She [Hardcover]

H. Rider Haggard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 23, 2002

On his twenty-fifth birthday, Leo Vincey opens the silver casket that his father has left to him. It contains a letter recounting the legend of a white sorceress who rules an African tribe and of his father's quest to find this remote race. To find out for himself if the story is true, Leo and his companions set sail for Zanzibar. There, he is brought face to face with Ayesha, She-who-must-be-obeyed: dictator, femme fatale, tyrant and beauty. She has been waiting for centuries for the true descendant of Kallikrates, her murdered lover, to arrive, and arrive he does - in an unexpected form. Blending breathtaking adventure with a brooding sense of mystery and menace, "She" is a story of romance, exploration discovery and heroism that has lost none of its power to enthrall.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ayesha is She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, a 2,000-year-old queen who rules a fabled lost city deep in a maze of African caverns. She has the occult wisdom of Isis, the eternal youth and beauty of Aphrodite, and the violent appetite of a lamia. Like A. Conan Doyle's Lost World, She is one of those magnificent Victorian yarns about an expedition to a far-off locale shadowed by magic, mystery, and death.

Tim Stout writes, in Horror: 100 Best Books, "As the plot takes hold one has the fancy that [Ayesha] had always existed, in some dark dimension of the imagination, and that [H. Rider] Haggard was the fortunate author to whom she chose to reveal herself." Haggard did, in fact, write this book in a six-week burst of feverish inspiration: "It came faster than my poor aching hand could set it down," he later said.

This edition of the 1887 classic features an introductory essay by literary critic Regina Barreca, who likens Ayesha to Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Tolstoy's Anna Karenina--"literally fantastic female figures who must be stopped before they love again." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The Broadview edition of She represents a benchmark in Rider Haggard studies. Situating She within a broad array of cultural documents on race, gender, empire, and archaeology, Andrew M. Stauffer has created an invaluable resource for contextualizing this fascinating adventure story within the ambulatory scope of the late-Victorian scientific and geographical imaginary. This edition will provide students, scholars, and the general reader alike with a sound foundation for reading (and rereading) Haggard s classic novel. (Shawn Malley )

"Professor Stauffer's editing is an exemplary case of textual stewardship: great care without imposition. His introduction is not only authoritative and lucid but stylistically engaging, as energetic as the novel itself an ideal introduction for first-time readers. The appendix topics are exactly what is needed, and the materials included provide an excellent context. The selection of non-fiction pieces by Haggard himself on questions of genre, imperialism, archaeology, and gender roles provides especially valuable insights into the author, the novel, and the times." (J. Jeffrey Franklin ) --J. Jeffrey Franklin --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (November 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140433226X
• ISBN-13: 978-1404332263
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,373,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nineteenth Century fantasy at its best., January 27, 2000

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: She (She trilogy) (Paperback)

While studying at Cambridge, Ludwig Horace Holly receives a very strange visit from a long-time friend. In failing health, this friend gives Holly charge of his 5 year-old son Leo, and a mysterious chest, which he is charged not to open until the boy's twenty-fifth birthday. Twenty years later, the boy has grown to handsome manhood, and the chest is opened to reveal a family history stretching back some 23 centuries to ancient Egypt. Interestingly, included is the family's attempts to get revenge on an immortal white women who rules a tribe in Africa.

The young man, Leo, becomes fascinated with the tale, and draws Holly onto an adventure to Africa. Passing through danger upon danger, the companions finally find themselves in the hands of "She-who-must-be-obeyed".

While the story is dated and somewhat laughable by modern standards, it is very well written and more riveting than the above introduction may suggest. If nothing else, this book is an excellent example of Nineteenth Century fantasy literature.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic scenes of adventure, but a bit hard to read, August 28, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: She (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

H. Rider Haggard's style is the ornate, 19th century melodrama style. There is none of the stylish repartee of Conan Doyle or the sharp characterization of Dickens. Despite its literary flaws, H. Rider Haggard's vivid imagination make "She" an enduring classic.

"She", or "She-who-must-be-obeyed" , a.k.a Ayesha, is a mysterious and powerful queen in a subterranean land laced with horrible terrors in darkest Africa. To disregard her word is instant death for her savage subjects. Holly and his adopted nephew Leo explore through her realm and after nearly getting murdered in the most horrible way, meet up with She. Leo is dying from a fever, and Holly, an explorer and a man educated in languages and the classics, contends with Ayesha. The very ill Leo is meanwhile attended by Ustane, a local gal who marries herself to him in the local custom of girl-takes-boy and stands by him loyally. Who is this local girl? Is she really just a native lass as she seems? And what has She to do with Ustane? Rider's description of Ayesha is brilliant, Holly is a sympathetic character and the ending of the tale is spectacular. The only reason I give three stars is that the writing is murky, convuluted and overly ornate. Still, when Rider describes scenes of high drama, horror or beauty, he cannot be beat.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Old time fantasy story, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: She (She trilogy) (Paperback)

This fantasy adventure story takes place in England and later transports the reader to the bowels of Central Africa. The story starts when Horace Holly makes a deal with his dying friend. His friend, knowing the end is near, has a young son, Leo, who he leaves an iron trunk to. Horace is instructed not to open the chest until the boy's 25th birthday. In addition, Horace must take care of Leo and raise him.

On Leo's 25th birthday, Horace and Leo open the chest and in it they discover that Leo is part of a historic lineage which goes back to the ancient Egyptians. They also discover that everlasting life can be found off the coast of Africa by bathing in a magical fire. They soon venture to the hidden area to discover an ancient race of cannibalistic people who are lead by Ayesha, otherwise known as She. She is a very beautiful temptress and has the secret to everlasting life. Also, she was in love with Leo's family centuries ago. When Leo arrives, She is much smitten with him.

This book was well written and the adventure well thought out. The level of detail that Haggard uses to describe the Amahagger's (the tribe Leo and Holly discover) were extraordinary. She is easily understood to be a sophisticated woman who has strong powers of life and death over her subjects. However, I found the book a little hard to read. The lengthy paragraphs that detailed the Amahagger society were not needed and slowed the pace of the book. Still not a bad adventure book but the pace kept being diverted by lengthy descriptions.