1961 paperback edition

She is a novel by H. Rider Haggard, first serialized in The Graphic from October 1886 to January 1887. In reprints it was extraordinarily popular in its day, and it has remained in print to the present (2006). Cover of 1961 Lancer Books paperback edition. ... H. Rider Haggard, author Sir Henry Rider Haggard (June 22, 1856 – May 14, 1925), born in Bradenham, Norfolk, England, was a Victorian writer of adventure novels set in locations considered exotic by readers in his native England. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

It recounts the adventures of an expedition to an unexplored part of East Africa, where they find Ayesha, a beautiful and apparently immortal sorceress, who claims the expedition's leader as the reincarnation of her long-dead beloved. (Haggard gives a phonetic rendering of “Ayesha” as “assha”.) She had become ageless and perfectly beautiful more than 2 millennia earlier by immersing herself in a magic flame; she presses the expedition leader now to immerse himself as well.

This character was supposedly inspired by the Balobedu Rain Queen Masalanabo Modjadji. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Former Rain Queen Makobo Modjadji The Modjadji or Rain Queen is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, the people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. ...

The title is short for "She Who Must Be Obeyed", a translation of the Arabic honorific used for Ayesha by the Amahagger, a tribe whom she has enslaved. (The phrase acquired additional significance in British popular culture as the name by which John Mortimer's character Horace Rumpole refers to his wife.) Sir John Clifford Mortimer QC(born 21 April 1923) is an English barrister turned prolific writer and dramatist. ... Rumpole of the Bailey is a television series created and written by British writer John Mortimer, QC and starring Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients. ...

In the original novel, Ayesha is to great extent selfish and amoral, caring very little for the feelings or even the lives of others so long as she gets what she wants. However, it is evident that, in the course of writing the novel, Haggard moved away from a purer conception of feminine evil. Indeed, one sees the process of transition fossilized in this sentence from the chapter entitled “Ayesha Unveils”:

I have heard of the beauty of celestial beings, now I saw it; only this beauty, with all its awful loveliness and purity, was evil — at least, at the time, it struck me as evil.

In sequel Ayesha (1905) and in prequels She and Allan (1921) and Wisdom's Daughter (1923), Haggard attempted to vindicate her character, and she comes more to resemble the elder Irene of George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie. 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... George MacDonald (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. ... The Princess and the Goblin is a childrens fantasy novel by George MacDonald. ...

She has been adapted to film at least nine times (as La Colonne de feu in 1899 and as She in 1908, 1911, 1916, 1917, 1925, 1935, 1965, and 2001, with a dubious further claimant by that title in 1982). The 1925 silent version, starring Betty Blythe, was produced with the active participation of Haggard. The 1935 black and white version, starring Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott and Nigel Bruce, is set in the Arctic rather than in Africa, and depicts its ancient civilization in an Art Deco style, with music by Max Steiner, and with convincing (for the time) scenes of destruction. It lost a great deal of money and ended Gahagan's film career. Some critics, nonetheless, say that this version is artistically superior to the 1965 Hammer Horror color version, set in Africa, which starred Ursula Andress as Ayesha and John Richardson as her reincarnated love, with Peter Cushing and Bernard Cribbins as other members of the expedition. This version was followed by a 1968 sequel The Vengeance of She (alternately “The Return of She” or “Ayesha: The Return of She”), which bears little resemblance to Haggard's work, and was novelized by Peter Tremayne (as The Vengeance of She). 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 - The Royal Army Medical Corps first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: help If you disagree with its speedy deletion, please explain why on its talk page or at Wikipedia:Speedy deletions. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Helen Gahagan in the 1920s Helen Gahagan (25 November 1900 - 28 June 1980) was a United States actress and (under the name Helen Gahagan Douglas) a politician of Scottish descent. ... Randolph Scott (left) with Cary Grant George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987), generally known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. ... William Nigel Bruce (September 4, 1895 – October 8, 1953), usually credited as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor, best known as Dr. Watson in a series of films and radio starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. ... Asheville City Hall. ... Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (Born May 10, 1888 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; Died December 28, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an Austrian-American composer of music for films. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Hammer horror refers to a series of gothic horror films produced from the late 1950s until the 1970s by the British film production company Hammer Film Productions Ltd. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... John Richardson (b. ... Peter Cushing OBE Cushing (left) in the TV release of Nineteen Eighty-Four in the winter of 1954 on BBC Television. ... Bernard Cribbins (born December 29, 1928) is a British character actor and musical comedian. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

In addition to Tremayne's book, there are at least two other alternate tales of Ayesha. The first being King of Kor or She's Promise Kept, a Continuation of the Great Story of She (1903) by Sidney J. Marshall. The second being Journey to the Flame (1985:11/01) by Richard Monaco. Further, She was rewritten as H. Rider Haggard's She [Retold] (1949) by Don Ward for Dell. 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

Haggard's She was lampooned by four works in 1887: 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ...

• He by Andrew Lang and Walter Herries Pollock
• He, A Companion to She, Being a History of the Adventures of J. Theodosius Aristophano on the Island of Rapa Nui in Search of His Immortal Ancestor by John de Morgan
• He (“by the Author of It, King Solomon's Wives, Bess, Much Darker Days, Mr. Mortons Subtler and Other Romances”) by an unknown author
• It, A Wild, Weird History of Marvelous, Miraculous, Phantasmagorial Adventures in Search of He, She, and Jess, and Leading to the Finding of It; A Haggard Conclusion by an unknown author

(These were collected as They (1978) by Robert Reginald and Douglas Menuille.) For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball player). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

In 1887, Window Curtains (1880) by Timothy Shay Arthur, an otherwise unrelated tale of embezzlement, was reissued as “Me” Or the Story of the Window Curtains – A Companion to “She”, and falsely attributed to Haggard. 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Timothy Shay Arthur (6 Jun 1809 – 6 March 1885) was a member of the Temperance Movement; his book Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There (1854), which was brought to the stage as The Drunkard, helped demonized alcohol in the eyes of the American public. ...

External link

• Free eBook She at Project Gutenberg