H. Rider Haggard

[Extollager]

Same here. I also have the film saved to my Netflix queue.

It's possible to be a fan of the book & not like the movie. (I assume you refer to the Andress vehicle. There've been one or more others too, before it. I haven't seen those.)

 

[D_Davis]

I also have the Seven Footprints to Satan silent film, based off of A. Merritt's novel, on my PC to watch.

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, it's taken me nearly a year and a half to get around to actually reading "She" but I am now doing so an approaching the end. I think it is rather good so far...

 

[Extollager]

Here's a piece on Rider Haggard --

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/nov/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview36

Haggard's a bit of a favorite of mine, and just now I realized one element in that fondness --the fact that, when I was first getting into his work, in the early to mid-Seventies, it was easy to buy books by him in appealing old editions for very modest prices. He was reprinted frequently back around the turn of the century, and yet by the 1970s there was little demand for his books; so one could pick up a handsome turn-of-the-century illustrated edition of, say, Cleopatra for a few dollars. Indeed, one of my old Haggard volumes cost 50c (at a used book store, too, mind you, not a library discard sale). One's old Haggards could be among the most "distinguished"-looking books in one's collection. Here are a few images I found online.

The British publisher MacDonald reprinted a bunch of Haggard's books around the Sixties or so...

And of course his greatest romance, She, has continued to be available -- ready entry into the realm of his books.

 

[Kevin11]

I think I've only read what are arguably his two most famous stories: King Solomon's Mines and She. I thought they were both enjoyable. KSM, of course, has been adapted for the silver screen several times, and Allan Quartermain has had a number of film appearances (including the not-terrible-but-could-have-been-a-lot-better League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

 

[BAYLOR]

Ayesha . Beautiful /terrifying, cruel/kind , wise and also insane. Immortal and lonely would probably drive anyone crazy.

 

[j d worthington]

It's possible to be a fan of the book & not like the movie. (I assume you refer to the Andress vehicle. There've been one or more others too, before it. I haven't seen those.)

I may not have seen this at the time; if I did, I'm surprised I didn't respond then. Actually, by 1935 there had already been eight film versions of She, the earliest dating to 1899.... This one was right up there with Dickens' A Christmas Carol in number of early film adaptations....

 

[BAYLOR]

I may not have seen this at the time; if I did, I'm surprised I didn't respond then. Actually, by 1935 there had already been eight film versions of She, the earliest dating to 1899.... This one was right up there with Dickens' A Christmas Carol in number of early film adaptations....

The 1935 film was a bit silly and melodramatic but entertaining . Production wise it's pretty impressive.

I like the 1965 version with Ursula Andress best.

 

[BAYLOR]

He should be brought back into print.

 

[Extollager]

All the Haggard you are likely to want is available online, and quite a bit is also, if I'm not mistaken, available from Wildside and perhaps other publishers.

 

[russ2]

She is one of the greatest books. The evocation of immortality and death and the passage of time with the moral, and spiritual implications all weaved into a dramatic adventure and love story is superb. I also liked the sequel.
Highly influential. Indiana Jones and the Mummy reboot have a big debt to She.

 

[Bick]

I finished reading King Solomon's Mines today. I really enjoyed it - it would be hard not to I think. There are of course, passages and quotes that take your breath away from modern racial equality and conservation perspectives, but this has to be expected I think and Haggard is actually quite sympathetic for the age.

I enjoyed several things about it enormously: the humour of Good having to spend his time in Kukuanaland without any trousers on; the king's chanted speech toward the end of the book is superb; the imagery in the mines themselves. It's also, for an adventure story, quite poetic and beautiful in places - there's a lot of wisdom here. Overall, terrific stuff, to be recommended.

 

[Bick]

He should be brought back into print.

Not sure he's ever been out of print - I bought my copy of KSM from an online store, new, from a choice of many editions.

