She [with Biographical Introduction]
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Product Description
Product Description
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.
About the Author
H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925) worked in South Africa during the time of Britian's war with the Zulus and the First Boer War. He turned these experiences into fiction on his return to England and achieved popular and critical acclaim with KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1885), ALLAN QUATERMAIN (1887) and SHE (1887).
Patrick Brantlinger is Professor of English at Indiana University, Illinois. He has published work on British literature and imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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First Sentence
There are some events of which each circumstance and surrounding detail seems to be graven on the memory in such fashion that we cannot forget it, and so it is with the scene that I am about to describe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
There are some events of which each circumstance and surrounding detail seems to be graven on the memory in such fashion that we cannot forget it, and so it is with the scene that I am about to describe. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a gripping read, quite a horrific and violent novel, much more so than the famous film starring Ursula Andress and Peter Cushing. While the overall plot and names of the characters are the same, there are many other differences, particularly in the character of the narrator Holly (the Peter Cushing character), who in the book is hairy and ugly (nicknamed "the Baboon" by Billali) and so strong that at one point he quite graphically crushes two people to death with his bare hands. There is also a lot of dialogue between Holly and She, discussing philosophy and history in a way that could probably not have been commercially realised on film. The book delivers quite a strong emotional impact and is well worth reading. (The only note of caution I would add is that, as a novel of its time, the characters hold assumptions about the racial superiority of the white man that we do not today, which results in some slightly jarring comments early on in the novel.)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a decent enough story, but it could be condensed to half the size. There is so much narrative on the surroundings/scenery that it distracts from the atmosphere that the book, in parts, successfully creates.
Further, as with so many books of this era, the characters do tend to waffle on a bit, adding noting to the story and spoiling the atmosphere and tension. That said, the characters are beautifully built up, and you truly feel like you know them and understand them.
If you can let your mind cut through the waffle and needless descriptions, you will probably enjoy this book. I can see that this kind of book forms the basis of modern day adventures: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom immediately springs to mind.
Further, as with so many books of this era, the characters do tend to waffle on a bit, adding noting to the story and spoiling the atmosphere and tension. That said, the characters are beautifully built up, and you truly feel like you know them and understand them.
If you can let your mind cut through the waffle and needless descriptions, you will probably enjoy this book. I can see that this kind of book forms the basis of modern day adventures: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom immediately springs to mind.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"It's Pronounced Assha!"
The introduction, of the "was entrusted with the account of this true story" variety leads to some notes in the text, many of which relate to the history of events & 1 of which... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bob Marlowe
A classic of the genre
"The author pats me on the back and says, "Hey, come along on a spectacular adventure." I went along, and I'm glad I did. I experienced Africa in all its rich detail. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Roger Weston
WOW!
WOW WOW!
I found this book at Kinokunaya book store in Singapore, I found the title and the synopsis intriguing. Read more
I found this book at Kinokunaya book store in Singapore, I found the title and the synopsis intriguing. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Roét
Great book
read it very quickly..was something, someone gave to me and i thought id just have a look..i got hooked and thought it was a great read...VERY good, "boys Adventure" book
Published on 18 April 2010 by Zachary Smith
Marvellous, macabre and melodramatic
H.Rider Haggard's character "She" should be the ideal woman - the wisdom and experience of thousands of years in the body of a stunning beauty in the prime of life. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2009 by Secret Spi
If you buy this you are funding the killing of all literiture as we...
it was crud. This is the worst book in the whole of existance. It was the most misogynistic, racist piece of ming ever to walk the threshold of my nose. urgh! Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2009 by Mrs. J. Thomas
A splendid and supernatural tale
This story goes beyond mere adventure and derring-do and plunges into the world of the supernatural and of unfathomable evil. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2009 by Adrenalin Streams
Ah! if man would but see that he himself must work out his own...
`She' is a magical epic saga: the quest for the mysterious and tormented white African queen waiting during millennia for a reincarnation of her dead lover, because `there was but... Read more
Published on 26 July 2006 by Luc REYNAERT
Underrated, massively enjoyable adventure.
I'm normally not one for nineteenth century fiction, as I find the era's obsession with understatement makes a lot of it less exciting. H. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2006 by O. Derwood
Exciting Adventure!
Victorian adventure novels often got bogged down in descriptive detail that made them serve a secondary purpose as travelogues. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2004 by Donald Mitchell
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