She - Henry Rider Haggard
"She" stands for "She who must be obeyed", as the local African tribesman call Ayesha - the immortal, extremely powerful and incomparably beautiful queen, whose name they are afraid to speak.
The plot summary from wikipedia:
A Cambridge professor, Horace Holly and his ward, Leo Vincey, travel to Africa, following instructions on a potsherd (the "Sherd of Amenatras") left to Leo by his biological father. (Haggard made a physical copy of the potsherd which is now in the collection of Norwich Castle Museum.) They encounter a white queen, Ayesha, who has made herself immortal by bathing in a pillar of fire, the source of life itself. She becomes the prototypical all-powerful female figure. She is to be both desired and feared. She is a breathtakingly beautiful creature who will not hesitate to kill any one who displeases her or stands in her way. The travelers discover that Ayesha has been waiting for 2000 years for the reincarnation of her lover Kallikrates, whom she had slain in a fit of jealous rage. She believes that Vincey is the reincarnation of Kallikrates. In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the pillar of fire. She wants Leo to bathe in it as she did so that he can become immortal and remain with her forever. His doubts about its safety lead her to step into the flames once more. However, with this second immersion she reverts to her true age and immediately withers and dies. Before dying she tells Vincey, "I die not. I shall come again."
"She" stands for "She who must be obeyed", as the local African tribesman call Ayesha - the immortal, extremely powerful and incomparably beautiful queen, whose name they are afraid to speak.
The plot summary from wikipedia:
A Cambridge professor, Horace Holly and his ward, Leo Vincey, travel to Africa, following instructions on a potsherd (the "Sherd of Amenatras") left to Leo by his biological father. (Haggard made a physical copy of the potsherd which is now in the collection of Norwich Castle Museum.) They encounter a white queen, Ayesha, who has made herself immortal by bathing in a pillar of fire, the source of life itself. She becomes the prototypical all-powerful female figure. She is to be both desired and feared. She is a breathtakingly beautiful creature who will not hesitate to kill any one who displeases her or stands in her way. The travelers discover that Ayesha has been waiting for 2000 years for the reincarnation of her lover Kallikrates, whom she had slain in a fit of jealous rage. She believes that Vincey is the reincarnation of Kallikrates. In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the pillar of fire. She wants Leo to bathe in it as she did so that he can become immortal and remain with her forever. His doubts about its safety lead her to step into the flames once more. However, with this second immersion she reverts to her true age and immediately withers and dies. Before dying she tells Vincey, "I die not. I shall come again."
The book was first published in 1887, more than a century ago. So the style, specially that of the dialogs, becomes tedious. Nevertheless, the story itself is quite captivating. Even though it is primarily a fantasy and an adventure story, it gives an insight into the human nature that one cant help wondering about. The eternal life of the supremely powerful queen is a life of loneliness and yearning. She despises the people whom she rules by force of terror, precisely because of their fear. The explorer Leo starts on a mission to avenge the death of his ancestor on the queen, but ends up enchanted by her beauty. The professor is wise, but still affected. Quite a story of desire and contradiction!
The book belongs to the genre of 'Lost World', not a kind usually favored by me. So there is quite a story behind how I landed up with it. For more than 15 years now, I am more or less a regular on the TOI daily crossword. For a stretch of time, I do it everyday, even looking at the answers next day, and then for a period I give it up altogether. When I was in college, I even used to tear up the crossword from the paper in the morning, to fill it up in the classes. They tend to repeat the clues, so, quite a number of times, I came upon the clue "Rider novel" which had a 3 letter answer; after a while I learnt it was "SHE". This intrigued me a lot ... if the book featured in the crossword so frequently, it must definitely be very famous. So, when I saw it at the book fair last year, and found the description at the back cover interesting, I got a copy for myself.
The book belongs to the genre of 'Lost World', not a kind usually favored by me. So there is quite a story behind how I landed up with it. For more than 15 years now, I am more or less a regular on the TOI daily crossword. For a stretch of time, I do it everyday, even looking at the answers next day, and then for a period I give it up altogether. When I was in college, I even used to tear up the crossword from the paper in the morning, to fill it up in the classes. They tend to repeat the clues, so, quite a number of times, I came upon the clue "Rider novel" which had a 3 letter answer; after a while I learnt it was "SHE". This intrigued me a lot ... if the book featured in the crossword so frequently, it must definitely be very famous. So, when I saw it at the book fair last year, and found the description at the back cover interesting, I got a copy for myself.
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