BitterSweetLife

A Flash Review: She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed



She : A History of Adventure - H. Rider Haggard, B-

I started this book on our trip to Glacier Park, interrupted it with various required Archaeology texts, and was still able to pick it back up effortlessly when I had the time. This fact says something about Haggard’s ability to write fiction that grabs you. True, She is not “shocking” by 21st century standards, but the book does have some surprising, even hair-raising twists. The Tolkien and Lewis parallels which I’ve heard of for years (and which are spelled out in the introduction) are fascinating, and I think I would concur with many reviewers who praise She’s slightly haunting mythic quality.

However, I can’t see myself reading this book more than once—multi-readability being a trademark of classic fiction—and Haggard’s writing could use polishing. (A fact that was noted by his contemporary, Robert Louis Stevenson, who cautioned Haggard not to write "too quickly." (Haggard stated that he ripped off She in six weeks!) Thus, while Haggard’s work was more sensational and better-selling at the time, Stevenson’s works have better stood the test of time. )

No one, including Haggard, has been able to nail down the "allegorical" nature of She, which continues to bemuse and tease... Do all men long for unavoidable, inconsolable love of a woman? Some might differ, but I don't think so... Perhaps it is the inconsolable aspect of She that gets people, though, couched as it is in action-adventure form. We don't expect it.

The feeling catches us off guard, and we realize a thriller doesn't normally cut so deep. Haggard's form of inconsolable longing sticks us in a place that isn't often probed. We don't necessarily want a goddess/woman, who would turn out to be human after all...but we do want Someone.

Kudos to Haggard for (inadvertently) bringing up a subject that is rarely breached in fiction. This in itself relegates She to the coveted rank of "solid."