She

Haggard, H. Rider

ISBN 10: 184379411X ISBN 13: 9781843794110

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks, 2010

Synopsis

Rider Haggard's novel about a supremely beautiful but vindictive African goddess by the name of She is one of the best-selling books of all time. This wonderful multi-layered novel is at once a disarming imaginative fantasy, a fast-paced adventure story and a fascinating examination of the themes of death, sexuality and power. Cambridge professor Horace Holly and his ward Leo undertake a journey to the underbelly of Africa and discover a lost kingdom inhabited by a savage clan. They narrowly escape death and Holly is taken to meet the supernatural Queen, 'She who must be obeyed' who turns out to be half human and half mirage - a scintillating contradiction in terms. Lethal and yet irresistible, a youthful beauty and yet thousands of years old, all-powerful and yet, ultimately, fragile - the phenomenon that is 'She' has obtained iconic status in popular culture.

About this title

Review

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award This imaginative classic from the late 1800s is expertly read by Bill Homewood. The story is a first-person narrative that follows the journey of Horace Holly, a Cambridge University professor, and his ward, Leo Vincey, to a lost kingdom in central Africa. After a shipwreck, they encounter a primitive people called the Amahagger in the lost kingdom of Kor and a mysterious white sorceress who reigns as the all-powerful 'She-who-must-be-obeyed.' Homewood exquisitely captures the wonders and horrors encountered by these Victorian gentlemen on their adventures. His calm, well-paced reading adds a dimension of reality to a tale of natives, murder, and rage. Modulations of tone and inflection add to a performance that keeps listeners entranced. --AudioFile

Haggard's years with the Governor of Natal in the 1970s inspired the kernel of this very Victorian fantasy. Cambridge don Holly and his adopted son Vincey are searching for the legendary Queen Ayesha, known as 'She' by the primitive tribe which the adventurers discover in Africa. This is no boys' adventure like King Solomon's Mines - a seductive element of eroticism is woven into the fantastic tale of mysterious clues, reincarnation, cannibalism, suspense and women's thraldom over men. --Rachel Redford, The Oldie

About the Author

H. Rider Haggard, very much a product of the British Empire system, was a terrific writer of adventure fiction. From the 1880s he pioneered a category of lost world fiction that was continued by H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs. With King Solomon’s Mines, The Ghost Kings and the Allan Quatermain novels he created a fascinating world of hidden magic, ancient curses and the terror of the unknown.

Edition details

• Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184379411X
• ISBN 13: 9781843794110
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 10