The Annotated She: A Critical Edition of H. Rider Haggard's Victorian Romance (Visions (Bloomington, Ind.)) [Hardcover]

H. Rider Haggard (Author), Norman Etherington (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1991

When it appeared in 1887, H. Rider Haggard's She caused a sensation and became one of the best-selling novels of the nineteenth century. The idea of a powerful woman endowed with immortal beauty and penetrating intellect ruling a savage people among the ruins of a vanished civilization in the heart of Africa captivated Victorian readers. Freud recommended the book to his patients. Jung equated its imaginative power with Dante's Inferno and Wagner's Ring. Continuing to fascinate later twentieth-century readers, the book has never been out of print and has won new audiences through numerous film versions.

This is the first annotated edition of She. Locating the novel within the context of late-Victorian fiction and British imperialism, Norman Etherington provides biographical information regarding Haggard and elucidates references in the text of this archaeological romance.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press; annotated edition edition (August 22, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253320720
• ISBN-13: 978-0253320728
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,358,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars As Dry and Dusty as the Caves of Kor, October 6, 2008

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STANLEY LOMBARDO "Kartaphilos" (Russellville,, Arkansas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Annotated She: A Critical Edition of H. Rider Haggard's Victorian Romance (Visions (Bloomington, Ind.)) (Hardcover)

This review is for THE ANNOTATED SHE, with emphasis on the annotations rather than H. Rider Haggard's novel itself. I give the novel a five-plus-plus star rating: it has justifiably earned a place among the immortal works of literature, as indicated by the praise of such diverse readers as Carl Jung and Henry James. However, the annotations are another matter altogether.

Anyone who has enjoyed annotated editions such as THE ANNOTATED ALICE or THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES will find no such pleasures in THE ANNOTATED SHE. The annotations deal primarily with differences between Haggard's manuscript and the various published editions; they are of potential interest to scholars, but the recreational reader will find them tedious and unrewarding. In some cases, as in the editor's attempt to explain the Martini rifle action, the results are embarrassing. His repeated explanations as to why Holly, a university don, could not possibly have known about some aspect of African life -- such as biltong or the proper way to kill an exotic buck -- are also laughable: they fail to take into consideration that Holly can *read*. Perhaps he has even read KING SOLOMON'S MINES! I could go on at length, but enough said.

THE ANNOTATED SHE, at a price tag of $60.00, is more an investment for a library than a reasonable price for a reading edition. If you would care to see the annotations, borrow the book and glean whatever benefit you can from the notes. However, I recommend that you simply buy one of the anthology editions of Haggard's works, such as the one containing SHE, KING SOLOMON'S MINES, AND ALLAN QUATERMAIN, which are available at a fraction of the price of the annotated edition. Selah.