When the World Shook

Name: When the World Shook
Rating: 3.64 (219 reviews)

by H. Rider Haggard

First published 1919

Amazon

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.