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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Moderate period violence; battle scenes and the violence of conquest
Language
None
Victorian-era prose; no strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Romantic longing across class lines; no explicit content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Barely any
Mild; themes of duty, loss, and empire's fragility
What this book is about
H. Rider Haggard's final completed novel, published posthumously in 1930, follows Belshazzar — a fictional Egyptian officer — through the fall of Egypt to Persian conquest under Cambyses. A forbidden love for a royal woman runs through the adventure as Haggard draws on the same passion for ancient settings and doomed romance that animated She and Cleopatra. More reflective and less kinetic than his best work, Belshazzar is the valediction of a storyteller at the end of his career.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Period battle violence
Themes of conquest and cultural erasure
Reader Verification
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