 

[Extollager]

I finished reading King Solomon's Mines today. I really enjoyed it - it would be hard not to I think. There are of course, passages and quotes that take your breath away from modern racial equality and conservation perspectives, but this has to be expected I think and Haggard is actually quite sympathetic for the age.

I enjoyed several things about it enormously: the humour of Good having to spend his time in Kukuanaland without any trousers on; the king's chanted speech toward the end of the book is superb; the imagery in the mines themselves. It's also, for an adventure story, quite poetic and beautiful in places - there's a lot of wisdom here. Overall, terrific stuff, to be recommended.

If you get the chance, read C. S. Lewis's review of Morton Cohen's biography of Haggard. The review is reprinted as "The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard" in Lewis's On Stories. It was originally published in a magazine, with the title "Haggard Rides Again." It doesn't seem to be available online. Lewis puts his finger on things that make Haggard's writing persist in interest for readers.

It's over 40 years since I read Cohen's biography (1974!). I remember it as having been good reading and mean to revisit it one of these days. Mercifully, as I recall Cohen was writing before it was obligatory to engage in a bunch of postcolonial handwringing and predictable remarks about homoeroticism (since Haggard's characters are often men who are friends) and so on. He tells the story of Haggard's life, which was unusually eventful for an author and doesn't feel obliged to burden his book with tedious potted treatments of the romances. Recommended to people interested in HRH.

British edition:

US edition:

Cohen edited a book of the letters between Kipling and Haggard, but, I confess, though I used to own this book, browsing in it never made me feel like reading it, and I think, in the end, I gave it away....

 

[BAYLOR]

I think time the someone does a remake of She.

 

[KiraAnn]

The 1935 film was a bit silly and melodramatic but entertaining . Production wise it's pretty impressive.

I like the 1965 version with Ursula Andress best.

Don’t you mean Ursula Undress?

Highly influential. Indiana Jones and the Mummy reboot have a big debt to She.

ERB always expressed Haggards influence in Tarzan.

 

[BAYLOR]

Here's a piece on Rider Haggard --

Rereading: King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard

Haggard's a bit of a favorite of mine, and just now I realized one element in that fondness --the fact that, when I was first getting into his work, in the early to mid-Seventies, it was easy to buy books by him in appealing old editions for very modest prices. He was reprinted frequently back around the turn of the century, and yet by the 1970s there was little demand for his books; so one could pick up a handsome turn-of-the-century illustrated edition of, say, Cleopatra for a few dollars. Indeed, one of my old Haggard volumes cost 50c (at a used book store, too, mind you, not a library discard sale). One's old Haggards could be among the most "distinguished"-looking books in one's collection. Here are a few images I found online.

The British publisher MacDonald reprinted a bunch of Haggard's books around the Sixties or so...

And of course his greatest romance, She, has continued to be available -- ready entry into the realm of his books.

I have a very old hard cover edition of this one Doubleday 1910 edition . Its got a beautiful colored illustrated page of the Queen of Sheba in the front. And inside I found a picture which show a picture for book called The Crystal Stopper by Maurice Leblanc . The picture is portably the main chapter in this book by Leblnac on the back of this paper There is list of sever book eater pending or Published un her the headings
Six Big Books For 1913. Maurice Leblanc book is one the ones listed. I have no idea who this author is.

 

[BAYLOR]

Don’t you mean Ursula Undress?



ERB always expressed Haggards influence in Tarzan.

Robert E Howard liked Haggard too.

 

[Extollager]

In 1973 I read the version of Cleopatra printed in a thick book called The Works of Haggard, but that might have been an abridged version. Anyway I'm now at last reading the romance in a book of about 300 pages that I assume is the whole story. It starts intriguingly, as so often with Haggard, evoking adventure and a sense of antiquity as an explorer opens a coffin and beholds the remains of the story's narrator-protagonist, whose remains -- which turn to dust almost immediately -- show signs of violent death.... The book I have now is illustrated, unlike The Works of Haggard.