H. Rider Haggard’s The People of the Mist

H. Rider Haggard’s novel The People of the Mist was published in 1894 by which time he was just about the most popular writer in Britain. Haggard largely invented the Lost Civilisation genre and The People of the Mist definitely falls into this category.

Brothers Tom and Leonard Outtram were born into wealth. As sons of a wealthy baronet they had social position, education and all the advantages that any young men could enjoy. Until their father’s shady business dealings bring it all crashing down. The father kills himself, leaving his sons penniless and faced with the loss of the ancestral estate. The brothers make a vow that they will leave England to seek fortune elsewhere. When they have made their fortunes they will return to England to repurchase the estate and restore the family honour.

They end up in Africa, digging unsuccessfully for gold. Tom dies of fever but makes a death-bed prophecy - that Leonard will gain untold riches with the help of a woman.

Then an elderly African woman named Soa turns up with a strange tale. She had been nurse to a young English-Portuguese girl. She and the girl were devoted to each other. Now the girl, Juanna, has been captured by slavers. She wants Leonard’s help in rescuing the girl. And then she really gets Leonard’s attention - if he rescues Juanna then Soa will tell him how to reach the land of the fabled People of the Mist where rubies and sapphires are as common as pebbles. Surely this must be part of Tom’s dying prophecy - Soa is the woman who will lead Leonard to riches.

With his faithful African sidekick Otter (he really is more a sidekick than a servant) Leonard finds himself hurled into a series of extraordinary adventures. They will find the People of the Mist, Juanna and Otter will be worshipped as gods and they will face countless dangers from sacred crocodiles and treacherous priests, they will be imprisoned, they will have narrow escapes from death and will have to face the terror of the ice bridge.

Haggard understood that action and danger are essential ingredients of an adventure tale but it helps to have interesting characters. All of the characters in this story, African and European, are interesting and they’re all varied. There’s not one character who can be dismissed as a stereotype (either a racial stereotype or an adventure fiction stereotype).

Leonard is certainly a brave and determined hero capable of acting nobly but he is not a Boys’ Own Paper perfect specimen of manly heroism. He is not motivated by the desire to perform noble deeds, or even by a thirst for adventure. He is motivated by plain old-fashioned greed. He is a flawed hero.

Juanna is not quite a perfect heroine. She is quick-tempered, jumps to conclusions and misinterprets her own feelings and the feelings of others. She’s a fine young woman, but she has her exasperating quirks.

Otter is a dwarf and extremely ugly. He drinks far too much. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. He’s also as brave as a lion, almost as strong and in a fight he knows how to use brains as well as brawn.

Soa is very complicated. At times she seems like a villainess, at other times like a wise guide. She does some very bad things but she always has comprehensible motivations. She was dealt a bad hand by fate and her resentments are understandable. There is good and bad in her.

Nam the high priest is a villain, but again he has comprehensible motivations. He’s not just villainous for the sake of being villainous.

The land of the People of the Mist is far from being a utopia. They have some unpleasant customs but their reasons for clinging to their traditions are understandable.

The characters reflect the social and cultural attitudes of the time but it’s important to understand that the actual Victorians were nothing like the caricatured view so many people have of them today. They were intelligent complicated people with all of the normal human contradictions. Their beliefs and values were complex and nuanced.

It’s worth remembering that a lot of the clichés of adventure fiction were invented by Haggard and they weren’t clichés then.

This is a longish book but there’s plenty of plot, plenty of action and peril and an interesting cast of characters. There’s a reason that Haggard’s books remain in print after a century and a half. They remain in print because they’re extremely good. This one is not quite as good as his acknowledged masterpiece She but it’s highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines.