When the World Shook

by H. Rider Haggard

First published 1919

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3.5(219)

After personal loss, Humphrey Arbuthnot sails into the Pacific with the missionary Bastin and the scientist Bickley. Shipwrecked on the volcanic island of Orofena, the three men discover a subterranean civilisation and awaken the ancient ruler Oro and his daughter Yva from suspended life.

Oro’s contempt for modern humanity leads him toward a machine capable of convulsing the planet and destroying civilisation. The adventure opposes religious faith, scientific materialism and imperial power while using lost-world science to ask whether any individual has the right to remake the world by force.