Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. The main hero of The Yellow God is Alan Vernon, a young retired army major, who, after undergoing financial ruin, decides to travel to Africa to make his fortune, in hopes of eventually winning the hand of beautiful Barbara Champers-Haswell. Vernon has heard of a mysterious kingdom ruled by the priestess and he plans to help himself to the gold found there.