Conference noted::sf

1168.0. "Henry Rider Haggard" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Wed Sep 15 1993 22:39

Article: 358
From: [email protected] (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews #26: H. Rider Haggard
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 14 Sep 93 01:47:20 GMT
 
		Belated Reviews #26:  H. Rider Haggard
 
Categories change.  If Sir Henry Rider Haggard were writing today, some of
his books would be marketed as fantasy, others as thrillers, or historical
fiction.  My own copies of his books are divided about evenly between those
reprinted (and shelved) as mainstream novels and those reprinted as fantasy.
 
Haggard wrote adventure fiction.  At a time when the unexplored portions
of the map were rapidly being filled in, he was populating the remaining
mystery areas with the remnants of lost civilizations and lost continents,
with ancient lovers chasing each other from incarnation to incarnation, 
ancient magics and ancient curses.  And he was doing this in the 1880s (as 
well as for the four decades that followed), which is to say that he was 
*originating* many of these now-common devices.
 
Haggard's books display the paradoxical attractions of the best genre
classics:  They retain much of their power, wonder, and freshness, but
they also have to be appreciated as period pieces which could not have been
published had they been written today.  Too many conventions have changed.
Fair enough:  Those are the terms upon which we can appreciate Verne and
Wells and Kipling, too.  Like their books, those of Henry Rider Haggard
can be enjoyed as long as the reader doesn't insist on thinking less of
the author for not being born a century later.  In Haggard's world, as
in Kipling's, nobility, courage, and honor were not the property of any 
one race -- but God was definitely English.
 
"King Solomon's Mines" (***) is where it began.  Haggard dashed it off
in 1885 on a bet (that he could write something half as good as "Treasure
Island") and it made an astonishing splash.  The book introduces us to Allan
Quatermain, the canny white hunter who was Haggard's most frequently
returned-to character, who is engaged by a Sir Henry Curtis to help find
his brother -- and perhaps the fabled diamond mines for which the brother
was searching.  As in "Treasure Island", there is a map, and it leads the
party into an unexplored corner of Africa, where the treasures of King
Solomon are guarded by dangerous natives -- and a far more dangerous witch.
"King Solomon's Mines" is the best known of Haggard's works, both as a book
and as a movie.
 
Haggard was to return to this lost-civilization-adventure formula several
times, and with increasing skill.  "Allan Quatermain" (***) is the last
(chronologically) and best of the Quatermain novels.  The book reunites
him with his companions from "King Solomon's Mines", as well as with
Umslopogaas, a Zulu who is prominent in several other novels.  In this novel,
written a couple of years after "King Solomon's Mines", the party seeks and
finds a lost white civilization in the heart of Africa, and becomes enmeshed
in its intrigues.  Much of what follows is cliche -- today -- the handsome 
hero, the sister queens, jealousy, civil war, treachery, and heroic last
stands.  But it wasn't cliche then, so the writer was able to tell the
story powerfully and without self-consciousness.  "The People of the Mist"
(***), written a few years later, is an even more skillful working of the
lost-civilization adventure.
 
"She" (***+) is my favourite of Haggard's books.  It is also the one in which
he crosses the line between adventure fiction and fantasy.  The tale begins
in a manner appropriate for a public that was intoxicated by the great 
archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth century, with a potsherd that
has been passed down within a single family for over two thousand years --
a potsherd upon which a fantastic tale is engraved -- along with whatever
translations and annotations have accrued over that time.  The original
inscriber tells of Kallikrates and Amenartas of Egypt, and of an immortal
sorceress who loved Kallikrates and slew him.  Followup notations tell of
descendents who tried to seek out the land of that sorceress (and the secret
of her immortality) and failed.  Needless to say, the latest of these
descendents also makes the attempt.  He and his companions find the immortal
Ayesha -- She-who-must-be-obeyed -- who recognizes him as Kallikrates reborn.
They, in turn, find wonders which so many later authors, taking their
inspiration from Haggard, would turn into commonplaces, including the
remains of a great prehistoric civilization and its lost secrets.
 
"She" ended unhappily, but the lovers got a second chance when Haggard 
eventually wrote a sequel, imaginatively titled "The Return of She: Ayesha" 
(**+), which takes the adventurers to a lost city in central Asia in
search of Ayesha.  Completists may also read "Wisdom's Daughter" (**-), a
prequel which fills in Ayesha's own story.  I wouldn't bother.  There's
also "She and Allan" (**), a solid but unremarkable book Haggard used to
get his two best characters into the same story.
 
