She (Oxford World's Classics)

She - H. Rider Haggard By all rights I probably should reread this before reviewing--I last read this in my teens. I think I'm a little afraid I might find She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed diminished in my esteem, and I'd hate that. I'd rather remember this not only as a rollicking good adventure to read, but above all Ayesha, the "She" of the title, as one of the kick ass heroines of Victorian fiction. Along with King Solomon's Mines, She is the most famous of H. Rider Haggard's novels, and I like this one more. Indeed, this spawned three sequels. There's even one where the hero of King's Solomon's Mines, Alan Quartermain, meets Ayesha--She and Allan. My favorite of the Ayesha books actually is the prequel Wisdom's Daughter, where Ayesha tells her own story--historical fantasy about Ancient Egypt. This particular is the original, published as a serial from 1896 to 1897. It's set 2,000 years after Ayesha was born in the present day of publication. For Ayesha is immortal--and incredibly powerful. And now she's confronted with an Englishman who bears a uncanny resemblance to her old love. And yes, some of the prose, it is purple. I'm not going to claim this is the same order of classic as the best by Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. But like Arthur Conan Doyle or Robert Louis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, Haggard really could spin a good yarn.