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Title: She
Subtitle: A History of Adventure
Author: H. Rider Haggard
Narrator: Robert Bethune, Susie Berneis
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs
Language: English
Release date: 01-13-16
Publisher: Freshwater Seas
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes
Genres: Classics, British Literature
Publisher's Summary:
At one point in his moody, erotic, and barbarous romance of She, H. Rider Haggard puts into the mouth of his narrator, Horace L. Holly, the observation that her story sounded like some extraordinary invention of a speculative brain. That, precisely, is what She is: a really marvelously inventive story, combining an amazing variety of what should be utterly implausible ideas into a fabric that constantly feels like truth.
Even though we know that there was never a diabolical, immortal, fantastically beautiful white queen ruling over a barbarous tribe of cannibals in the heart of what is now Mozambique, it is hard to resist the impulse to pull up the map and muse about where she might have been hidden. As we get to know Her, H. Rider Haggard ensures that the mystery only deepens. We see her dispense cruel, swift justice; we see her indulge murderous passion; we see her show superhuman devotion; we see her speak from the wisdom gathered in her 20 centuries of life.
We can never be sure just who or what she is. We see her through the eyes of Haggard's protagonist, Holly - a Cambridge don utterly out of his depth in a wild and savage world, utterly English to the core, which is what sees him through in the end. Bitter, misogynistic, and more than mildly racist, he is also a devoted father to his adopted son, Leo - who turns out to be the carrier of an incredible fate - and an unusually determined survivor. We have no trouble believing in Holly, and thereby we suspend disbelief and accept his tale.
There was a strong streak of racism and anti-Semitism in Victorian England, and Haggard was not proof against it. We have not altered or omitted such passages but rather have left them as Haggard wrote them. We do well to remember that just as Haggard fell prey to such thinking from time to time, so too can we, despite all our modern enlightenment.
Members Reviews:
Classic Fantasy-Adventure
"She" was first published in 1886, and is written in the florid literary style of the day, but it still reads like the wind. Haggard was a born storyteller, and he never lets his overblown prose slow down the pace of this adventure. It is no wonder that this book has never been out of print in the last 124 years and has sold a reported 44 million copies.
The plot involves three Englishmen who follow the clues written on an ancient piece of pottery to find a fabulous kingdom hidden in the interior of Africa, where a strange lost race is ruled over by "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed," a mercurial Queen with supernatural powers, including near-eternal life. The suspense and action rarely flag, and the story set the pattern for countless "lost world" and "lost race" stories that followed, most notably those of Edgar Rice Burroughs. A great read.
One caveat: the $1.00 Kindle version has some typos, and the author's illustrations are missing.
a classic tale of a Lost World
In the style of the times, this is a tale of adventure passed off as truth by the narrator. Unique is that this is purportedly the first instance of the use of a lost civilization in science fiction and it carries many of the hallmarks that later authors shall employ. In particular, a remote civilization cut off from the world in a volcanic caldera.
Also, in the style of the day, the characters oft wax philosophical, which can bog down the adventurous nature of the tale.
