One of the most popular authors of the late nineteenth century, Henry Rider Haggard entered British society at Wood Farm, West Bradenham Hall, Norfolk, England, on June 22, 1856. He was the eighth of ten children born to William and Ella Haggard. William Haggard was a successful and prosperous lawyer, while his wife Ella believed herself to be a poet, although none of his poetry was published.
As he progressed through childhood, Henry Rider disappointed his father, who placed little faith in his son’s intellectual abilities. In fact, William Haggard believed that his son was slow. Therefore, unlike his brothers, who attended exclusive private English preparatory schools, Henry was sent to Ipswich Grammar School and received additional tutoring at home. Years later, in 1875, Henry failed his army entrance exam, not only embarrassing his family but meeting his father’s assessment of his son’s abilities. Because of his connections, William Haggard found employment for Henry. As a result, Henry would become secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer, the lieutenant governor of Natal, a British colony in Africa.
In Africa Henry Haggard flourished. He joined the staff of the special commissioner, Sir Theophilus Sheptstone. In the company of the commissioner, Henry traveled to the Transvaal, where the Boers, the Zulu and the British army fought for dominance. After the British prevailed and the Transvaal Boer Republic was annexed, Henry was appointed Master and Recorder of the High Court in the Transvaal. An ‘enlightened colonialist’, Henry Rider Haggard perceived the British Empire as a force for good in Africa. He believed that the British Empire liberated oppressed peoples, allowing them the freedom to develop as communities while maintaining their traditions.
Haggard respected and admired the indigenous peoples of Africa, especially the Zulu, whom he considered mighty warriors. His observations and experiences in Africa formed the basis of his future literary activities. The exotic settings, the lost worlds, the proud natives and the esoteric and spiritual themes reflected where he had been, what he had done and what he had seen in Africa.
In 1880 Haggard returned to England for a visit. While there, he married Mariana Louisa Margitson, an heiress from Norfolk. When Haggard returned to Africa, his wife accompanied him. Haggard owned an ostrich farm in the Transvaal, where the couple settled. His life in Africa did not last long.
Because in 1881, the British Empire returned the Transvaal to the Dutch. Haggard opposed the formation of the Boer state. He believed that the Boers would impose oppressive rule over the natives, exploiting the land and its population for wealth. However, the British no longer controlled the area. Haggard and his wife sailed for England, where they lived at Ditchingham, Norfolk. Haggard studied law and in 1884 began to practice in London. To alleviate the tedium of his new profession, Haggard began to write. His first book was Cetewayo and their white neighbors, a study of African history of that period. In fact, it was a poorly veiled condemnation of British policy in Africa. The book was not popular and Haggard was criticized for his views.
Haggard’s next literary endeavor was sunrisea novel, which was closely followed by another novel, The head of the witch. Both novels were uninteresting melodramas filled with poorly painted villains, along with hints of things to come: clairvoyance and foresight. Tea witch head it was notable only because the portions were autobiographical. This marked the first time that Haggard had injected scenes from his own life into his writing.
According to legend, the turning point in Haggard’s writing came about because of a bet. One of Haggard’s brothers bet five shillings that Haggard could not write as good a novel as RL Stevenson’s. Treasure Island, which had just been released to great acclaim. Haggard accepted the bet. Six weeks later, Haggard finished King Solomon’s Minesthe first of Allan Quartermain’s novels. King Solomon’s Mines is the story of treasure hunters searching for the source of the biblical king’s fabulous wealth. As the story unfolds, a simple treasure hunt turns into something much more: a spiritual journey through a lost land. Haggard features a race of noble savages, an evil witch doctor, and African animism, all of which influenced later writers, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Hollywood films, such as Tarzan Y Indiana Jones.
King Solomon’s Mines it became an overnight bestseller. Since its initial publication in 1885, the book has never been out of print.
Haggard’s next novel – She – was as popular as King Solomon’s Mines. She he introduced a flame of perpetual youth, hallucinogenic psychic powers, and reincarnation. An adventurer, Leo Vincey travels to Africa to discover the story of a dead ancestor named Kalíkrates, who was an Egyptian priest. After many trials and dangers, Vincey arrives in the Kingdom of Kor, where he meets She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. Her name is Ayesha. And in it, many scholars see a reworking of the Wandering Jew.
At the time, Haggard was rich and famous. He was still residing in Ditchingham, when he wasn’t dictating his next book to his secretary, he was overseeing his farm or traveling the world. Haggard visited most of Europe, along with Egypt, Africa, North America, and South America. It was while Haggard was in Mexico, in 1891, that his only child died in London. Haggard not only grieved inconsolably, but also suffered tremendous guilt, wishing he had been there when the tragic event occurred.
Haggard continued to write, completing as many as three novels a year. Although he is remembered primarily as the author of “adventure” novels, Haggard’s repertoire included other genres. For example, Will of Mr. Meeson It was a psychological novel while Cleopatra It was a historical novel. Eric bright eyesa Nordic saga, along with the wish of the worlda sequel to Homer’s Odyssey, it demonstrated the breadth of Haggard’s interests and talents.
