Love Eternal

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from H. Rider Haggard, 'Love Eternal'.

Although English author H. Rider Haggard is popularly known today as "the father of the lost race novel," such adventure tales of vanished civilizations were scarcely his sole concern. As any reader who has pursued this writer further than his "big 3" (1885's "King Solomon's Mines," 1887's "Allan Quatermain" and 1887's "She") would tell you, Haggard was also very much concerned with the matter of reincarnation and with what we might call "love that survives beyond the grave." These two themes comprise the very heart of "She" and its three sequels (1905's "Ayesha," 1921's "She and Allan" and 1923's "Wisdom's Daughter") and crop up in such disparate works of the author as his very first, "Dawn" (1884), and "Stella Fregelius" (1904). But perhaps the author's most concise statement on these two matters is to be found in his beautifully written but largely forgotten novel simply entitled "Love Eternal." Written in 1916 but not published until April 1918, it is a work that is obviously very close to its author's heart and one that draws largely on his own youthful experiences.

aH. Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform throughout the British Empire. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential.

His novels portray many of the stereotypes associated with colonialism, yet they are unusual for the degree of sympathy with which the native populations are portrayed. Africans often play heroic roles in the novels, although the protagonists are typically European (though not invariably). Notable examples are the heroic Zulu warrior Umslopogaasi and Ignosi, the rightful king of Kukuanaland, in King Solomon's Mines. Having developed an intense mutual friendship with the three Englishmen who help him regain his throne, he accepts their advice and abolishes witch-hunts and arbitrary capital punishment.

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