Customer Reviews

Ayesha: The Return of She

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Return of She," although not as exciting or groundbreaking as the classic "She," is nevertheless a worthy sequel, and one that all admirers of Haggard's original story should enjoy reading. It is a direct continuation of the earlier book, and as such may be called required reading for all fans of Ayesha, Leo Vincey and Ludwig Holly. The novel contains many exciting scenes, including a great avalanche, the pursuit of the death hounds, Ayesha's reincarnation, and the climactic battle with Kalloon. The Dover edition comes with beautiful illustrations from the original 1905 edition that greatly enhance the text. In light of the fact that the overwhelming preponderance of Haggard's books are sadly out of print, this book becomes even more worthy an addition to any fan's library. Now when is somebody going to release "She and Allen" again???

Second in the trilogy of "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed". Still terrific, still imaginative and thrilling. How does Haggard do it? The scenes and images he conjures up. The cliff-hanging(literally), Perils of Pauline adventures just fascinate. And yet again, the battle between the spirit and flesh, the mortality and divinity, of man. In this one, however, it began to slow about two-thirds of the way thru, as if Haggard were stretching at times. But then he roused himself magnificently to a thrilling finish! The scene of Ayesha and her army riding across the plain to save Leo is the stuff of movies. It is no less a book than the first, which is unusual for sequels. This one takes place in Tibet, rather than Libya, and Haggard foresees the importance of radium.

H. Rider Haggard wrote amazing books that are still as deeply compelling today as they were when they were written in the 1900's. "She" and "The Return of She" are two of my favorites. Unfortunately, this publisher does not do justice to this great book. The print quality is extremely poor, particularly ruining the wonderful illustrations by Maurice Greiggenhagen. Anyone interested in this book should order a version by another publisher.

Ayesha is a beautiful and imaginative masterpiece. The radical beauty of this book is not merely that it is a "good" or "bad" sequel of She, but that it is the work of an open-minded writer. The plot is full of super natural and pre "new age" exoticism as well that 19th century romanticism adventures. Its naiveté and simplicity make this book a very enjoyable one. The best moment of the book is a incredible obscure scene in which Ayesha has a meeting with her "servants", shadows and ghosts from beyond and the past. I recommend this book only to real admirers of this kind of pulp-literature and to eclictic readers.

Facinating book. I think that She, Ayesha, and the third one, should be made into a proper miniseries for television. The film that I remember of She did not fit the details properly, and using a beautiful blond to depict a black-haired ethereal figure didn't serve the correct purpose. Excellent writing by the author gets the imagination running as we try to conjure up the places he describes. Great literature not to be taken too litterally, but giving great images of the British Empire at that time.

This review is not for the story, but the printing of this edition is terrible. There are an incredible amount of spelling an punctuation errors that really detract from the book.

I think 'She' and 'Ayesha' should be thought of as the one and same book. What I loved about the book was the love that survived from one life to the next, like 'soul mates forever'and how it can dominate this life and the next. If we all looked into our own lives we may realise that our quest for material goods is little more than a distraction.

I have to disagree that Ayesha is a failure next to She. I would encourage anyone who enjoyed She to try it. The story is expanded and concluded satisfactorily in a new setting with the same blend of suspense, tenderness, and philosophy that characterizes She. One of the book's weaknesses is that the numerous references to characters' past lives and Ayesha's own origins make the back story even more opaque than it is in She. Hopefully Wisdom's Daughter will make things clearer. I very much look forward to reading this and other Haggard novels.

The 1957 hardbound is a gem of a book without the marvelous illustrations one longs for inearlier incarnations, but easily found if you cruise ancient archives elsewhere on the internet. Yet, SHE is the most dynamic female character of that century and she reincarnates, like her literary self, beautifully.

Ripped off by countless other authors and filmmakers from Harryhausen's animated skeleton battles (hope I didn;t spoil that) to Speilberg, SHE is untouchable as literature. Superbly written in a language of a century-past, Haggard's 2nd installment in the legend of a goddess waiting for her reincarnated love to come back is amazing stuff. Once the stuff of pulps, Ayesha is now an exercise in spectacular imagry and diety-worship. What, or who, would make two old men travel across mountain ranges, killer ravines and battle insane warlords? Do you have to ask? In this round, there is the 2nd woman, another queen, as a deja vu to what transpired before... and may be fated to be played all over again. And is this mysterious high priestess indeed SHE who must be obeyed? Only by reading this book, taken from the found and partially-burned writings of Holly himself, can you begin to understand the mythos of SHE. BTW, the "found manuscript" idea was recycled very well in the Harry Flashman books by George McDonald Fraiser, so a tip o' the Hatlo hat to him for such a well-done homage to Haggard.

No illustration or film version thus far has really captured Ayesha's beauty, frailty, vanity or warrior rage. It's a tall, tall order to imagine anyone trying to film this follow-up to an epic as it is, truly, a bigger epic than SHE. Curl up with it; there are college courses devoted to SHE, Haggard and her mythology. Amazing that the best written tales of goddess worship were written by a man... over a century ago. They have yet to be equalled, and never, ever will be matched.

My highest recommendation for a great adventurous read! Yes, start your SHE reading here, return to SHE and go forward to WISDOM'S DAUGHTER.

Leo has left, and Ayesha, he thinks, is dead. Do immortal antiheros with superpowers stay dead? Only sometimes, would be the answer to that question. This is most definitely not one of those times.

Leo is a pretty hot guy, it seems, as the Queen of Kaloon falls for him, and he is in danger of yet another woman scorned. He now, of course, only wants Ayesha. Mortal types, in the end, can't handle the heat.