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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
This is early example of the modern adventure genre that heavily influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs and other pulp writers. Despite some slow parts, the book is generally exciting and depicts a fascinating foreign culture.
This book has a decent story that created some lasting images in my mind. It's an interesting look back to a vintage mindset, which is also why it's not a favorite book - it definitely appeals to the white male ego of the late 1800s. The edition I read had a forward by Margaret Atwood. I recommend reading the book before reading her commentary, as it contains spoilers.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Victorian colonialism the novel. Interesting portrayal of a matriarchal society
I read King Solomon's Mines many years ago. I know Haggard wrote a lot of Africa-centric stories and this is one of them. When I say Africa, I'm meaning "the Dark Continent", of the Victorian Age. Africa was a romantic place for readers in that it was a land of mystery, savagery, and much of it was a mystery.
This story follows a professor and his adopted son. The son is a descendant of an ancient Greek who apparently died at the hands of an immortal queen in the heart of Africa. Following directions left on an ancient pottery shard and other clues, the two embark (along with a faithful retainer) to find this mysterious land where one may become immortal.
Shipwrecks, swamps, and beasts are challenges along the way, but they are eventually taken by some warriors who lead them the rest of the way to this hidden valley. There they eventually meet the immortal queen, She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka She). She sees Leo, the adopted son as a reincarnation of her lost love. I'll stop the recap here.
The queen is a simply vile woman, but also of unearthly beauty, which makes any man fall in love with her. She is petty, jealous, and vengeful. I have a feeling that Haggard might have had a chip on his shoulder when it came to beautiful women. I will also at this point say this book amply displays misogyny and racism throughout. On the flip side, She is a woman of authority in a way that was a bit uncommon for the time.
Overall, a good story, but a bit slow at times. I do not care for Haggard's writing. He tends to being overly wordy in his narrator's monologues.
This story follows a professor and his adopted son. The son is a descendant of an ancient Greek who apparently died at the hands of an immortal queen in the heart of Africa. Following directions left on an ancient pottery shard and other clues, the two embark (along with a faithful retainer) to find this mysterious land where one may become immortal.
Shipwrecks, swamps, and beasts are challenges along the way, but they are eventually taken by some warriors who lead them the rest of the way to this hidden valley. There they eventually meet the immortal queen, She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka She). She sees Leo, the adopted son as a reincarnation of her lost love. I'll stop the recap here.
The queen is a simply vile woman, but also of unearthly beauty, which makes any man fall in love with her. She is petty, jealous, and vengeful. I have a feeling that Haggard might have had a chip on his shoulder when it came to beautiful women. I will also at this point say this book amply displays misogyny and racism throughout. On the flip side, She is a woman of authority in a way that was a bit uncommon for the time.
Overall, a good story, but a bit slow at times. I do not care for Haggard's writing. He tends to being overly wordy in his narrator's monologues.
More reviews can be found on my book blog.
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I was under the false impression that this was the second Allan Quatermain novel, but it's actually an entirely new set of characters. It's a novel that does scratch that same itch, however, as it's still a story of the Lost World genre in which a group of Englishmen travel to Africa (this time landing somewhere on the eastern side of the continent) to find a hidden civilization. That is simplifying it a little unfairly, but the two books do have a similar feel.
A professor at Cambridge, Horace Holly, was left a young ward, Leo Vincey, by a dying friend with a fantastical claim that links his family to a mysterious event in Africa. When Leo reaches the age of 25, he's given a chest with more information concerning his heritage and the mystery. The two, with their manservant, then travel to Africa to investigate. Upon arriving, they are quickly captured, and then spend the rest of the novel with the tribesmen as the full story unravels.
Much like King Solomon's Mines, I found the novel more intriguing before the adventurers arrived at their location, although this did hold my interest longer. I enjoy the travelogue aspect of old adventure stories. At first glance, She-who-must-be-obeyed, the woman the book was named after, looked to be an incredibly interesting character, but she was a bit of a disappointment. She has thousands of years worth of knowledge, and supernatural abilities, and yet she spent the entire time mourning the loss of her love. I suppose that's a vaguely romantic idea, but the result was that she failed to be a god among men and instead she became the worst crazy ex-girlfriend ever.
The adventure was exciting at times, and I thought some of the characters were great. Horace Holly struck me as a more rational Professor Challenger, similar in looks but less pompous. She-who-must-be-obeyed, while still a let down, did create a very eerie and tense atmosphere. Her dynamic with Holly was captivating. Billali, the leader of the tribesmen, had quite a few little hilarious remarks.
