I was only familiar with this story from the '80s Hollywood version, which I had been told was drastically different from the book. Sure enough, it absolutely was. So much of it is utterly different as to be (nearly) a different story. But anyway...

Putting aside the problems we may find in Victorian literature with how it portrays Africans versus Europeans...

This was apparently the first "Lost World" novel, and for that I guess I need to acknowledge that it's a significant landmark. It's also the only "Lost World" novel I have read (though I have seen plenty of movies!), so I guess everything that seems to me cliche was established with this novel, and that's something that's really rather significant and astounding.

However, sometimes being first isn't necessarily being best. This story was apparently written on a dare to try to write something "half" as good as Treasure Island. Well, Haggard is no Robert Louis Stevenson. And I must say that, though I haven not read Conan Doyle's The Lost World, I have read all the Holmes stories, and I would put money on The Lost World being a superior type of this genre. Haggard's story feels like too much adventure cliche, too much glossing over seemingly important details (to keep it short enough to publish in the era?), and, most importantly, supreme ignorance of South Africa and the people in it. Some of the latter is excusable of the era, but some of it is utterly ridiculous. Here are two examples: chainmail (chainmail!!!) armour and the locals fighting as if they were Roman legionaries (and, bravely led by the white men, but of course). And this is all the more surprising that the man lived in South Africa for seven years prior to writing this. Maybe he didn't get out enough? And it's the details like that that really keep me from enjoying what should be a pioneering work. I just can't get my head around them.

Of historical interest (in terms of the evolution of the adventure novel) but that's about it.

"King Solomon's Mines" ist der erste Allan Quatermain Roman (zumindest zu erst erschienen). Hier trifft er auf Sir Henry Curtis und Captain John Good, die auf der Suche nach dem Sir Henry's verschollenem Bruder sind, der auf der Suche nach Salomon's Mine war. Nach einigem Überlegen schließt Quatermain sich an. Zusammen mit drei Eingeborenen machen sie sich auf den Weg durch die Wüste. Zwei der Eingeborenen sterben schon recht früh, der dritte im Bunde ist ein wichtiger Charakter, wie man auch schon recht früh erfährt. Kurz vor ihem Ziel treffen sie auf einen ihnen unbekannten Eingeborenen Stamm, die Kukuanas, von denen der dritte Eingeborenen der rechtmäßige König ist.

Die Geschichte an sich ist eigentlich ganz gut, teilweise sogar richtig lustig. Was mich aber unglaublich gestört hat waren die ständig rassistisch angehauchten Bemerkungen, auch wenn es damals üblich war. Aber einen Einegborenen als Hund zu bezeichnen und immer gleich halb auszurasten, wenn er mal was sagt, ohne vorher die Erlaubnis bekommen zu haben, find ich nun mal nicht in Ordnung. Die Elefantenjagt hätte auch nicht sein müssen, bei der sie die Elefanten schön in die Enge getrieben haben, fröhlich drauf los geschossen haben und sich dann tierisch drüber gefreut haben, wie viele Elefanten sie getötet haben.

About 4 years ago Penguin published some nice editions of boys adventure book classics. I don't really confirm to gender stereotypes, so I got myself some ('Tarzan', 'The Lost World'). And 'She', by H. Rider Haggard. I'd read his 'King Solomon's Mines' before, and really enjoyed it. I loved 'She' too, and loved seeing THE shard in Norwich Castle Museum. Last week while book-hunting in one of the secondhand shops in Den Haag, I came across a copy of the second book about Ayesha, 'The Return of She', and I couldn't wait to start to read it. Unfortunately my edition (Dutch translation, published by Scala in 1977) not only has a cover that makes no sense to me (why is that guy green?), it's also abridged without disclosing it. Luckily the Gutenberg Project came to my rescue, so I read the ePub version on my Nook instead. It's twenty years after the events in 'She', and the same nameless editor of the first book receives another parcel from Horace Holly, containing another manuscript and an artifact. It turns out that Holly and his adoptive son Leo Vincey had another adventure with Ayesha, She. After returning to England at the end of the previous book, Leo had gotten depressed and even contemplated suicide, until he received a vision/dream from Ayesha, showing him that she was somewhere in the mountains of Ayesha. They travel to Asia and wander around for many years, until eventually they receive another sign that they are close. After a hard journey in which they nearly die they reach Kaloon, where they meet Khania Atene (who professes her love for Leo) and the jealous Khan Rassen. Their coming had been expected, and even though Holly and Leo feel they are close to Ayesha, the question is will they find her, and if they do, then what? I really enjoyed this adventure. Both the back story (the history of Ayesha, Kallikrates and Amenartas) and the current struggles are pretty cool to read, combining strange savages with lost civilizations and treasures. We learn a bit more about Ayesha, and the magic she has. I loved reading the book both because of the story, as well as the language. I'll keep book-hunting for other works by H. Rider Haggard, and hope to find more someday (although I saw that they re-released three books in the Ayesha series just last year). Four out of five stars.

bookshelves: re-read, victorian, published-1887, play-dramatisation, african-continent, fraudio, historical-masturbation, fantasy, afr-car

 

This is the weakest of the four She novels. Ayesha, known as She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed first appeared in serial form from 1896 to 1897 in the novel She: Along with King Solomon's Mines, which featured Allan Quartermain, She is Haggard's most popular and famous novel. So this is a kind of crossover. Batman Meets Superman or Godzilla versus King Kong or Alien versus Predator. And there are moments of humor in this irresistible force meets immovable object. But this left me pretty meh, even as an overall fan of the series. Ayesha is one of the awesome, kick-ass woman characters in Victorian literature, and I rated Wisdom's Daughter, the later written prequel set in Ancient Egypt, five stars. I'm not going to claim that Haggard even at his best is the same order of classic as the best by Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. But like Arthur Conan Doyle or Robert Louis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, Haggard really could spin a good yarn. Ten of his books are on my bookshelves. I gobbled those up in my teens and most I remember very, very well. But this isn't one of his better novels and certainly not what as I'd recommend as an introduction to him--or Ayesha.