She

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Quite terrifying in places - Rated
This is a gripping read, quite a horrific and violent novel, much more so than the famous film starring Ursula Andress and Peter Cushing. While the overall plot and names of the characters are the same, there are many other differences, particularly in the character of the narrator Holly (the Peter Cushing character), who in the book is hairy and ugly (nicknamed "the Baboon" by Billali) and so strong that at one point he quite graphically crushes two people to death with his bare hands. There is also a lot of dialogue between Holly and She, discussing philosophy and history in a way that could probably not have been commercially realised on film. The book delivers quite a strong emotional impact and is well worth reading. (The only note of caution I would add is that, as a novel of its time, the characters hold assumptions about the racial superiority of the white man that we do not today, which results in some slightly jarring comments early on in the novel.)

Ah! if man would but see that he himself must work out his own salvation - Rated
`She' is a magical epic saga: the quest for the mysterious and tormented white African queen waiting during millennia for a reincarnation of her dead lover, because `there was but one thing worth living for, and that was love. Better is an hour with love than a century of loneliness.'

But it is also an allegory: the victory of Christian faith over evil.
For the author: `the immortality to which I look shall be free from the bonds that here must tie my spirit down. For, while the flesh endures, sorrow and evil and the scorpion whips of sin must endure also; but when flesh hath fallen from us, then shall the spirit shine forth clad in the brightness of eternal good.'
For the white queen, `religion is terror for the end, and but a nobler form of selfishness.'

For the author, `the world is a great market where all things are for sale to him who bids the highest in the currency or our desires.'
And, `Is not ambition but an endless ladder by which no height is ever climbed till the lest unreachable rung is mounted?'
There is only Hope, for `without Hope we should suffer moral death.'

This novel is also fundamentally misogynic. Love and passion are considered as curses. Man is a victim of the eternal female (`She') : `in uniting himself to this dread woman, he would place his life under the influence of a mysterious creature of evil tendencies, but then that would be likely enough to happen to him in any ordinary marriage.' `... love. This is really the sum of her evil doings.'
`Passion is to man, what gold and power are to women - a weight upon their weakness.' And, `Curses on the fatal curiosity that is ever prompting man to draw the veil from woman. It is the cause of more than half of our misfortunes.'

This book is excellent entertainment.
Its picture of the `eternal female' is brilliant, but incarnated in `She', biased.

Underrated, massively enjoyable adventure. - Rated
I'm normally not one for nineteenth century fiction, as I find the era's obsession with understatement makes a lot of it less exciting. H. Rider Haggard's "She" cuts right through that, and gets right on with telling a fast, detailed, often very exciting tale.

The characterisation of the three main characters (unnattractive Holly, popular Leo and befuddled butler Job) is wonderful and the whole thing feels brilliantly cinematic. I haven't yet seen the Hammer Horror film, and I'm not sure I want to; I somehow doubt a horror-heavy version of this vastly enjoyable adventure tale would do it justice.

I recommend it enormously. I plan to get hold of more Haggard as soon as possible - he's a storyteller to be reckoned with.

Ripping good yarn - Rated
I bought this book for my summer holiday, I had a detective book, some heavy stuff and wanted a classic, moreover, I always loved that great studio Hammer Films version of She with Peter Cushing, Ursula Andres & Co, and the good looking one (no-one can remember his name). I wasn't disappointed from the first page I was really gripped as this is simply a great story, it has mystery, adventure and a hidden city, it has glamour and sex appeal and history. I won't go into the story as if you haven't seen the film, watch it its a real laugh and a great way to spend a rainy sunday afternoon and if you haven't read the book read the other reviews which give an overview. To be honest the book is better than the movie as the characters are much more etched out in particular that of She, who we discover is a great intellectual (no doubt having watched all that history from afar) and is so stunningly beautiful that she wanders around covered with a sheet the whole time and the narrator we discover is a man of numerous and varied Freudian hang-ups about women. As a history graduate I also found the writing style most interesting, its very precise and more formal than books of today. The book and in particular the views of the narrator allow an insight into another time, when Britain ruled the world, when every square inch of the our world wasn't visible to the CIA via satellite, when there was the lure of adventure and discovery. On the other hand this was also a world when the British had a stiff upper lip, when foreign people were there to be dominated and conquered as savages, when women were not considered intellectually equal to men (hence She is somewhat out of the ordinary) and when an English gentleman did not have to earn his living so could gaunt off around the world. For example our narrator is seriously worried that She is so intelligent she could rule the world, and, imagine the horror of our English gentleman if the British empire risked being replaced on the world stage. So if you want to get into the mind set of Mr. Victorian empire man this is not a bad start and its a good read to boot.

So as I said this is a great adventure yarn, what with cannibals, hidden cities, darkest Africa and so on, but, can be read on other levels. I read it in 2 days on the beach and was gripped, then I gave it to my sister who also read from start to finish. So forget the classic literature title its just a good story. The only other comment I had is that this version which I purchased from Amazon has quite poor quality paper and very small print so that even if you have the slightest bad vision you will be staring very hard at the pages! so be warned.

Exciting Adventure! - Rated
Victorian adventure novels often got bogged down in descriptive detail that made them serve a secondary purpose as travelogues. She fits into that model rather nicely with great amounts of detail about the imaginary African tribe of the Amahaggers. Pared down, the Amahaggers enhance the main story in this version.

The book opens as Horace Holly's dying friend begs Horace to take on the task of raising the friend's five-year-old son and preparing him for a challenge when he becomes twenty-five. Since Horace is an honest, hard-working sort and the position pays well, it is an easy decision. Horace and the boy, Leo, quickly become close, and Leo treats him like a favorite uncle.

On Leo's twenty-fifth birthday, they open a mysterious chest that Leo's father has left in Horace's care. Eventually, this reveals an ancient story from Leo's family written on a potshard. On the potshard, there seems to be information about the potential for discovering the secret of eternal life. This requires a trek to Africa. Along the way, Leo falls gravely ill but they are rescued by the Amahaggers who have ordered by She-who-is-to-be-obeyed not to hurt them.

The rest of the story unweaves the fantasy tale of how the 2,000 year old Ayesha, She-who-is-to-be-obeyed, became connected to Leo's family. Ayesha is a little out of date in her preferences, still being an Egyptian-style autocrat with a taste for the macabre. I wouldn't have gone out with her on a second date myself, no matter how beautiful she was. The Gloria Swanson role in Sunset Boulevard is evoked in She.

The story is an interesting one, because it builds around the potential of having a world in which women rule by right. That theme was most appropriate for Queen Victoria's time, and the novel considers the Amahaggers, She, and Queen Victoria as alternative models of female leadership. Because of our current enthusiasm for equal opportunity for the sexes, the book is more contemporary in its social commentary than you might think. I saw a parallel in She's overwhelming impact on men to the tragedies that often befall female movie stars who have similar appeals, such as Marilyn Monroe.

Clearly, the message that emerges is that a balance between women and men is better than either the male or the female dominated society. A good thing to think about after you listen to or read this book is what the benefits of balance are. They extend beyond sexual politics. In what other areas is balance better than dominance by a single perspective or influence?