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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Listings for Author:  

Rider Haggard

  

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Rider Haggard : She

'Frances Stevenson, born in 1888, recollected [in The years that Are Past, 1967] that she "read greedily [pre-1914] ... Even before my teens my reading entered upon the romantic stage. I read Quo Vadis ... Rider Haggard's She ... Robert Ellesmere ..."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Stevenson      Print: Book

  

H. Rider Haggard : She

"'More even than with the contemptible inexpressiveness of the whole thing,' Henry James wrote after reading She ... 'I am struck with the beastly bloodiness of it ...'"

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James      Print: Book

  

Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Thomas Hardy, to whom [Rider] Haggard sent his Norse adventure "Eric Brighteyes" (1891), was roused by "a wild illustration" to start reading a chapter nearer the end than the beginning ...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Hardy      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : [African stories]

'Percy Wall described his [colliery] institute as a "blatantly utilitarian" building with a "square cemented front" and a "drab, poorly lit" reading room, but it offered a wonderful escape from a dull Welsh village: "I could view the future through the words of H.G. Wells, participate in the elucidation of mysteries with Sherlock Holmes,... or penetrate darkest Africa with Rider Haggard as my guide. I could laugh at the comic frustrations of coaster seaman or bargee at the call of W.A. Jacobs. What a gloriously rich age it was for the storyteller!... When the stories palled there was always the illustrated weeklies with their pictures of people and conditions remote from my personal experience... I could laugh with Punch or Truth, although some of the humour was much too subtle for my limited education. Above all I could study the Review of Reviews and learn therein the complexities of foreign affairs.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Wall      Print: Book

  

H. Rider Haggard : [unknown]

'It is equally possible for the same reader to adopt different frames for the same story, relishing it on one level while seeing through the claptrap on another. In his youth Aneurin Bevan enjoyed the Magnet and Gem surreptitiously (his father forbade them) and devoured H. Rider Haggard at the Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library. But during the 'Phoney War' he lambasted the government's stupidly optimistic predictions in precisely the same terms: "Immediately on the outbreak of war, England was given over to the mental level of the Boys' Own Paper and the Magnet..." In 1944 Bevan freely admitted that "William le Queux, John Buchan and Phillips Oppenheim have always been favourites of ours in our off-moments. Part of their charm lies in their juvenile attitude".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Aneurin Bevan      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'Growing up in Lyndhurst after the First World War, R.L. Wild regularly read aloud to his marginally literate grandmother and his completely illiterate grandfather - and it was his grandparents who selected the books... "I shall never understand how this choice was made. Until I started reading to them they had no more knowledge of English literature than a Malay Aborigine... I suppose it was their very lack of knowledge that made the choice, from "Quo Vadis" at eight, Rider Haggard's "She" at nine. By the time I was twelve they had come to know, intimately, a list of authors ranging from Shakespeare to D.H. Lawrence. All was grist to the mill (including Elinor Glyn). The classics, poetry, essays, belles lettres. We took them all in MY stride. At times we stumbled on gems that guided us to further riches. I well remember the Saturday night they brought home "The Essays of Elia". For months afterwards we used it as our roadmap...".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: R.L. Wild      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'W.J. Brown was introduced to literature by "Robinson Crusoe", "She", "The Last of the Mohicans", and "Around the World in Eighty Days", and he never moved far beyond that level. He tried "The Idiot" and "The Brothers Karamazov", but found them too depressing, perhaps because his life was anything but Dostoevskian'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: William John Brown      Print: Book

  

H. Rider Haggard : King Solomon's Mines

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 2 August 1886: "Since I saw you [on Sunday 1 August] I have finished Solomon and read half of 'She' ... It isn't nice that anything so vulgarly brutal should be the thing that succeeds most with the English of today [goes on to complain further of violence and racism in this novel]."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James      Print: Book

  

H. Rider Haggard : She

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson, 2 August 1886: "Since I saw you [on Sunday 1 August] I have finished Solomon and read half of 'She' ... It isn't nice that anything so vulgarly brutal should be the thing that succeeds most with the English of today [goes on to complain further of violence and racism in this novel]."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : [unknown]

'Kipling had now been supplemented with Henty, Ballantyne, Rider Haggard and John Buchan, all with their own tales of imperial derring-do to tell theimpressionable young colonial'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Lawrence Durrell      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'In a BBC talk of 1947 about the book that had most influenced her early years, she chose to talk about Rider Haggard's "She"; she came upon it at the age of twelve, "when I was finding the world too small". The descriptions of Kor, the great derelict city, caught her imagination. She "saw" Kor before she ever saw London: "Inevitably, the Thames Embankment was a disappointment".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Bowen      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Ayesha, the Return of She

'Friday. Lovely day. Walked about[.] No letters. Shown sketches by Russian ... Read Aysha [sic] by Rider Haggard. Ev Bridge. Did not play well. Gym gets on well.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: William Thomas      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Red Eve

'Thurs. Nil by mail. Read Red Eve by Ryder Haggard.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: William Thomas      Print: Book

  

H. Rider Haggard : The Pearl Maiden

'Read Pearl Maiden.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Vera Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : King Solomon's Mines

'Babs better kept him quiet in bed all day & read King Solomon's Mines to him & Dick.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : King Solomon's Mines

'Kept Dick in bed all day. Read "King Solomon's Mines" to him & worked with Tub at the Dutch garden.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'Read "She" to Roley after tea.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : She

'Roley back from school about 4. Told him to come early, as I was afraid of his being out late with his chill. Read "She" to him.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Roley back for lunch, first swimming lesson this term. Read him Eric Brighteyes after lunch, then he went up to swimming.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Went through the books, sat on deckchairs and worked at Evie's undie set. Indications of baby coming after lunch. Nurse went for a walk. I sat on lawn & worked. Tea in garden, wrote to Tottie & postcard to Harrods, then read Eric Brighteyes to Babs till Tub came home, while nurses prepared room.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Kept Babs at home as I was afraid he'd be too tired in the morning for the early start. He watched Baby have her bath, then had his hair cut & bought cakes while Nurses washed me. Read "Eric Brighteyes" to him till D.R came.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Very hot day. Tub played tennis with the Malonys in the afternoon. I read Eric Brighteyes to Babs. Mrs Salter came to see me about 7 oclock.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

Henry Rider Haggard : Eric Brighteyes

'Very hot again, but more breeze. Washed my hair after my bath and dried it in the garden. Roley home for lunch. Finished "Eric Brighteyes" to him in the garden after lunch.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Verena Pennefather      Print: Book

  

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