Books, Arts & Manners: Rider of the Lost Empire

Rider Haggard and the Lost Empire: A Biography, by Tom Pocock (Trafalgar Square, 263 pp., $45)

NADA THE LILY begat The Jungle Book, which begat Tarzan of the Apes; each author, that is, was prompted by an earlier tale of a hero growing up among savage beasts. The Jungle Book and Tarzan are familiar enough still, but does anybody now read Nada the Lily, a richly exciting novel about Chaka and the murderous power struggles of Zululand? (I know Digby Anderson does. He told us so in these pages recently. But he is a returned prodigal.) How many of Rider Haggard’s other books are even familiar as names? King Solomon’s Mines, I suppose (if only because the latest, extremely bad, film version featured the subsequently celebrated Miss Sharon Stone), and She (personified most recently by Ursula Andress), perhaps Allan Quatermain; not much else.

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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Rider Haggard and the Lost Empire: A Biography, by Tom Pocock (Trafalgar Square, 263 pp., $45)

NADA THE LILY begat The Jungle Book, which begat Tarzan of the Apes; each author, that is, was prompted by an earlier tale of a hero growing up among savage beasts. The Jungle Book and Tarzan are familiar enough still, but does anybody now read Nada the Lily, a richly exciting novel about Chaka and the murderous power struggles of Zululand? (I know Digby Anderson does. He told us so in these pages recently. But he is a returned prodigal.) How many of Rider Haggard’s other books are even familiar as names? King Solomon’s Mines, I suppose (if only because the latest, extremely bad, film version featured the subsequently celebrated Miss Sharon Stone), and She (personified most recently by Ursula Andress), perhaps Allan Quatermain; not much else.