In 1895, Haggard decided to enter the world of politics, running for parliament. He lost. However, because of his recognized expertise in agriculture, sociology, and colonial migration, he received an appointment to the Royal Commission on Dominions. As commissioner, one of his assignments took him to the United States, where he investigated Salvation Army labor camps. When he returned to England, Haggard wrote a lengthy report of his findings. The report went unnoticed. However, due to his literary fame and his extensive travels, Haggard formed and maintained friendships with many political figures. He counted Theodore Roosevelt as a close friend and dedicated one of his books to him, Finishto President Roosevelt.
Since farming was more than a hobby for Haggard, he combined his literary skills with his farming pursuits and produced a number of non-fiction books: The year of a farmerY rural England, detailing his observations from his travels in the region. Your book The poor and the earth exhibited at The Raw Life of Farmers in England and Wales. In rural Denmark and its lessonsHaggard discussed the benefits of cooperative farms and provided a cooperative template for such an experiment in England.
For his efforts as a royal commissioner, as well as focusing his attention on the socioeconomic conditions of farmers, Haggard was knighted in 1912. And seven years later, in 1919, he was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire.
Many of Haggard’s novels exude a psychological aura that demands analysis, especially his female characters. On the surface, the women in Haggard’s stories appear to be at odds with their author, who was a product of Victorian England. The superiority of European culture, particularly English culture, had been instilled in Haggard by his family and his society. He had been raised Christian by Christian parents in a Christian nation. However, these cultural and religious values were not reflected in Haggard’s novels. Instead, Haggard presented a pre-Christian pagan consciousness, a consciousness that was very close to African animism, towards which Haggard was sympathetic.
One of Haggard’s readers was Carl Jung, who claimed that the novel She It was the perfect example of the Anima/Animus relationship. Jung believed that each person contained male and female components. Separated from gender, these components were psychological and biological energies that directed the development of each individual toward integration, a healthy whole. According to Jung, Queen Ayesha represented the Anima. She was a guide and mediator of the hidden and undiscovered inner world. Thus, Haggard’s protagonists were not merely searching for physical treasures but were simultaneously engaged in a spiritual quest. Haggard’s alter ego was Allan Quatermain, who became the Ego or Animus in King Solomon’s Mines. In his next novel, She, Haggard introduced Queen Ayesha, who became the Anima. The delicate relationship between Animus and Anima provided the driving force for the novels.
Another of Haggard’s readers, Madame Blavatsky, claimed that Queen Ayesha embodied the first tenet of Theosophical doctrine, which stated that there was a single, underlying, and inseparable Truth that had no cause or beginning, and was therefore unknowable and indescribable. According to Blavatsky, it was Beness instead of Being. However, this Beness understood in its aspect the idea of absolute Abstract Movement, which encompassed the quality of Change.
In other words, Queen Ayesha represented life, consciousness, and spirit. Each of these three energies was dynamic and evolving. Haggard took the two concepts, dynamism and evolution, and presented them in the reincarnated queen Ayesha. “My empire is of the imagination,” Ella says. When the adventurers try to teach her Christian doctrine, she shrugs it off and says, “Religions come and religions pass, and civilizations come and pass, and nothing endures but the world and human nature.”
Haggard’s metaphysical themes influenced a number of other writers. Edgar Rice Burroughs borrowed the lost world concept for his John Carter novels, set on the red planet Mars. And Haggard’s ideas about lost tribes, the graveyard of elephants, and characters endowed with almost supernatural powers appeared in Burrough’s Tarzan novels. Another author who leaned heavily on Haggard was HP Lovecraft in his Cthulhu Mythos stories. Joseph Conrad read Haggard, because it was Haggard who first referred to “Darkest Africa”. Conrad picked up the mysterious concept hinted at in the term “darker”, using it as a main theme in his heart of darkness.
Haggard’s Anima novels are: King Solomon’s Mines
She
Ayesha, her return
daughter of wisdom
she and allan
the treasure of the lake
Haggard wrote more than 40 novels, most of which are still in print. The most popular are the Anima novels and the 14 volumes that make up the Allan Quatermain series.
Haggard’s belief in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy impugned his reputation and belied his seemingly tolerant attitude toward foreign cultures. He was a complex man, extremely intellectual but at the same time unpredictable and very sensual. Haggard, although married to Mariana Margitson, had a lifelong mistress, who lived nearby. Except for the fact that she existed, Haggard’s mistress was still as mysterious as Queen Ayesha.
Henry Rider Haggard died in a London nursing home on May 14, 1925. He was cremated and his ashes interred in a church in Ditchingham. Haggard wrote his autobiography in two volumes. Entitled the days of my lifeit was published posthumously in 1926. Haggard’s daughter, L. R. Haggard, published her memoir of her father in 1951. The memoir is entitled The layer that I left.
