Customer Reviews

Heu-Heu or the Monster

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

 

 

"Heu-Heu, or the Monster" is one of the 14 novels that the great H. Rider Haggard wrote that deals with the life of Allan Quatermain, an English hunter in South Africa. This is a stand-alone novel. Unlike the first two novels in the series, "King Solomon's Mines" and its sequel, "Allan Quatermain"; the so-called Zulu trilogy ("Marie," "Child of Storm" and "Finished"); and the loosely linked series of books that I call the Taduki quartet ("Allan and the Holy Flower," "The Ivory Child," "The Ancient Allan" and "Allan and the Ice Gods"), "Heu-Heu" can be read all by itself, and without any previous knowledge of the Quatermain universe. Yes, references are made to previous adventures and characters, but they are passing references at best, explained as they are brought up, and would in no way unduly confuse a reader new to the Quatermain cycle.
This time around, Allan and his sidekick, the faithful and always amusing Hottentot Hans, go on a mission for the Zulu wizard Zikali (himself featured in many of the previous Quatermain books) and endeavor to bring back some leaves from the rare Tree of Illusions. They also attempt to delve into the mystery of Heu-Heu, a monstrous, 12-foot-tall, clawed and red-bearded semigorilla god who may or may not exist. As is usual with Haggard, the novel starts off with a great action set piece (the mother of all storms, in which our heroes are forced to seek shelter in a creepy Bushman cave), and from there moves swiftly and excitingly. Haggard was a master storyteller, even in his twilight years (this book was written in 1923, two years before his death), and this novel gives fans all the goods that they've come to expect from him. Before all is said and done, we have been treated to an exciting desert crossing (not as harrowing as the one depicted in "King Solomon's Mines," perhaps, but still fun...for the reader, that is), a petrified ancient civilization, a monster flood, a volcanic eruption, and a canoe chase on a raging river. Haggard was also the master (if not the originator) of the "lost civilization" tale, and in "Heu-Heu" we are treated to two such: the Walloos, a people on the decline who worship the giant ape god, and the Hairy Ones, who are more ape than man and may even constitute the fabled Missing Link. Typically, the Hottentot Hans provides most of the comedic relief, and saves the day on more than one occasion. Allan Quatermain, no slouch himself in the action department, admits in this book that he would long since have expired without the resourcefulness of this amusing little character. The two combined make for one of the best action duos in the history of adventure-fantasy literature. All in all, "Heu-Heu," while perhaps not on a par with some of the other Quatermains mentioned above, is still an exciting tale that should provide most red-blooded readers with a few nights of thrills and laughs. Like ALL the other books in the Quatermain cycle, I heartily recommend it.

It's probably fair to say that Haggard did not do anything in this late tale that he hadn't already done, better, in earlier books. Hence, having read 16 of Haggard's books, several of them more than once, I'd be inclined to urge readers new to Haggard not to start with Heu-Heu; read She. Haggard's romance She is, on one level, just outstanding pulp-fiction adventure; as a work of the mythopoeic imagination, its peers are masterpieces such as Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's Frankenstein, Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or George MacDonald's Lilith. Or, if you've become interested in Allan Quatermain thanks to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, start your reading of Haggard with King Solomon's Mines.

Yet after all there is one, admittedly extrinsic, reason why some readers might begin Haggard with Heu-Heu, namely the likelihood that the original movie of King Kong is indebted to it. I don't want to give away too much about Heu-Heu, so I will just say that readers expecting a climactic battle with a huge monster will not find that in Haggard's book; but the core situation - - the cyclical offering to a monster, on a forbidden island, of a beautiful chained maiden - - is here in Heu-Heu. (Haggard's narrator, Allan Quatermain, points to a parallel from Greek Mythology, the story of Andromeda!) It is certainly possible that someone involved in the creation of the King Kong movie had read Haggard's book, published just a few years before the movie was released, in time to influence the development of the movie. If your first Haggard romance is Heu-Heu, though, don't suppose that you can judge this great storyteller's achievement by this book...

Two and a half stars out of five.

Allan is asked to retell a story, and he tells his group of drinking
friends this one. For this gist of it, his statement here does quite
well: "Also the adventure proposed was of an order so wild and unusual
that it drew me like a magnet. Supposing that I lived to old age, could
I, Allan Quatermain, bear to look back and remember that I had turned
down an opportunity of that sort and was departing into the grave
without knowing if there was or was not a Heu-Heu who snatched away
lovely Andromedas--I mean Sabeelas--off rocks, and combined in his
hideous personality the qualities of a god or fetish, a ghost, a devil,
and a super-gorilla?"

A sneaky African wizard informs him of a situation with a monster
that needs handling, diamonds are to be had, and he could use some rare
plants.

The priests of Heu-Heu have a setup similar to the sacrifice of Andromeda to Poseidon's monster.

Allan suspects this is all pretty Scooby Doo, and sets out to prove
it. He needs some of Hans' quick thinking to get them through, as well
as the majority of their ammunition to finally get away and get back
home, after solving the situation for the tribe that had been lorded
over for so long.