Henry Rider Haggard - a short biography and bibliography of this KwaZulu-Natal author.
Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856 - 1925), born in
Bradenham, Norfolk, England, was a Victorian writer of
adventure novels set in
locations considered exotic by readers in his native
England.
Haggard had some firsthand experience of these locations,
thanks to his
extensive travels. He first travelled to Natal in 1875, as
secretary to the
colonial Governor of Natal, Sir Henry Bulwer. His mentor,
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, then
Secretary for Native Affairs, let Haggard accompany him on
trips
throughout Natal. In 1878, Sir Henry Haggard became
Registrar of the High Court in the
Transvaal. During his time in South Africa
he was exposed to the Zulu culture, and is said to have
had an affair with an
African woman. However, he returned to England to
find a wife, bringing Louisa Margitson back to Africa with
him as a
bride. The couple settled on a farm outside Newcastle
where their first child,
Jack, was born. British defeat at Majuba in 1881 led to
the young family's return
to England.
While his novels contain many of the strong preconceptions
common to the culture
of British colonialism, they are unusual for the degree of
sympathy with which
he often treats the native populations. Africans often
serve heroic roles in his
novels, though the protagonists are typically European.
His
writings even deal with cross-racial romance, usually a
taboo subject at the time.
He is most famous as the author of the best-selling novel
King Solomon's Mines (1885), as well as many others
such as She, Allan Quatermain,
and the Nada the Lily.
Best sellers in their time, Haggard's African romances
captured an image of
Africa which resonated with an imperial audience.
Some
of his characters have had a notable impact on early-
twentieth-century thought. Ayesha, the female protagonist
of She, was even cited by both Sigmund Freud in
The Interpretation of Dreams and by Carl Jung as a
female prototype.
Haggard visited South Africa twice more: as part of the
Dominion Royal
Commission after his knighthood in 1912; and on behalf of
the Royal Colonial
Institute investigating land settlement in 1916. He died
in England in 1925.
Selected WorkFrom King Solomon's Mines (1885)
Behind and over us towered Sheba's snowy breasts, and
below, some five thousand
feet beneath where we stood, lay league on league of the
most lovely champaign
country. Here were dense patches of lofty forest, there a
great river wound its
silvery way. To the left stretched a vast expanse of rich
undulating veldt or
grass land, on which we could just make out countless
herds of game or cattle,
at that distance we could not tell which. This expanse
appeared to be ringed in
by a wall of distant mountains. To the right the country
was more or less
mountainous, that is, solitary hills stood up from its
level, with stretches of
cultivated lands between, amongst which we could
distinctly see groups of
dome-shaped huts. The landscape lay before us like a map,
in which rivers flashed
like silver snakes, and Alp-like peaks crowned with wildly
twisted snow wreaths
rose in solemn grandeur, whilst over all was the glad
sunlight and the wide
breath of Nature's happy life.
Two curious things struck us as we gazed. First, that the
country before us
must lie at least five thousand feet higher than the
desert we had crossed; and,
secondly, that all the rivers flowed from south to north.
As we had painful
reason to know, there was no water at all on the southern
side of the vast range
on which we stood, but on the northern side were many
streams, most of which
appeared to unite with the great river we could trace
winding away farther than
we could follow it.
We sat down for a while and gazed in silence at this
wonderful view. Presently
Sir Henry spoke.
'Isn't there something on the map about Solomon's
Great Road?' he said.
I nodded, my eyes still looking out over the far
country.
'Well, look; there it is!' and he pointed a
little to our right.
Bibliography1884. Dawn
1884. The Witch's Head
1885. King Solomon's Mines
1886. She
1887. Jess
1887. Allan Quatermain
1888. Maiwa's Revenge.
1889. Cleopatra.
1889. Allan's wife and other tales
1892. Nada the lily
1894. The People of the Mist
1896. The Wizard
1899. A Farmer's Year
1899. Swallow: a tale of the Great Trek
1900. Black Heart and White Heart and Other
Stories
1900. The Last Boer War
1902. Rural
1905. Ayesha: The Return of She
1905. A Gardener's Year
1906. Benita
1908. The Ghost Kings
1910. Queen
1912. Marie
1913. Child of storm
1916. The Ivory Child
1917. Finished
1917. Elissa: the Doom of Zimbabwe
1920. The Ancient Allan.
1920. Benita: an African romance.
1921. She and Allan
1923. Wisdom's Daughter
1923. Heu-Heu or the Monster
1926. The days of my life: an autobiography. (2
vol.)
1980. The Private Diaries of Sir Henry Rider
Haggard 1914-1925 (ed. D.S.
Higgins).
2000. Diary of an African Journey: the return of
Rider Haggard (ed.
Stephen Coan).
For more information please visit
KZN Literary
Tourism
- Mkhuze -
- Index -
|
|
