It narrates, through the mouth of Allan Quatermain, the consummation of the vengeance of the wizard Zikali, alias The Opener of Roads, or "The-Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born," upon the royal Zulu House of which Senzangacona was the founder and Cetewayo, our enemy in the war of 1879, the last representative who ruled as a king. Although, of course, much is added for the purposes of romance, the main facts of history have been adhered to with some faithfulness.

Classic fantasy novel of love and reincarnation.

When Eve Clattering-known as Red Eve because she always dresses in red--is betrothed to Sir Edmund Acour, Count of Noyon, it goes against her will and her every instinct. Rumors of Sir Edmund's treachery have reached her ears, and she suspects may be planning to seize the throne of England. Hugh de Cressi, Eve's true love, must rise above his station, help save the king . . . and win Red Eve for his own!

This collection of short stories includes three which feature Allan Quatermain, the hero of King Solomon's Mines and other classic novels (Long Odds, Hunter Quatermain's Story, and A Tale of Three Lions) as well as two bonus stories (The Mahatma and the Hare, Black Heart and White Heart).

Part of the Wildside Fantasy Classics series. The famous ruins in Zimbabwe suggested this story to Haggard, in which he makes this lost city the Biblical Ophir, said to have fallen because of the wickedness of its religion and people. As always, a rousing story in Haggard's finest style.

Standing a while ago upon the flower-clad plain above Tiberius, by the Lake of Galilee, the writer gazed at the double peaks of the Hill of Hattin. Here, or so tradition says, Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount - that perfect rule of gentleness and peace. Here, too - and this is certain - after nearly twelve centuries had gone by, Yusuf Salah-ed-din, whom we know as the Sultan Saladin, crushed the Christian power in Palestine in perhaps the most terrible battle which that land of blood has known. Thus the Mount of the Beatitudes became the Mount of Massacre. Whilst musing on these strangely-contrasted scenes enacted in one place there arose in his mind a desire to weave, as best he might, a tale wherein any who are drawn to the romance of that pregnant and mysterious epoch, when men by thousands were glad to lay down their lives for visions and spiritual hopes, could find a picture, however faint and broken, of the long war between Cross and Crescent waged among the Syrian plains and deserts. England and the East; of the fearful lord of the Assassins whom the Franks called Old Man of the Mountain, and his fortress city, Masyaf. Of the great-hearted, if at times cruel Saladin and his fierce Saracens; of the rout at Hattin itself, on whose rocky height the Holy Rood was set up as a standard and captured, to be seen no more by Christian eyes; and of the Iast surrender, whereby the Crusaders lost Jerusalem forever. Of that desire this story is the fruit. - H. Rider Haggard.

If H. Rider Haggard - one of the greatest adventure writers of all time - is remembered now, it is for his novels featuring Allan Quatermain, a heroic adventurer whose exploits in Africa form the most important sequence of Haggard's books. Quatermain's adventures are chronicled in such novels as King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quaterman, She, and 11 others. In When the World Shook, Haggard takes his popular formula for Victorian adventure fiction into the contemporary world, with this tale of three modern-day English adventurers who find an ancient god (complete with beautiful daughter) asleep beneath a South Seas volcano...Written late in his life, When the World Shook is perhaps the most current of all of Haggard's novels; it features many contemporary inventions, from aeroplanes to cameras, as well as Haggard's trademark gripping storytelling and likeable, sympathetic characters. His tales remain powerfully in the memory... - The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.

The tale of Allan Quatermain's second wife, Stella, is also a classic fantasy African adventure, complete with magic and ghosts, plus Haggard's trademark gripping narrative style.

Allan and the Ice Gods is the final volume of the Allan Quatermain saga, and it comprises the fourth part of a loosely linked series begun with Allan and the Holy Flower, The Ivory Child, and The Ancient Allan. Once more Quatermain takes the hallucinogenic taduki drug, as he did in previous novels, and he gets to see a previous incarnation?

Moon of Israel (1918) was one of the earliest Haggard books to be filmed (in 1924, as a silent movie directed by Michael Curtiz). The movie adaptation has been released both as Moon of Israel and The Slave Queen. Interestingly, Paramount bought the original film and suppressed it so it wouldn't complete with the release of DeMille's original silent version of The Ten Commandments. As a book, it is an exceptional retelling of the Biblical story of the Exodus. I?m certain most modern readers will be familiar with the original story. By selecting an unlikely viewpoint character?the scribe Ana?Haggard provides a down-to-earth narrator for a story of fantastic proportion. The novel was first serialized in The Cornhill Magazine from January through October in 1918 and released in book for in October 1918. Author and critic Jessica Amanda Salmonson has called Moon of Israel ?a beautifully written Jewish legend, ? and adds, ?Haggard was pro-Zionist advocating a Jewish homeland in Palestine as early as 1915.

The strange adventures and escapes of Thomas Wingfield, half English and half Spanish, in the years after Cortes's conquest of Mexico.

If Haggard?one of the greatest adventure writers of all time?is remembered now, it is for his novels featuring Allan Quatermain, a heroic adventurer whose exploits in Africa form the most important sequence of Haggard's books. Quatermain's adventures are chronicled in such novels as King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quaterman, She, and 11 others.However, despite the importance of the Quaterman books, many of Haggard's other novels are interesting in their own right. Nada the Lily is the first of four books about the Zulus, all of which are excellent. Eric Brighteyes is rich, fantasy-laden Icelandic saga. The World's Desire (written with Andrew Lang) is a fantasy about the characters in The Odyssey. And there are numerous other titles (many of them reprinted by Wildside Press as part of the Wildside Fantasy Classics series) which bring undeservingly lost Haggard books back into print. Mr. Meeson's Will is just such a book.Here we get a glimpse of what H. Rider Haggard must have gone through as a starting author, as he slyly takes the reader inside the British publishing industry, where greed and hack writers (he calls them ?tame writers?) are prominent. One can easily see how writers of the day could be ruined by publishers as ruthless and unscrupulous as Mr. Meeson. Luckily Haggard could call upon his years of legal training in search of the appropriate remedy for his heroine's tragic plight!

Before the beginning of this story of the most remarkable episodes in his life, Philip Hadden was engaged for several years in transport-riding--carrying goods on ox waggons from Durban or Maritzburg to various points in the interior of Africa. On arriving at the little frontier town of Utrecht in the Transvaal, in charge of two waggon loads of mixed goods consigned to a storekeeper there, it was discovered that five cases of brandy were missing from his waggon. The storekeeper called him a thief and the two men came to blows. Before anybody could interfere, the storekeeper received a nasty wound in his side. That night, Hadden trekked back into Natal, loaded up with Kaffir goods--such as blankets, calico, and hardware--and crossed into Zululand, where no sheriff's officer would be likely to follow. Being well acquainted with the language and customs of the natives, he did good trade with them, and soon found himself possessed of some cash and a small herd of cattle, which he received in exchange for his wares. Meanwhile news reached him that the man whom he had injured still vowed vengeance against him, and was in communication with the authorities in Natal. These reasons making his return to civilisation undesirable for the moment, and further business being impossible until he could receive a fresh supply of trade stuff, Hadden like a wise man turned his thoughts to pleasure. Sending his cattle and waggon over the border to be left in charge of a native headman with whom he was friendly, he went on foot to Ulundi to obtain permission from the king, Cetywayo, to hunt game in his country. Somewhat to his surprise, the Indunas or headmen, received him courteously--for Hadden's visit took place within a few months of the outbreak of the Zulu war in 1878, when Cetywayo was already showing unfriendliness to the English traders and others . . . .