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H. Rider Haggard

English adventure novelist (1856-1925)

About H. Rider Haggard

The publication of King Solomon's Mines in 1885 shot H. Rider Haggard to instant fame as a writer of English adventure novels, a status confirmed with the publication of She in 1886-87. Haggard's novels were so influential in the adventure genre that to the modern reader some of the elements that were novel and exotic can now seem cliched,

Because his novels are usually set in Africa and many of them feature a white big-game hunter as hero, Haggard is often lumped in with Rudyard Kipling's brand of imperialist fiction. However, Haggard, who had lived in Africa, often offers surprisingly complex and sympathetic portraits of native Africans. His Zulu Trilogy of Marie, Child of Storm, and Finished is a self-conscious attempt to present the nineteenth-century history of the Zulu nation in the way Shakespeare did the history of medieval England, and features intelligent, fully drawn black heroes and villains. His Nada the Lily is considered the first novel by a European to feature only black characters.

H. Rider Haggard Novels Available at Mousehold Words

Marie (1911-12)
6 parts of 15,000-20,000 words each.

Marie is the first volume in Haggard's "Zulu trilogy," which also includes Child of Storm and Finished. The novels tell a story based on the history of the Zulu royal family, which Haggard saw as as dramatic as the European histories fictionalized by Shakespeare. The narrator in all three volumes is Allan Quatermain, the hero of King Solomon's Mines, but occurs before the events described in that novel or its sequel, Allan Quatermain.

The volume edition included a dedication and two short introductory chapters not included in the serial which explained how this episode of the early life of Allan Quatermain came to be published. They are available separately, in RTF format or in HTML format.

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