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দ্য ওয়ে অভ দ্য স্পিরিট
Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE (1856-1925) was a Victorian writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations. After failing his army entrance exam he was sent to a private 'crammer' in London to prepare for the entrance exam for the British Foreign Office, for which he never sat. Haggard's father sent him to Africa in an unpaid position as assistant to the secretary to Lieutenant-Governor of Natal Sir Henry Bulwer. Heavily influenced by the larger-than-life adventurers he met in Colonial Africa, the great mineral wealth discovered in Africa, and the ruins of ancient lost civilizations in Africa such as Great Zimbabwe, Haggard created his Allan Quatermain adventures. Haggard also wrote about agricultural and social issues reform, in part inspired by his experiences in Africa, but also based on what he saw in Europe. Haggard is most famous as the author of the best-selling novel King Solomon's Mines (1885). Amongst his other works are She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1888), Eric Brighteyes (1891) and Ayesha (1895).
- GenresAdventure
237 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2020
18 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
H. Rider Haggard
1,570 books1,091 followersSir 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 5, 2013
Even in the modern-day 21st century, it can be a difficult situation for a husband to be in love with a woman who just happens not to be his wife. For the Victorian/Edwardian gentleman, however, especially for one of a highly moral and religious bent, the situation must have been even harder, particularly if that man were a well-known and highly respected public figure. And yet, that is exactly the lot that befell renowned British author H. Rider Haggard. I am only familiar with the bald outlines of the case (after having just completed my 42nd Haggard novel, out of the author's 58, I really do need to finally pick up his autobiography "The Days of My Life," or at least the Cohen or Higgins biography), but it seems that Haggard initially met the love of his life, Lilly Jackson, in the late 1870s while working in the Transvaal. Forbidden by his father to marry the older woman until he'd made something of himself, Haggard returned to England, and Lilly married a well-to-do banker. Later in life, Haggard, now married to a woman named Louisa (Margitson) and a highly successful writer, came to Lilly's aid when her wealthy husband left her. Haggard bought her a house, paid for her kids' education, and paid her bills when she contracted syphilis...but despite his deep love for Lilly, remained steadfastly faithful to his wife. And it was this state of torn feelings and platonic love that apparently led Haggard to write so often of heroes tempted by two very different women, most especially in his 1890 novel "Beatrice" and, as it turns out, in "The Way of the Spirit." Written in 1904 with the plotting assistance of Rider's good friend Rudyard Kipling, this novel--Haggard's 29th, and thus the precise halfway point of his novelistic output--was ultimately released in March 1906, a month before the San Francisco earthquake, and is perhaps his most forthright statement on the subject of worldly "renunciation." ("Renunciation" WAS Haggard's original title for the novel.)
In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of a young man named Rupert Ullershaw. Rupert, when we first encounter him, is in the difficult situation of being in a love affair with the wife of his much older cousin, Lord Devene. Facing exposure, the Lady Devene commits suicide, and the young Rupert promises his mother to henceforward "follow the way of the Spirit, not that of the Flesh." After 11 years of soldiering in India and Egypt, Rupert returns home to England, where he falls in love with and marries his cousin Edith, a woman who is repelled by him but agrees to matrimony only because of Rupert's career prospects and the peerage, lands and fortune that he will eventually inherit from Lord Devene himself. Edith is actually in love with another of her cousins, the dastardly (and well-named) Dick, who arranges for Rupert to be sent back to Egypt, for a highly dangerous mission, on the very day of his wedding! And while back in that ancient land, Rupert is captured by his old enemy, the Sheik Ibrahim, and is triply mutilated (I will not reveal how exactly, but let's just say that no Haggard adventurer has ever suffered more than poor Rupert Ullershaw!). Cared for by Mea, the female leader of a people living in the lost oasis of Tama, he is nursed back to life, returns to England after many months, and is summarily rejected by Edith, who had believed him dead and now finds this mutilated man--who she could just barely tolerate to begin with--utterly impossible to accept. Rupert returns to Mea in the desert, and here the novel starts to make its main point, as the two begin a platonic, loving relationship that lasts for years. Rupert, incredibly enough, remains faithful to his marriage vows and to the unlikable woman who had spurned him, renouncing fleshly pleasures in the hopes of a love ever-lasting beyond the grave! Many readers may begin to roll their collective eyeballs at this point in the tale, but Haggard evidently does seem quite serious in showcasing such a decision's desirability, even telling us in his preface that "there must be something satisfying and noble in utter Renunciation for Conscience' sake...." But things reach a truly dramatic pass when Edith travels into the Egyptian desert, after seven years, to claim Rupert as her own....
"The Way of the Spirit" is a novel that Haggard bibliographer R.D. Mullen has chosen to call "mundane"...not because it is commonplace, but rather because it is largely devoid of any fantasy content. Its "lost race" quotient (Haggard, of course, is the so-called "Father of the Lost-Race Novel") is fairly minor, too, and the Tama people, living in their 450-square-mile oasis tucked away in the Egyptian desert, are only sketchily described. Still, Mea's guardian, the aged crone Bakhita, does practice the art of divination and can read omens in the desert sand and winds with a certain degree of accuracy, so the book cannot be said to be completely devoid of fantastic content. The novel also features a bare minimum of action per se, largely confined to the desert fight with Ibrahim's band and the ghastly torture aftermath, although, as in so many other Haggard titles, a shooting match between our hero and his nemesis does crop up at one point. Rupert, by the book's end, living in the desert, helping the sick, and living a life of abstinence, asceticism and renunciation, almost begins to appear saintlike, and the reader, despite his/her disbelief at his superhuman self-control, cannot help but admire him. No wonder Bakhita reflects at one point, "I always thought that these white people are mad, but this Bey is a saint as well." Truly a man of his times, what would Rupert have made of society's mores a century down the road, when "open marriages" and what my main man Dan Savage has called "monogamish relationships" have become standard? One can only wonder. Filled with well-drawn secondary characters and posing an interesting central dilemma, "The Way of the Spirit," though largely forgotten today, is a fast-moving, unusual type of Haggard novel, and one that I can surely recommend to all readers. The first edition that I have at home, the Hutchinson & Co. edition from 1906, is unfortunately so musty smelling that it was inducing asthma symptoms in me as I read it, but fortunately, there is a modern edition from Waking Lion Press that proved an adequate substitute, typos and all....
In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of a young man named Rupert Ullershaw. Rupert, when we first encounter him, is in the difficult situation of being in a love affair with the wife of his much older cousin, Lord Devene. Facing exposure, the Lady Devene commits suicide, and the young Rupert promises his mother to henceforward "follow the way of the Spirit, not that of the Flesh." After 11 years of soldiering in India and Egypt, Rupert returns home to England, where he falls in love with and marries his cousin Edith, a woman who is repelled by him but agrees to matrimony only because of Rupert's career prospects and the peerage, lands and fortune that he will eventually inherit from Lord Devene himself. Edith is actually in love with another of her cousins, the dastardly (and well-named) Dick, who arranges for Rupert to be sent back to Egypt, for a highly dangerous mission, on the very day of his wedding! And while back in that ancient land, Rupert is captured by his old enemy, the Sheik Ibrahim, and is triply mutilated (I will not reveal how exactly, but let's just say that no Haggard adventurer has ever suffered more than poor Rupert Ullershaw!). Cared for by Mea, the female leader of a people living in the lost oasis of Tama, he is nursed back to life, returns to England after many months, and is summarily rejected by Edith, who had believed him dead and now finds this mutilated man--who she could just barely tolerate to begin with--utterly impossible to accept. Rupert returns to Mea in the desert, and here the novel starts to make its main point, as the two begin a platonic, loving relationship that lasts for years. Rupert, incredibly enough, remains faithful to his marriage vows and to the unlikable woman who had spurned him, renouncing fleshly pleasures in the hopes of a love ever-lasting beyond the grave! Many readers may begin to roll their collective eyeballs at this point in the tale, but Haggard evidently does seem quite serious in showcasing such a decision's desirability, even telling us in his preface that "there must be something satisfying and noble in utter Renunciation for Conscience' sake...." But things reach a truly dramatic pass when Edith travels into the Egyptian desert, after seven years, to claim Rupert as her own....
"The Way of the Spirit" is a novel that Haggard bibliographer R.D. Mullen has chosen to call "mundane"...not because it is commonplace, but rather because it is largely devoid of any fantasy content. Its "lost race" quotient (Haggard, of course, is the so-called "Father of the Lost-Race Novel") is fairly minor, too, and the Tama people, living in their 450-square-mile oasis tucked away in the Egyptian desert, are only sketchily described. Still, Mea's guardian, the aged crone Bakhita, does practice the art of divination and can read omens in the desert sand and winds with a certain degree of accuracy, so the book cannot be said to be completely devoid of fantastic content. The novel also features a bare minimum of action per se, largely confined to the desert fight with Ibrahim's band and the ghastly torture aftermath, although, as in so many other Haggard titles, a shooting match between our hero and his nemesis does crop up at one point. Rupert, by the book's end, living in the desert, helping the sick, and living a life of abstinence, asceticism and renunciation, almost begins to appear saintlike, and the reader, despite his/her disbelief at his superhuman self-control, cannot help but admire him. No wonder Bakhita reflects at one point, "I always thought that these white people are mad, but this Bey is a saint as well." Truly a man of his times, what would Rupert have made of society's mores a century down the road, when "open marriages" and what my main man Dan Savage has called "monogamish relationships" have become standard? One can only wonder. Filled with well-drawn secondary characters and posing an interesting central dilemma, "The Way of the Spirit," though largely forgotten today, is a fast-moving, unusual type of Haggard novel, and one that I can surely recommend to all readers. The first edition that I have at home, the Hutchinson & Co. edition from 1906, is unfortunately so musty smelling that it was inducing asthma symptoms in me as I read it, but fortunately, there is a modern edition from Waking Lion Press that proved an adequate substitute, typos and all....
March 27, 2021
Not a Will Eisner work. ... Pretty much a rehash of THE WITCH'S HEAD and BEATRICE. 25% action and 75% theology. Rupert is a modern-day Francis of Assissi, establishing himself as a holy man in an Egyptian oasis town. The real villain of the piece gets away scot-free, giving the tale a 'so what?' effect.
July 7, 2024
প্রিয় লেখক হেনরি রাইডার হ্যাগার্ডের অন্যান্য বইগুলোর মতই এই বইটাও দারুণ সাথে অসাধারণ অনুবাদ। উনার অন্যান্য বইগুলোর মত এই বইতেও অ্যাডভেঞ্চার , মূল চরিত্রের উত্থান-পতন, হয়তো একভাবে এগিয়ে যাওয়ার সুযোগ ছিলো কিন্তু সেভাবে না গিয়ে অন্যকোনভাবে অন্যকোথাও অনেক কিছু জয় করা সব মিলিয়েই বইটা বেশ ভালো লেগেছে। যদিও অন্যান্য বইগুলোর মত হ্যাপি এন্ডিং না, একটু মর্মান্তিক এন্ডিং , কিন্তু এর থেকে হয়তো পার্ফেক্ট হতোনা অন্যভাবে শেষ করলে। সব মিলিয়েই বইটা ভালো লেগেছে।
March 18, 2022
হেনরি রাইডার হ্যাগার্ডের লেখা অনেক আগে থেকেই প্রিয়। এই বইতে নতুন করে জীবনের সাথে ধর্মের দর্শন মিলে অন্যরকম এক জীবনদর্শন দেখা যায়৷ রুপার্ট উলারশ, যে উলারশ বংশের ধারা অনুযায়ী জীবনের শুরুর দিকে অনৈতিক সম্পর্কে জড়ায়। কিন্তু নিজের ভুল বুঝতে পেরে অল্প বয়স থেকেই শপথ নেয় ধর্ম অনুযায়ী নিজের জীবনকে আলোকিত করবে। বাইবেলের বানীকে ধারণ করবে আমৃত্যু। আত্মা যে পথে নিজেকে এগিয়ে নিয়ে যায় জীবনে সে অনুযায়ীই ফলাফল লাভ করা যায়। বিবেক ও ধর্মীয় বিশ্বাস অনুযায়ী জীবনে চলতে থাকলে চলার পথ অনেকটাই সহজ হয়ে যায়। স্রষ্টা তাকেই সাহায্য করে। এই বইতে তা খুব সুন্দরভাবে ফুটে উঠেছে।
March 14, 2018
First published in 1906.
A story of love, pain, the supernatural, and a love that survives the grave. It opens around 1879 with Rupert Ullershaw in England and then jumps 11 years to Egypt where he has risen in rank in the army soldiering in India and now Egypt. Rupert returns home to England, where he falls in love with and marries his cousin Edith (whose affections lie with another), a woman who is repelled by him but agrees to matrimony only because of Rupert's career prospects and the peerage, lands and fortune that he will eventually inherit. Three hours after their wedding, Rupert goes back to Egypt on a highly dangerous mission where he suffers disfiguring wounds and is nursed back to life by Mea, the female leader of a people living in the lost oasis of Tama, he is returns to England after many months, and is summarily rejected by Edith.
This is another Haggard romance in which characters lived their lives with the expectation of loving fulfiment after death.
