I bought this book for my summer holiday, I had a detective book, some heavy stuff and wanted a classic, moreover, I always loved that great studio Hammer Films version of She with Peter Cushing, Ursula Andres & Co, and the good looking one (no-one can remember his name). I wasn't disappointed from the first page I was really gripped as this is simply a great story, it has mystery, adventure and a hidden city, it has glamour and sex appeal and history. I won't go into the story as if you haven't seen the film, watch it its a real laugh and a great way to spend a rainy sunday afternoon and if you haven't read the book read the other reviews which give an overview. To be honest the book is better than the movie as the characters are much more etched out in particular that of She, who we discover is a great intellectual (no doubt having watched all that history from afar) and is so stunningly beautiful that she wanders around covered with a sheet the whole time and the narrator we discover is a man of numerous and varied Freudian hang-ups about women. As a history graduate I also found the writing style most interesting, its very precise and more formal than books of today. The book and in particular the views of the narrator allow an insight into another time, when Britain ruled the world, when every square inch of the our world wasn't visible to the CIA via satellite, when there was the lure of adventure and discovery. On the other hand this was also a world when the British had a stiff upper lip, when foreign people were there to be dominated and conquered as savages, when women were not considered intellectually equal to men (hence She is somewhat out of the ordinary) and when an English gentleman did not have to earn his living so could gaunt off around the world. For example our narrator is seriously worried that She is so intelligent she could rule the world, and, imagine the horror of our English gentleman if the British empire risked being replaced on the world stage. So if you want to get into the mind set of Mr. Victorian empire man this is not a bad start and its a good read to boot.
So as I said this is a great adventure yarn, what with cannibals, hidden cities, darkest Africa and so on, but, can be read on other levels. I read it in 2 days on the beach and was gripped, then I gave it to my sister who also read from start to finish. So forget the classic literature title its just a good story. The only other comment I had is that this version which I purchased from Amazon has quite poor quality paper and very small print so that even if you have the slightest bad vision you will be staring very hard at the pages! so be warned.