H. Rider Haggard's She (retold)

by H. Rider Haggard, Don Ward (Adapter)

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1949

About the author

Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and the creator of the Lost World literary genre. His stories, situated at the lighter end of the scale of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. He was also involved in agricultural reform and improvement in the British Empire.

His breakout novel was King Solomon's Mines (1885), which was to be the first in a series telling of the multitudinous adventures of its protagonist, Allan Quatermain.

Haggard was made a Knight Bachelor in 1912 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate for the Eastern division of Norfolk in 1895. The locality of Rider, British Columbia, was named in his memory.

Reviews

[Martyn Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was seminal in launching the Lost Kingdom genre in Fantasy Fiction. Haggard specialised in setting these kingdoms in Africa along with Edgar Rice Burroughs. He begins his tale with the discovery of an ancient artefact which tells story of love and revenge in ancient Egypt. Apparently survivors of those dangerous days made their way to Africa and founded the kingdom. Two Britons and their Arab guide brave marshes and malaria and are on the point of succumbing when a (hitherto unknown) African tribe rescues/captures them and takes them to the land of the woman ruler known as "She Who Must Be Obeyed". She believes the good-looking young Briton is the reincarnation of her lost love (for a mystical flame has granted her an enormously long life span).
The story is gripping and the denoument surprised me as I knew nothing about how the story unravelled, prior to reading it. The ruler (Ayesha) is well drawn and her debates with the older Briton are a joy to read.