Before it goes to the library

One of my Christmas gifts this year was SHE AND ALLAN, a late-life novel by the classic fantasy-adventure writer, H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1921.

The problem (and I only confide this because I am confident that the friend who gifted this volume to me doesn't read blogs!), is that I no longer read this sort of book. There was a time in my life when I would have found it delightful. Haggard has a wonderfully vigorous way of telling a story and his imagination stands up in comparison with Tolkien's. Haggard's imagination didn't lead him to world-creation on the Tolkienesque level -- his stories were set in Africa amidst the scrambling of rival empires, and in one classic case he set a tale in Tibet -- but it did lead him to marvels. His character, Allan Quartermain, became the inspiration for Spielberg's "Indiana Jones," and Allan is of course one of the two title characters of this novel, which presumably brings Allan together with the mysterious Queen Ayesha, known chiefly by the titular pronoun. At any rate, for me Haggard represents a spent phase. Not unlike watching Indiana Jones movies. I look back on it fondly, but it is still a looking back.

The destiny of this book: I will make a gift of it to a library or used book store, and hope that someone else discovers and enjoys it.

If anyone reading this blog entry thinks that a horrid idea and wants to rescue this book, in the manner that Quartermain might rescue a damsel in distress, [and no, "She" was never a d-in-d!) placing SHE AND ALLAN comfortably in the splendor of your private library, let me know. I'll hang on to it for a couple of months.

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