She

Rating:
Summary: The penultimate woman - waits for the love of her eternity.
Review: How long would you wait for your lover to return? Especially, after you murdered him! A fantastic tale that transcends time and space. Remarkably told by a man that began writing as a wager. A classic that needs to read and re-read.

Rating:
Summary: A very scary book
Review: I found this book VERY freaky. I listened to the unabridged recording of it, and I am glad, beacuse the lengthy descriptions would have been VERY hard for me to cope with. The setting in this book is one of things that unnerved me the most. To begin with, having a man who was near to death enter the scene to give some incredibly...different...instructions certainly adds to the suspense. The setting in northern Africa and the customs of teh Amahager(sp) are very scary and,um, not very pleasant to listen too. Despite these things I have enjoyed She and I think that an abridged version would be a better choice to read.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but a little long
Review: I would've given it 5 stars if it weren't so long. The story really drags in some places. I found myself skipping whole sections to get back to the story.
That said, I loved the plot, the adventure, and the twists. I can't decide if I like the woman or hate her. I guess that's what Haggard was looking for, and he did a splendid job of it.
Character development was very good, and the visual affects of the scenery and what was happening were just wonderful. Definitely a good novel, and excellent characters, especially after being so succesful with hunter Quartermain.

Rating:
Summary: Preposterous but fun
Review: Isis, the White Goddess, the faerie queen, you know the sort of stuff.... but Haggard didn't have the heart to write anything that sincere. To be honest, I don't think he was up to the job. Instead he wrote a great yarn, with a few mythological references thrown in, some humour, and a ridiculous plot. The result is an easy and enjoyable read

Rating:
Summary: Well-Acted and Produced Abridged Audio Cassette Version
Review: Let me make it clear that I am reviewing the abridged audio cassette version of She that was recorded by the Caedmon Players and in which Kathleen Turner plays the role of She. I usually try to avoid abridged audio cassette versions of novels. Having read the original and found it to be slow going, it occurred to me that this might be an improvement with She. And that was a correct assumption.

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 recording made me feel young again. I remember listening to radio stories like this one as a child (yes, I'm a pre-television-aged person). The sound effects and music are terrific, and add greatly to the performance. Ms. Turner is very electric as She. She has the same alluring vocal quality that made her irresistible in Body Heat. The only jarring note was that I had not expected the Egyptian temptress, Ayesha, to have a distinctly Southern accent. But I soon got over that.

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?

I recommend listening to this in your car while you are on an Interstate in mountainous country with your cruise control on.

Have a great trip!

Rating:
Summary: Grand adventure in deepest Africa
Review: Sent on a voyage of discovery by an ancient chest handed down over generations, Leo Vincey, his guardian and valet journey to East Africa to seek adventure. A wonderful story, wonderfully told.

Rating:
Summary: Another Haggard masterpiece.
Review: SHE is an excellent escape into the hidden depths of the dark continent. Once again, Haggard spins a tale as entertaining and educational as KING SOLOMON'S MINES and ALLAN QUATERMAIN. The myth which he creates about She-who-must-be-obeyed is at times both original, and typical Haggard material. This book, as with KING SOLOMON and ALLAN, provides yet another interesting insight into the racist imperialist attitude held by many Europeans toward Africa during the late 1800s. A must read for anyone interested in the myths created by whites to justify their conquest of Africa. To further explain this idea I would recommend viewing AFRICA: A HISTORY DENIED by Time-Life Videos. The video is part of the "Lost Civilizations" series and is available from Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: Archetype of the collective unconcious
Review: The "lost tribe" myth was not a new concept to Victorian audiences. Ideas of primitive civilizations hidden throughout the world were rampant in English society at the time of H. Rider Haggard. As such, Haggard did not invent the "lost tribe" concept--he merely used it as a vessel for popular fiction about Africa.

It is important to keep in mind that H. Rider Haggard was an Imperialist, as were the majority of his contemporaries. Still, the themes of misogyny, racism, and imperialism are at times a little too heavy-handed in She. Haggard's anti-feminine stance, in particular, comes into full swing when the reader is introduced to the despotic matriarchal queen of the Amahagger tribe. The Amahagger society itself is a direct inverse of male-dominated Victorian society, so there is no surprise that the Amahagger are portrayed as uncivilized cannibals.

If for no other reason, you should read this book to get an understanding of the xenophobia inherent in Victorian society. This book is an invaluable aid to any student of 19th century English literature--it effectively portrays English attitudes towards women, foreigners, and colonization. It's also a very exciting book, so most students will find it easy to read in a single weekend.

So, why only 3 stars? The writing is not amazing. Haggard was, after all, a genre novel author. At times, the allusions are extremely heavy-handed, and the characters are archetypical. This is a plot-driven book, but it could have been much better if Haggard had paid more attention to his characters. They had the potential to be very fascinating. Also, there are better examples of 19th century English literature about Africa. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a vastly superior novel, but it also has an antipodal take on the positives and negatives of imperialism. If you have the time, I would suggest reading both novels to get a feel for both sides of the discussion on British Imperialism.

Rating:
Summary: Imperialist Fiction
Review: The "lost tribe" myth was not a new concept to Victorian audiences. Ideas of primitive civilizations hidden throughout the world were rampant in English society at the time of H. Rider Haggard. As such, Haggard did not invent the "lost tribe" concept--he merely used it as a vessel for popular fiction about Africa.

It is important to keep in mind that H. Rider Haggard was an Imperialist, as were the majority of his contemporaries. Still, the themes of misogyny, racism, and imperialism are at times a little too heavy-handed in She. Haggard's anti-feminine stance, in particular, comes into full swing when the reader is introduced to the despotic matriarchal queen of the Amahagger tribe. The Amahagger society itself is a direct inverse of male-dominated Victorian society, so there is no surprise that the Amahagger are portrayed as uncivilized cannibals.

If for no other reason, you should read this book to get an understanding of the xenophobia inherent in Victorian society. This book is an invaluable aid to any student of 19th century English literature--it effectively portrays English attitudes towards women, foreigners, and colonization. It's also a very exciting book, so most students will find it easy to read in a single weekend.

So, why only 3 stars? The writing is not amazing. Haggard was, after all, a genre novel author. At times, the allusions are extremely heavy-handed, and the characters are archetypical. This is a plot-driven book, but it could have been much better if Haggard had paid more attention to his characters. They had the potential to be very fascinating. Also, there are better examples of 19th century English literature about Africa. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a vastly superior novel, but it also has an antipodal take on the positives and negatives of imperialism. If you have the time, I would suggest reading both novels to get a feel for both sides of the discussion on British Imperialism.

Rating:
Summary: Archetype of the collective unconcious
Review: There was a reason that this was a novel that intrigued Freud, who called it "A strange book, but full of hidden meaning". She, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, Peter Pan and a similar select company of works of popular fiction, works on a concious level of fantasy adventure narrative and multiple other levels of meaning, in this instance involving race, colonialism, sexuality, 19th Century anxieties, etc. While totally un-PC (so be warned if the books you read need support 21st Century views of the third world and women)it has a wonderful dreamlike feel that taps into a collective unconcious of symbols and archetypes. Besides which, it's a good read.