For a history of fantasy see Cornwell, Neil (1990). The Literary Fantastic: from Gothic to Postmodernism. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. ISBN 978-0-7450-0804-2. . Also Clute, John (2002). Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St Martin's.

in it. On the benches lay figures covered with yellow linen, [3] on which a fine and impalpable dust hadT]he mind wearies easily when it strives to grapple with the Infinite, and to trace the footsteps of the Almighty as he strides from sphere to sphere, or deduce his purpose from his works. Such things are not for us to know. Knowledge is to the strong, and we are weak. Too much wisdom would perchance blind our imperfect sight, and too much strength would make us drunk, and overweight our feeble reason till it fell, and we were drowned in the depths of our own vanity. For what is the first result of man's increased knowledge interpreted from Nature's book by the persistent effort of his purblind observation? Is it not but too often to make him question the existence of his Maker, or indeed of any intelligent purpose beyond his own? The truth is veiled, because we could no more look upon her glory than we can upon the sun. It would destroy us. Full knowledge is not for man as man is here, for his capacities, which he is apt to think so great, are indeed but small. The vessel is soon filled, and, were one thousandth part of the unutterable and silent wisdom that directs the rolling of those shining spheres, and the force which makes them roll, pressed into it, it would be shattered into fragments.” She was first published as a serial story in The Graphic, a large folio magazine printed weekly in London, between October 1886 and January 1887. The serialisation was accompanied with illustrations by E. K. Johnson. An American edition was published by Harper & Bros. in New York on 24 December 1886; this included Johnson's illustrations. On 1 January 1887 a British edition was published by Longmans, Green, & Co., without any illustrations. It featured significant textual revisions by Haggard. [31] He made further revisions for the British edition of 1888, which included new illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen and C. H. M. Kerr. In 2006 Broadview published the first edition of She since 1887 to reproduce the Graphic serial text. [32] Narrative revisions [ edit ] Rider Haggard's recreation of the Sherd of Amenartas, now in the collection of the Norwich Castle Museum The terrible She had evidently made up her mind to go to England, and it made me absolutely shudder to think what would be the result of her arrival there. What her powers were I knew, and I could not doubt but that she would exercise them to the full. It might be possible to control her for a while, but her proud, ambitious spirit would be certain to break loose and avenge itself for the long centuries of its solitude. She would, if necessary, and if the power of her beauty did not unaided prove equal to the occasion, blast her way to any end she set before her, and, as she could not die, and for aught I knew could not even be killed, what was there to stop her? In the end she would, I had little doubt, assume absolute rule over the British dominions, and probably over the whole earth.” She, ' subtitled 'A History of Adventure, ' is a novel by Henry Rider Haggard, first serialised in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887. The novel is one of the classics of imaginative literature, and as of 1965 with over 83 million copies sold in 44 different languages, one of the best-selling books of all time. Horace Holly – protagonist and narrator, Holly is a Cambridge man whose keen intellect and knowledge were developed to compensate for his ape-like appearance. Holly knows a number of ancient languages, including Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew, which allow him to communicate with the Amahagger (who speak a form of Arabic) and She (who knows all three languages). Holly's interest in archaeology and the origins of civilisation lead him to explore the ruins of Kôr.

I first heard about this book when it was discussed in Margaret Atwood’s science fiction anthology, In Other Worlds. She goes into the history of demonic women in literature, and H. Rider Haggard’s adventure She gets mentioned frequently. When I saw a copy in the bookstore, I was curious enough to buy it. Okay…with that off my chest, I am starting to feel better. Before I unleash my next rant salvo, I should probably give you at least a thumbnail of the plot.