Haggard also brought his unique style to bear on historical material.  My
personal favorite among these works is "Montezuma's Daughter" (***), about
an Englishman who follows a Spanish enemy to the New World, and takes the
Aztecs' side.  I'm not sure whether the books placed in the Africa of earlier
in the nineteenth century should count as historical fiction or as adventure
fiction (if it matters).  One of particular interest is "Nada the Lily" (**+),
which tells of a brother and sister whose tribe got in the way of the Zulus'
slightly genocidal empire-building, and of the youth of Umslopogaas, who 
appears most notably in "Allan Quatermain".  The novel is unusual for its 
time in having an all-black cast.
 
"The World's Desire" (**), coauthored with Andrew Lang (best known for
"The <your favorite color here> Fairy Book"), is a story of Oddyseus, who
returns to Ithaca from one restless trip too many, to find his home destroyed.
Aphrodite orders him to Egypt, to seek out the immortal Helen (whom, you
will recall, he wooed before settling for Penelope).  It's not one of
Haggard's better books, but it's important for the kind of fantasy it
pioneered.  I'd say the same about "Eric Brighteyes" (**), a tale patterned on
the Norse sagas which were only then being translated for the English public.
And, if I'm listing books which are more noteworthy for their contributions
to the genre than for how enjoyable they are today, I shouldn't omit "When
the World Shook" (*+), which gave us another staple of the genre -- a pre-
historic high-tech civilization, whose last survivors are in suspended
animation.  (It's done with radium, of course.  There was a stretch of
several decades in which 'radium' was the automatic pseudo-science explanation
for anything.  Well, okay, Mark Twain used uranium...)
 
The sheer volume, variety and originality of Haggard's writing threatens
to make this review unmanageable, and prevents me from doing justice to
the plot of any one book.  I hope I've at least done justice to his
originality:  My brief descriptions of of some of his books undoubtedly
reminded you of many subsequently written novels with similar plots or 
themes -- but of few if any earlier ones.  And the best of these books
are not simply historical curiosities, but skillfully written novels that 
still give pleasure today.
 
%A  Haggard, Sir Henry Rider
%T  King Solomon's Mines
%T  Allan Quatermain
%T  The People of the Mist
%T  She
%T  The Return of She: Ayesha
%T  Wisdom's Daughter
%T  She and Allan
%T  Montezuma's Daughter
%T  Nada the Lily
%T  The World's Desire
%T  Eric Brighteyes
%T  When the World Shook
 
Standard introduction and disclaimer for Belated Reviews follows.

Belated Reviews cover science fiction and fantasy of earlier decades.
They're for newer readers who have wondered about the older titles on the
shelves, or who are interested in what sf/f was like in its younger days.
The emphasis is on helping interested readers identify books to try first, 
not on discussing the books in depth.
 
A general caveat is in order:  Most of the classics of yesteryear have not
aged well.  If you didn't encounter them back when, or in your early teens,
they will probably not give you the unforced pleasure they gave their
original audiences.  You may find yourself having to make allowances for
writing you consider shallow or politics you consider regressive.  When I
name specific titles, I'll often rate them using the following scale:
 
**** Recommended.
***  An old favorite that hasn't aged well, and wouldn't get a good
	reception if it were written today.  Enjoyable on its own terms.
**   A solid book, worth reading if you like the author's works.
*    Nothing special.
 
Additional disclaimers:  Authors are not chosen for review in any particular
order.  The reviews don't attempt to be comprehensive.  No distinction is 
made between books which are still in print and books which are not.
 
-----
Dani Zweig
[email protected]
 
"One of my favorite games when I was a kid was 'murder/suicide.'
 Dad would show us a photo and ask us, "Is it a murder or a suicide?"
	  --  Colleen Doran
 

    Does anyone know what are the Allan Quatermain stories besides
    "King Solomon's Mines," "She and Allan," and "Allan Quatermain"?
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    
    
    
Several of the books that have been reviewed are available from Dover
Press. These are paperback or trade editions and are inexpensive. 
Dover also offers "Thrift Editions" of well known works for $1 ea.


_Jurgen_, James Branch Cabell. Cat # 23507-6. $6.95

_She, King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quartermain_, H. Rider Haggard. 
	Cat # 20643-2. $11.95

_Ayesha: The Return of She_, H. Rider Haggard, Cat # 23649-8. $6.95

_Last and First Men_ and _Starmaker_ (in one volume), Stapledon.
	Cat # 21962-3. $7.95

_Odd John_ and _Sirius_ (in one volume), Stapledon. Cat # 21133-9. $7.95

Also many of H.G. Wells' novels and short stories.

All of the above are available from 

		Dover Press
		21 E. 2nd St.
		Mineola, NY 11501.

The full 5,400 volume catalog (Cat # 59069-0) is available free.
Add $3.00 per order for postage, $4.50 for UPS delivery. No telephone 
or credit card orders.