Henry Rider Haggard(22 June 1856 14 May 1925)By Kateryna BILYK (2014)

Rider Haggards BiographySir Henry Rider Haggard was born in Norfolk, England in 1856. His parents were wealthy landowners with both Jewish and Indian ancestors, a fact which may have contributed to Haggards own more liberal views toward racial and religious differences. Alone among his brothers (Rider was one of eight children), Haggard was not given a private school education. He took up the study of law, but soon dropped it in order to take a secretarial position for the governor of Natal in South Africa. He remained in Africa over five years, an experience which shows in many of his novels set on that so-called Dark Continent.Haggard returned to England and completed his studies, but still could not interest himself in the legal profession. He married into a wealthy Norfolk family and planned to return to South Africa to live as a gentleman farmer, but the increasing chaos of the Zulu rebellion and Boer War made his wife unwilling to settle there.Rather than go into law full time, Haggard began writing. His first work was the three-volume work Dawn, followed by The Witchs Tale, his first novel to take advantage of his experiences in Africa. Then, according to legend, Haggard read Robert Louis Stevensons Treasure Island and bet his brother a shilling he could write a book as good or better. Within a year, Haggard had published King Solomons Mines (1885) and become famous for one of the first lost world novels in the English language.H. Rider Haggard died in a London nursing home at 3 Devonshire Terrace on 14 May 1925. His ashes are buried in Ditchingham church (see the picture on the left). One of Haggard's daughters, L. R. Haggard, wrote a memoir of him, The Cloak that I Left in 1951. Haggard's autobiography The Days of my Life in two volumes was published in 1926.

Literary style and activitiesHaggard's stories and characters reflect some strong preconceptions of British colonialism, and he's been accused of anti-Semitism, but often he is most sympathetic to native Africans and Zulu culture. His exotic adventures with themes of spiritualism and antiquity resonated with his imperial audience. Haggard was to initiate many of the now common themes of the lost civilisation and lost continent genre as per Edgar Rice Burroughs; ancient magic and curses and secret chambers. His protagonists are usually European, though many of his heroes are African, such as Ignosi, the rightful king of Kukuanaland in King Solomon's Mines. Moon of Israel, (1918) about ancient Egypt is dedicated to "Sir Gaston Maspero, Director of the Cairo Museum". In 1919 Haggard was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.With King Solomons Mines, She (1887), and their sequels, Haggard helped usher a new movement in literature away from social dramas and drawing-room romances and toward romantic tales of adventure. Haggard was a complicated man for his day. He held to conventional Victorian ideals and belief in progress(see the illustration on the left), particularly through scientific endeavor, yet he was also able to entertain an interest in primitive religions and mysticism, as well as hold more liberal views of race and of European cultures. This complexity comes out in much of his work, wherein the Imperialist bent of England dominates but cant completely explain or comprehend the workings of the so-called savage peoples they encounter.Haggards Works King Solomons Mines Improbable and fable-like, the story tells of English adventurers who travel to the interior of a remote African country, a vanished empire with legends of lost treasure. Written more than a hundred years ago, has not lost its popularity. The story begins when Allan Quatermain is hired by an English Gentleman, Sir Henry Curtis, to follow the trail of his brother, of whom nothing has been known since he departed in search of the legendary mines. Although the enterprise shows itself a very dangerous one, hunter Quatermain accepts the challenge because of the money involved, which he needs to assist his son. With an old map and a few clues, the main characters begin a voyage that will take them, trough deserts and mountains, to the untamed regions of Africa. As the plot advances, the characters find a lost tribe that receives them as gods because of their white skins and fire arms, unknown to them. Soon a war is unleashed, and only his cunning and marksmanship will keep Allan Quatermain alive.She is Haggards most successful work which tells the remarkable story of Cambridge professor Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey, and their journey to a lost kingdom in the African interior. The journey is triggered by a mysterious package left to Leo by his father, to be opened on his 25th birthday; the package contains an ancient shard of pottery and several documents, suggesting an ancient mystery about the Vincey family. Holly and Leo eventually arrive in eastern Africa where they encounter a primitive race of natives and a mysterious white queen, Ayesha, who reigns as the all-powerful "She" or "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed" and who has a mysterious connection to young Leo. The story expresses numerous racial and evolutionary conceptions of the late Victorians. In the figure of She, the novel notably explored themes of female authority and feminine behavior. It has received praise and criticism alike for its representation of womanhood.Fair Margaret Amazing love story of Margaret and Peter that astonishes readers by human feelings that can face any difficulties and successfully get over it.In the turbulent reign of King Henry VII, Peter Brome finds himself with a soldier's blood on his hands - blood the Spanish ambassador's men demand be repaid. Poor and fatherless, Peter delivered the killing blow in self-defense and because of his helpless love for Margaret - dark-eyed daughter of John Castell, the kindly and wealthy merchant who has overseen his upbringing. Now another pursues fair Margaret -- the powerful Marquis d'Aguilar of Spain, traveling in England upon a secret mission for the Inquisition. More than love hangs in the balance.

VOCABULARY NOTESgovernor endeavor - rebellion savage peoples"- unwilling encounter - nursing home improbable trigger , preconception - , potteryresonate - , womanhoodimperial ambassador chamber , upbringingusher entertain