A surprising number of
Victorian adventure novelists spent time on
ostrich farms in the
Transvaal. H. Rider Haggard is a case in point.
Haggard was born in
England in
1856 and died in
1925. In
1875, after having failed the
Army entrance exam, he went to
Natal as a secretary (which did not then have quite the same connotations as now) to Sir
Henry Bulwer, governor of the
colony. By
1878, Haggard was Master and
Registrar of the
High Court of the
Transvaal.
In the
Transvaal, Haggard came to know and respect the
Zulu people. For this or some other reason, the
African characters in his
novels (
Umslopogaas,
Umbopa, et al.) were more human, fleshed-out, and worthy of respect than was common among
English novelists of the time. On the other hand, he was a friend of
Rudyard Kipling in later years, and to the end of his life was firmly convinced that
English imperialism was a good idea. So don't go drawing too many facile conclusions;
people are complicated.
In time, Haggard came to own an
ostrich farm in the
Transvaal, which he left when the
Transvaal was
ceded to
Holland. After finally returning to
England for good late in life, he sat on a number of Royal Commissions regarding
agriculture,
colonial migration, etc.
Haggard wrote
King Solomon's Mines in
1885, having written two failed
novels earlier. He bet his brother he could write a better
novel than
Treasure Island, and won the bet as far as I'm concerned.
King Solomon's Mines is not a deep or profound novel. It's an
episodic adventure story about
English explorers penetrating
deep into the heart of darkest Africa and finding a lost
civilization. It's heaps of fun, and it introduces Haggard's character
Allan Quatermain.
She followed in
1887.
She is an
episodic adventure story about
English explorers penetrating
deep into the heart of darkest Africa and finding a
completely different lost
civilization. It's heaps more fun. Nothing significant is recycled from one to the other. The broad outlines are the same, but never mind that: There's only so many plots on this Earth anyway. Read them both; they're as good as that stuff can get in the hands of a gleeful and inventive author.
There followed dozens more.
Ayesha, the undying "
She Who Must Be Obeyed" of
She -- who dissolved dramatically into nothingness at the end of that novel -- returns, of course, in
1905 (
Ayesha: The Return of She) and
1921 (
She and Allan).
Allan Quatermain returns here and there. The interior of
Africa was
hip-deep in lost civilizations back then.
Haggard wrote dozens of books, both
fiction and non-
fiction, the latter on gripping subjects like
Rural Denmark (
1911).
H. Rider Haggard died in
1925, and immediately deliquesced into a pile of dust whence his shrieking spirit fled into the bowels of the
Earth, pursued by a host of demons, lions, and
humongous howling crabs. It was a fitting end.