&quot;The King of the Mountains&quot;, a French humour classic by Edmond About, appeared in 1856, when he was twenty-eight.&nbsp;<br /><br />The scene is laid in and near contemporary Athens. The story is an animated and delightfully humorous account of the adventures befalling two English ladies and a young German scientist, who are captured and held for ransom by the redoubtable Hadgi-Stavros, king of the brigands.