A bit of a side note, but Haggard was super into beards. He was hipster-level in love with beards. Every beard was long, beautiful, and magnificent. Whenever Billali was mentioned, we got an update on his white beard, always being stroked or dragged across something. My favourite beard quote, of which there were many options to choose from, was:
I too have allowed my naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its own sweet will, and I plan to use this phrase as often as I can. This novel is beard porn, and that is not a complaint.
Haggard wrote a sequel to this, nearly twenty years after the original, which does pique my curiosity. With both novels I felt like I should have loved them more than I did, and was left a bit unsatisfied, but I did still enjoy them, so I'll likely keep an eye out for both the sequel to this and the next Allan Quartermain novel. The next She novel, I believe, follows Leo rather than Horace, which might not be as interesting. In this he is young and boring (and beardless), so I'm hoping by the next book he will be older and more interesting (and have allowed his naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its own sweet will).
If anyone has read these, I'd be interested to hear if you thought his later books got better or worse.
---
I was under the false impression that this was the second Allan Quatermain novel, but it's actually an entirely new set of characters. It's a novel that does scratch that same itch, however, as it's still a story of the Lost World genre in which a group of Englishmen travel to Africa (this time landing somewhere on the eastern side of the continent) to find a hidden civilization. That is simplifying it a little unfairly, but the two books do have a similar feel.
A professor at Cambridge, Horace Holly, was left a young ward, Leo Vincey, by a dying friend with a fantastical claim that links his family to a mysterious event in Africa. When Leo reaches the age of 25, he's given a chest with more information concerning his heritage and the mystery. The two, with their manservant, then travel to Africa to investigate. Upon arriving, they are quickly captured, and then spend the rest of the novel with the tribesmen as the full story unravels.
Much like King Solomon's Mines, I found the novel more intriguing before the adventurers arrived at their location, although this did hold my interest longer. I enjoy the travelogue aspect of old adventure stories. At first glance, She-who-must-be-obeyed, the woman the book was named after, looked to be an incredibly interesting character, but she was a bit of a disappointment. She has thousands of years worth of knowledge, and supernatural abilities, and yet she spent the entire time mourning the loss of her love. I suppose that's a vaguely romantic idea, but the result was that she failed to be a god among men and instead she became the worst crazy ex-girlfriend ever.
The adventure was exciting at times, and I thought some of the characters were great. Horace Holly struck me as a more rational Professor Challenger, similar in looks but less pompous. She-who-must-be-obeyed, while still a let down, did create a very eerie and tense atmosphere. Her dynamic with Holly was captivating. Billali, the leader of the tribesmen, had quite a few little hilarious remarks.
"Ah, so," he answered. "Thou seest, my son, here there is a custom that if a stranger comes into this country he may be slain by 'the pot,' and eaten."
"It is hospitality turned upside down," I answered feebly. "In our country we entertain a stranger, and give him food to eat. Here ye eat him, and are entertained."
"It is a custom," he answered, with a shrug.
A bit of a side note, but Haggard was super into beards. He was hipster-level in love with beards. Every beard was long, beautiful, and magnificent. Whenever Billali was mentioned, we got an update on his white beard, always being stroked or dragged across something. My favourite beard quote, of which there were many options to choose from, was:
[...] since we had started from England I had allowed my naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its own sweet will.
I too have allowed my naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its own sweet will, and I plan to use this phrase as often as I can. This novel is beard porn, and that is not a complaint.
Haggard wrote a sequel to this, nearly twenty years after the original, which does pique my curiosity. With both novels I felt like I should have loved them more than I did, and was left a bit unsatisfied, but I did still enjoy them, so I'll likely keep an eye out for both the sequel to this and the next Allan Quartermain novel. The next She novel, I believe, follows Leo rather than Horace, which might not be as interesting. In this he is young and boring (and beardless), so I'm hoping by the next book he will be older and more interesting (and have allowed his naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its own sweet will).
If anyone has read these, I'd be interested to hear if you thought his later books got better or worse.
Much better as a mere concept, because the execution... Nope. Reading She was like a rollercoaster. First you spot a beautiful description of something, then you get swamped by some endless journey to I-couldn't-care-less-where, then there's an interesting discussion about religion, then you just feel like hitting your head with the book etc. Talk about hot and cold! It seemed like there was enough material for just a short novella.
