Context:

Mentioned as the polar opposite to Heart of Darkness - described as a swashbuckling, optimistic journey into Africa that never questions the right of adventurers to be there

Context:

Referenced in discussion of European romanticization of frontier life and 'big game hunters' - the hosts recall discussing Haggard's portrayal of 'a man of the plains' in a previous episode.

Context:

Referenced when discussing the mysterious location of Ophir, noting 'Ryder Haggard situates it in Africa' in connection with a previous episode on King Solomon's mines.

Context:

Referenced in discussion of 'the fiction of empire, and this obsession with manliness, with proving yourself'

Context:

Discussed as a Victorian imperial fiction classic that influenced Raiders of the Lost Ark and the adventure serial genre that Spielberg drew upon

Context:

Referenced in passing when discussing the Edwardian era's obsession with manliness and brotherhood, noting they had done a previous podcast about this book published about 20 years earlier

Context:

Main subject of the episode - described as 'one of the best-selling novels of the Victorian age' published in 1885

Context:

Referenced alongside Treasure Island as examples of the adventure story worldview through which Churchill saw his imperial experiences

Context:

Explicitly mentioned as a book Churchill had read, referenced when discussing his love of imperial adventure stories

Context:

Mentioned as one of the imperial adventure stories Tolkien read as a boy, written in the mid-1880s, about people going to Africa and discovering lost cities

Context:

Referenced as an example of earlier colonial adventure novels featuring 'white hunters or white heroes going to remote cities' that modern sensibilities wouldn't permit