She

by H. Rider Haggard

Book Overview

Drawing on his knowledge of Africa and of ancient legends, adventure writer H. Rider Haggard weaves this disturbing tale of Ayesha, the mysterious and immortal white queen of a Central African tribe. She, or "She-who-must-be-obeyed," is the embodiment of the mythological female figure who is both monstrous and desirable, and deadlier than the male. She is a pioneering work in the "Lost World" genre.

About the Series: For over...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199536422
• ISBN13: 9780199536429
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Better than the movie

I watched the old movie for the first time in years and discovered that there was a book. The book is much more interesting than the movie. I enjoyed it very much

Stepping into another world, very exciting.

It is a wonderful adventure, written in a very clear and straightforward manner with all the beautiful description the passages entails. It keeps your interest throughtout the book and it lead me to its sequel. It has opened, once more for me, the interest to read books written about this time (1890's) as I find them lighthearted, and exciting in addittion to how beautiful and well written they are.

Life and Death and the Eternal Feminine.

_She: A History of Adventure_ by Victorian novelist H. Rider Haggard is a tale of adventure and suspense set in the dark continent of Africa which reveals the archetypal nature of the female. H. Rider Haggard was obviously influenced by spiritualism in his younger days, and his belief in reincarnation is revealed in this novel. The novel shows an obsession with death as well as with the feminine principle revealed in the queen, Ayesha (referred to as "She-who-must-be-obeyed" or simply "She" or "Hiya" by the natives). The novel has been called imperialist because it shows the travels of several British adventurers in the dark continent of Africa. This novel begins when L. Horace Holly receives a visitor in his home in Cambridge. Mr. Holly is told that his visitor Mr. Vincey is to die and that he must take care of his son Leo Vincey and protect the family secrets. Mr. Vincey provides Mr. Holly with a manuscript and a chest containing a sherd with words written on it from the long dead Amenartas. Once Leo has reached twenty-five years of age, the box is opened and it reveals the sherd. This contains writing that leads Mr. Holly, Leo, and his caretaker Job to travel to the dark continent. While sailing towards Africa the group encounters a squall which wrecks their ship and they are forced to sail onwards on a smaller boat with only one Arab, Mahomed, to guide them. Once they have landed they encounter a rock in the shape of a human head. There they meet the Amahaggar, the dark cannibalistic tribe, who live in the city of Kor. The Amahaggar inform the group that She-who-must-be-obeyed awaits them. They also meet Billali, who becomes a second "father" to Mr. Holly, and Ustane, the African girl who falls in love with Leo. This begins their adventure as they travel to meet She-who-must-be-obeyed. It turns out that She is a queen who has lived for thousands of years. She sees in Leo the reincarnation of her lost lover Kallikrates. She sees in Ustane the reincarnation of the Egyptian who she believes stole her love, Amenartas. Along the way, they encounter many dark secrets and discover the many corpses which litter the caverns in which She resides. As part of a special festival these mummies are set afire. The story plays out the long forgotten tale of Ayesha and her lover along with Amenartas who is to capture her lover's heart. H. Rider Haggard was obviously influenced by spiritualism and the dead play an important role in this novel. His belief in reincarnation is seen in many places throughout. This story was popular with many including Freud and Jung, who saw in it the archetype of the feminine, as well as Tolkien and C. S. Lewis who incorporated elements of it into their own stories.

"the eternal feminine" unfrocked

When the young psychologist Sigmund Freud picked up this book, it presented him with the idea of the Anima or eternal feminine, which as a concept was picked and enlarged by his peers, metaphysicians and astrologers (e.g. Liz Greene's work on relationship astrology). That such a catchy idea came from what was effectively an off the shelf best seller with no literary pretentions indicates just what a fun and fascinating read it presents, especially for a young man who wishes a read encapsulating the perfect specimen of womankind.This particular edition is good for it contains an excellent introduction by Professor D. Karlin with extensive and helpful notes. Karlin makes it clear that the book is a sort of fantasy within a fantasy and the joke is usually on us. It's contents are so "out there" that the author is at pains to state "every word is true" through his chosen first person mouthpiece, and he adds several details that makes the book's events plausible while you are in it.The book is a masterpiece of archetypes including the Anima, acient civilization and archaeology, exploration, hunting and Africa as she used to be. It further represents the last mysterious possibilities that could be squeezed out of a world whose potential to amaze was fast disappearing due to the advent of transport and exploration. It is an old fashioned Indiana Jones type epic with explorers making a big discovery that could shake the British Empire to its very core.The elements come from Haggard's own association and love of Africa (he includes the extinct Quagga one of the descriptions)and his contact with an angelic woman with whom his fascination was was not satiated as he was married already. There is a great deal of swashbuckling adventure hived off from Livingstone, Egyptology, linguistics, classics and history as well of prevailing views and outlooks - but all this is eventually fused in a saga that is anything but boring in the same dynamic and suspensive style of bestsellers of the time (serialised in popular magazines) as S. Holmes and Jules Verne.Needless to say, the book is over the top even for that time and is a literary equivalent of Jurassic Park, taken up by everyone but academia and the gatekeepers of high culture.The subtext has disturbing and provocative elements which could by identified as mysoginy, soft porn and the frustrated psyche of the average young male at the time. She is destroyed in the end and provides the perfect excuse for both the principal male protagonists to give up women.Haggard himself has recently been discovered to have had a secret relationship which bore him an illegitimate child and we also realise he was not really an imperialist and supported free tendencies for Africans in the shadow of imperialism. He predicted the inevitable independence of African states and the imperial overtones in the book should not be misread as jingoistic.For people too rushed to pour over Trollope or Dickens, this is Victoriana at its greatest

SHE

TIME.LOVE.BEAUTY.Intertwined PASSON and JEALOUSY, CELESTIAL and EVIL. "SHE" will forever shines with her own philosophical beauty. I first read this story when I was 12. Could't quite comprehend but was somehow enjoyed by the adventurous plots. The second time when picked it up I was already on my late 30's. This time I was awed by the author's vivid immagination and the tremendous insight about human nature. Written in a decent manner,the story unfolds first in a steady pace, then generating faster and faster till the stimulating storyline seize you with your undivided attention! Though the final climax turns out to be a sad endding, along the adventurous and magical path with Leo and Holly all the way to the mysterious cave of Kor, you'll learn more about TIME, BEAUTY and LOVE. Definitely a worthy literary tour de force, even more rewarding than a trip to King Solomon's Mines! By the way I am an actor and have always dreamed to make SHE into a gorgeous epic, but I happen to be a CHINESE and it will make the film inauthentic if I starred in with any major charater. too bad.

Excellent--would make a great EPIC movie!

"She" is the ultimate woman; intelligent, all-powerful, & knows what she wants. All men fall on their knees when they see her. Her tragic flaw comes from her blind passion of an unworthy man, the flaw of many great heroines. Holly, a fantastically tortured man, is the true hero over Leo, a good-looking but shallow young man. With Haggard's style, this book has it all: ancient lost cities, murder, passion, revenge, women cat fights, and a good native "hot pot" scene.The men are transformed forever from their close encounter with SHE, the queen whose "EMPIRE IS OF THE IMAGINATION." And so will the reader be!!