A story of love, pain, the supernatural, and a love that survives the grave. It opens around 1879 with Rupert Ullershaw in England and then jumps 11 years to Egypt where he has risen in rank in the army soldiering in India and now Egypt. Rupert returns home to England, where he falls in love with and marries his cousin Edith (whose affections lie with another), a woman who is repelled by him but agrees to matrimony only because of Rupert's career prospects and the peerage, lands and fortune that he will eventually inherit. Three hours after their wedding, Rupert goes back to Egypt on a highly dangerous mission where he suffers disfiguring wounds and is nursed back to life by Mea, the female leader of a people living in the lost oasis of Tama, he is returns to England after many months, and is summarily rejected by Edith.
This is another Haggard romance in which characters lived their lives with the expectation of loving fulfiment after death.
November 30, 2019
Природа зря наделила людей глазами. Чрезмерно многое отдаётся на откуп зрению. Важным кажется лишь то, что приятнее лицезреть, всё прочее подвергается забвению. Особенно тяжело приходится, когда настаёт пора выбирать объект любви, забывая про осмысление необходимости страсти к конкретному представителю рода человеческого. Иногда связь заканчивается трагически, кто-то может погибнуть. Вот тогда и предстоит задуматься, как тлетворно бытие, ставшее привычным. Нужно отказаться от зова плоти, предпочтя ему зрительную слепоту. Следует научиться закрывать глаза на несовершенства мира, в том числе на всё то, к чему не лежит душа. Может тогда человечество познает счастье, но до наступления того времени люди обречены испытывать однотипные страдания, с равной степенью достающиеся каждому поколению.
(c) Trounin
(c) Trounin
April 1, 2024
I'd have given this three-and-a-half stars, but that's not an option. If you've never read anything by H. Rider Haggard, I wouldn't start here. Not that there's anything wrong with the book, but it's not typical for him, being more of a spiritual romance than a swashbuckling adventure. Despite that, it does have exotic locations, hints of the supernatural, and a couple of powerful female characters.
The plot revolves around a moral quandary--choosing between faith, love and duty. Whether the main character succeeds in his choices, and whether his choices were worth it, will be seen differently by different readers. That's not a bad thing. Sounds too heavy? Despite the serious questions at the heart of it, the plot is engaging, with characters to both love and hate.
The plot revolves around a moral quandary--choosing between faith, love and duty. Whether the main character succeeds in his choices, and whether his choices were worth it, will be seen differently by different readers. That's not a bad thing. Sounds too heavy? Despite the serious questions at the heart of it, the plot is engaging, with characters to both love and hate.
April 1, 2020
Just another adventure of Henry Rider Haggard. It is story of love, passion, hate and power. A young man become attracted to a married lady. But her sudden suicide changes everything.The man starts his journey towards adventure. He found love in his way but couldn't make it work. His mother dies without him and his beloved wife cheats him. But there exits one woman who loves him every thing. Beautiful Maya changes his perception about live. Will this two lovers be able to meet?
August 21, 2020
One of my favourite book
May 26, 2021
I am a Henry rider's die hard fan.....
I just feel this book and love the story 😍
I just feel this book and love the story 😍
April 26, 2020
Awesome
March 26, 2020
বেশ কিছুদিন যাবত পড়তে পারছিলাম না...একটা হালকা রিডার্সব্লক সিচুয়েশন ....তা 'দ্য ওয়ে অফ দ্যা স্পিরিট' দিয়ে সেটা এবারের মত সামাল দেওয়া গেল বলে মনে হচ্ছে। হেনরি রাইডার হ্যাগার্ডের এই বইটা, এক ভাগ্য বিড়ম্বিত মানুষের ভালবাসার গল্প তার জীবনের নানা উত্থান পতনকে আশেপাশে রেখে! দু একটা জায়গা ছাড়া গল্পে নাটকীয়তা আর জটিলতা কম...মানে ছিমছাম একটা অলস দুপুরে পড়ে ফেলতে সমস্যা হবে না এই আর কি৷ অবশ্য 'সেবার' প্রায় সব অনুবাদই ঝরঝরে হয় এটাও একটা কারণ হতে পারে,এমনিতে আমাদের দেশের অধিকাংশ অনুবাদকই বিখ্যাত সব বই দফারফা করে দেন সাধারণত। দ্যা ওয়ে অফ দ্যা স্পিরিটের বেলায় এই ব্যাপার হয় নি এই ঘটনাটা শান্তির :)
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February 1, 20164 stars from Sandy: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
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