It's no wonder that She has sparked discussion about femininity and colonial attitudes, though. I liked the mystical aspect of a raven-haired beauty ruling over a whole tribe in some mysterious part of Africa (this was completely botched in the clinical Hammer movie adaptation). Ayesha seems both vulnerable and harsh, yearning for her dead lover but also believing that mere beauty makes up for sin etc. Haggard, on the other hand, seems to preach a point about passion being wrong and destructive, and that Ayesha is wrong when she says there's no purely good and evil but instead good intentions can sometimes spark evil consequences. And what about the tribe then? Well, they clearly have no morals, so they need a white woman to put them in their place.
Overall an oddly mixed bag of old-fashioned ideals and progressive concepts.
It's no wonder that She has sparked discussion about femininity and colonial attitudes, though. I liked the mystical aspect of a raven-haired beauty ruling over a whole tribe in some mysterious part of Africa (this was completely botched in the clinical Hammer movie adaptation). Ayesha seems both vulnerable and harsh, yearning for her dead lover but also believing that mere beauty makes up for sin etc. Haggard, on the other hand, seems to preach a point about passion being wrong and destructive, and that Ayesha is wrong when she says there's no purely good and evil but instead good intentions can sometimes spark evil consequences. And what about the tribe then? Well, they clearly have no morals, so they need a white woman to put them in their place.
Overall an oddly mixed bag of old-fashioned ideals and progressive concepts.
"Each religion claims the future for its followers; or, at least, the good thereof. The evil is for those benighted ones who will have none of it; seeing the light the true believers worship, as the fishes see the stars, but dimly. The religions come and the religions pass, and the civilisations come and pass, and naught endures but the world and human nature. Ah! if man would but see that hope is from within and not from without—that he himself must work out his own salvation! He is there, and within him is the breath of life and a knowledge of good and evil as good and evil is to him. Thereon let him build and stand erect, and not cast himself before the image of some unknown God, modelled like his poor self, but with a bigger brain to think the evil thing, and a longer arm to do it."
"Man doeth this and doeth that from the good or evil of his heart; but he knows not to what end his sense doth prompt him; for when he strikes he is blind to where the blow shall fall, nor can he count the airy threads that weave the web of circumstance. Good and evil, love and hate, night and day, sweet and bitter, man and woman, heaven above and the earth beneath--all those things are needful, one to the other, and who knows the end of each?"
"And now let us love and take that which is given us, and be happy; for in the grave there is no love and no warmth, nor any touching of the lips. Nothing perchance, or perchance but bitter memories of what might have been."
My 'to be read' shelves suffer a fair bit of flux depending on my ongoing tastes and interests. Some books seem to get stuck there though and I'm pretty sure that this copy of She has been there since the late 90s (which is when I was in my boys-own, science fiction, adventure romance phase). I've read [b:King Solomon's Mines|23814|King Solomon's Mines (Allan Quatermain, #1)|H. Rider Haggard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418964233s/23814.jpg|575986] and [b:Allan Quatermain|3277933|Allan Quatermain|H. Rider Haggard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1210056474s/3277933.jpg|942101] and liked them but She just never quite managed to get picked from the shelf.
I decided to rectify that.
There's a lot to like and if you can tolerate the usual things from this era that leave a sour taste in the mouth (think colonial racist attitudes for a start) then it's a good story. The concept starts with a mystery and gets quite intriguing and we meet She earlier than I expected. But then things slow down.
Aside from some surprisingly tense set pieces there is a lot of verbose philosophising and I found it hard to keep focused for long. She is an interesting creation and initially a great female character but it isn't too long before her 'womanly' feelings start sapping her powers. Ultimately she falls into the lovestruck idol role.
If you're a fan of the genre then it's essential reading and extremely influential but if you're a casual reader you could skip it.
As for me, it's now going to take up a new home on the 'read' shelves.
I decided to rectify that.
There's a lot to like and if you can tolerate the usual things from this era that leave a sour taste in the mouth (think colonial racist attitudes for a start) then it's a good story. The concept starts with a mystery and gets quite intriguing and we meet She earlier than I expected. But then things slow down.
Aside from some surprisingly tense set pieces there is a lot of verbose philosophising and I found it hard to keep focused for long. She is an interesting creation and initially a great female character but it isn't too long before her 'womanly' feelings start sapping her powers. Ultimately she falls into the lovestruck idol role.
If you're a fan of the genre then it's essential reading and extremely influential but if you're a casual reader you could skip it.
As for me, it's now going to take up a new home on the 'read' shelves.