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maedo 's review for:
She: A History of Adventure
by H. Rider Haggard
First of all: the summary of this book is inaccurate. Ayesha does not have the "violent appetite of a lamia," which, if you are me, is a disappointing mislead because I was expecting something awesome. She doesn't thirst for blood so much as kill either when her orders are disobeyed (like when the tribe of people ordered to bring our main characters to her unharmed tries to cannibalize them, which would piss anyone off I think) or when the only man she passionately loves is possessed by another woman.
She is a thoroughly Victorian female villain, in that it's her beauty, sex appeal, and passion that give her power, as much or more than her cunning does. Her beauty entraps men -- even our main character, who happily proclaims himself a misogynist because no woman back home will have him thanks to his ugliness. Clearly you don't read pulp fiction -- especially pre-1900s pulp fiction -- expecting enlightened gender politics, but I was annoyed that this "evil" woman just acts the way she does because she's so in love with some guy. Be moar evil, Ayesha? :(
Alas, I am a sucker for adventure stories/potboilers/penny dreadfuls with your quintessential gentlemen in three piece suits nearly tumbling off cliff ledges and cartoonishly gracing "savages" with their White Nobility and admiring the beauty of the African landscape before whipping out a rifle and totally owning some majestic big game, and maybe encountering dinosaurs.* And that's what this book is. Love it or leave it.
* = There are no dinosaurs in this book, but there are mummified human corpses set on fire and used as torches. Cool.
She is a thoroughly Victorian female villain, in that it's her beauty, sex appeal, and passion that give her power, as much or more than her cunning does. Her beauty entraps men -- even our main character, who happily proclaims himself a misogynist because no woman back home will have him thanks to his ugliness. Clearly you don't read pulp fiction -- especially pre-1900s pulp fiction -- expecting enlightened gender politics, but I was annoyed that this "evil" woman just acts the way she does because she's so in love with some guy. Be moar evil, Ayesha? :(
Alas, I am a sucker for adventure stories/potboilers/penny dreadfuls with your quintessential gentlemen in three piece suits nearly tumbling off cliff ledges and cartoonishly gracing "savages" with their White Nobility and admiring the beauty of the African landscape before whipping out a rifle and totally owning some majestic big game, and maybe encountering dinosaurs.* And that's what this book is. Love it or leave it.
* = There are no dinosaurs in this book, but there are mummified human corpses set on fire and used as torches. Cool.