Smith, Andrew (2003). "Beyond Colonialism: Death and the Body in H. Rider Haggard". In Smith, Andrew; Hughes, William (eds.). Empire and the Gothic: The Politics of Genre. New York. ISBN 978-0-333-98405-5. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) Knox-Shaw, Peter (1987). The Explorer in English Fiction. London: Palgrave MacMillan. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-312-27763-5. Ustane is a member of the Amahagger tribe. She becomes good friends, and lovers, with Leo, taking care of him when he is wounded. Finally, she defies her tribal values to be with him, a show of profound strength. Update this section! This book is, however, a trailblazer in the lost worlds genre, and the character of Ayesha is a good one, so all is not lost. With some more editing it might have kept its momentum up for for me. I see others enjoyed this more than I did, perhaps I am too impatient at this time of year!

Feminist literary historians have tended to define the figure of She as a literary manifestation of male alarm over the "learned and crusading new woman". [93] In this view, Ayesha is a terrifying and dominant figure, a prominent and influential rendering of the misogynistic "fictive explorations of female authority" undertaken by male writers that ushered in literary modernism. [94] Ann Ardis, for instance, views the fears Holly harbours over Ayesha's plan to return to England as being "exactly those voiced about the New Woman's entrance in the public arena". [95] According to the feminist interpretation of the narrative, the death of She acts as a kind of teleological "judgement" of her transgression of Victorian gender boundaries, [94] with Ardis likening it to a "witch-burning". However, to Rider Haggard, She was an investigation into love and immortality and the demise of Ayesha the moral end of this exploration: The Spectator was more equivocal in its appraisal of She. The review described the narrative as "very stirring" and "exciting" and of "remarkable imaginative power", adding: "The ingenuity of the story... is as subtle as ever romancer invented, and from the day when Leo and Holly land on the coast of Africa, to the day when the Pillar of Fire is revealed to them by the all but immortal 'She-who-must-be-obeyed', the interest of the tale rises higher and higher with every new turn in its course". However, the review took issue with the characterisation of She and the manner of her demise: "To the present writer there is a sense of the ludicrous in the end of She that spoiled, instead of concluding with imaginative fitness, the thread of the impossible worked into the substance of this vivid and brilliantly told story". [87] Haggard was moved to respond to the criticism of Ayesha's death, writing that "in the insolence of her strength and loveliness, she lifts herself up against the Omnipotent. Therefore, at the appointed time she is swept away by It... Vengeance, more heavy because more long delayed, strikes her in her proudest part – her beauty". [88] Austin, Sue. " Desire, Fascination and the Other: Some Thoughts on Jung's Interest in Rider Haggard's 'She' and on the Nature of Archetypes", Harvest: International Journal for Jungian Studies, 2004, Vol.50, No.2. Initially, it looked like an adventurous travelogue and too much expository but the story became immensely attractive when "She", a two thousand years old sorceress, entered the story. I am sure her extraordinary portrayal by the author might have mesmerized its readers when it was first published. Gilbert, Sandra; Gubar, Sandra (1998). No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century. Vol.2. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06660-9.

SHE

Love is a strange currency in this story. Once the story goes to Africa, love means something different in their culture. Ustane's love for Leo is sudden and strangely unwarranted, but she felt connected to him from the first moment they met. Leo really likes her too, actually. But the novel features a super-human villain named Ayesha who is either a goddess or a witch (depending on which characters you ask), and Ayesha is so beautiful that Leo is perplexed by her. When Ustane refuses to relinquish her husband to Ayesha, Ayesha kills her. Why? Because Leo is the reincarnation of her lover, whom she murdered and has been waiting for. In this novel, love is the subject of much analysis, but none of the pictures of love are really substantial except for one: Ustane's sacrificial love for Leo is good and noble, although it seems random, given that they don't even understand each other. Immortality and death When Ayesha in the course of ages grows hard, cynical, and regardless of that which stands between her and her ends, her love yet endures ... when at last the reward was in her sight ... she once more became (or at the moment imagined that she would become) what she had been before disillusion, disappointment, and two thousand wretched years of loneliness had turned her heart to stone ... and in her lover's very presence she is made to learn the thing she really is, and what is the end of earthly wisdom and of the loveliness she prised so highly. [96]