History Literature / She

* JungleOpera

* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Ayesha's quarters are located within the catacombs of Kôr, a sophisticated ancient civilization that had already been abandoned when she found it two thousand years ago, and had existed for at least four thousand years before that. Later she leads Leo, Holly, and Job through the ruins of the ancient city of Kôr.

''She'' was Haggard's second big success after ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'', and was followed by a sequel and two prequels, one the story of Ayesha's early life and the other an InevitableCrossover in which the protagonist of ''King Solomon's Mines'' visits the hidden valley. It has been filmed multiple times, including a [[{{Film/She1935}} 1935 movie]] starring Helen Gahagan as Ayesha, and a [[{{Film/She1965}} 1965 Hammer Film Productions movie]] starring Ursula Andress as Ayesha, Creator/PeterCushing as Holly, and Creator/ChristopherLee as Billali (one of the tribesmen who worship She).

* OneHitPolykill: When Holly shoots the woman holding Mahomed during the attack, his heavy bullet goes right though her and hits Mahomed. She dies instantly and he a few moments after.

* SpellMyNameWithABlank: Holly is a fellow of ---- College, Cambridge.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Due to YearX being involved, the extent of our knowledge is that the story is set during the 1800's.

* MightyWhitey: She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, immortal ruler of a primitive African tribe, is white (despite being an Arab), and the book implies that white people made up the oldest civilizations (a [[ScienceMarchesOn then-current theory). Ayesha has nothing but contempt for her subjects.

* BeingEvilSucks: Especially when it means spending two thousand years living in cave and queening it over cannibals while you wait for your true love to reincarnate.

* CompleteImmortality: Holly speculates that She must be invulnerable as well as ageless to have survived over two millenia and She later confirms this.

* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: When the protagonists first meet the followers of ''she-who-must-be-obeyed'', they speak a language described as "some dialect into which Arabic entered very largely." The English translation of this dialect is rendered in an Elizabethan style, e.g. "art thou awake, stranger?"
* GeniusBruiser: Horace Holly is a Cambridge don who can also crush two cannibals to death in his arms.

* GoldDigger: Poor ugly Holly once had a girlfriend, but when an inheritance he was anticipating doesn't come through, she dumps him.

* GreedyJew: Holly gives She a little update of the last two thousand years or so of Western civilization, which includes an unpleasant passage blaming Jews for killing Jesus. She then describes Jews as "greedy of gain" and "greedy of aught that brought them wealth and power", which is pretty much pot calling the kettle names.

* MightyWhitey: She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, immortal ruler of a primitive African tribe, is white (despite being an Arab), and the book implies that white people made up the oldest civilizations. Ayesha has nothing but contempt for her subjects.

* RealMenLoveJesus: Leo refuses to give up his religious convictions. He's willing to tolerate Ayesha's mysticism and personality cult but refuses to take part in it himself. "I don't understand your religion, but I understand my own. I will not take part in what I believe to be idolatary."

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Both Leo and Holly have their doubts about Immortality but if that's the price of staying with She they'll accept it - reluctantly.

* MercyKill: Holly shoots Mahomed as the Armahagger are about to force his head into a red-hot iron pot. He was aiming for the woman holding him, but it is treated as a merciful act that spared Mahomed a truly horrible death.
* MightyWhitey: She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, immortal ruler of a primitive African tribe, is white (despite being an Egyptian), and the book implies that white people made up the oldest civilizations. Ayesha has nothing but contempt for her subjects.

''She'' is an adventure novel by Creator/HRiderHaggard, first published in serial form in 1886. Cambridge don Horace Holly and his handsome ward Leo Vincey are guided by a Vincey heirloom to a lost African kingdom ruled by the immortal queen Ayesha, whose subjects call her "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed". Ayesha believes Vincey to be the reincarnation of a man she loved and lost centuries ago, and becomes vengeful when he becomes romantically attached to a local girl, Ustane.

* OneHitPolykill: When Holly shoots the woman holding Mahomed during the attack, his heavy bullet goes right though her and hits Mahomed. SHe dies instantly and he a few moments after.

* SequelHook: The book ends with Holly anticipating that the queen for whom Kallikrates forsook Ayesha 2000 years ago will play some part in the story.

* MercyKill: Holly shoots Mahomed as the Armahagger are about to force his head into a red-hot iron pot. He was aiming for the tribesmen, but it is treated as a merciful act that spared Mahomed a truly horrible death.

-->''They were of a magnificent build, few of them being under six feet in height, and yellowish in colour. Generally their appearance had a good deal in common with that of the East African Somali, only their hair was not frizzed up, but hung in thick black locks upon their shoulders. Their features were aquiline, and in many cases exceedingly handsome, the teeth being especially regular and beautiful.''

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The Amahagger murder tresspassers by shoving red-hot clay pots over their heads.
* DarkestAfrica

** "Kallikrates" combines the Greek words for "beautiful" and "strong".

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: According to Ayesha, her beauty drives men mad. Like She cares.

''She'' was Haggard's second big success after ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'', and was followed by a sequel and two prequels, one the story of Ayesha's early life and the other an InevitableCrossover in which the protagonist of ''King Solomon's Mines'' visits the hidden valley. It has been filmed multiple times, including a [[{{Film/She1965}} 1965 Hammer Film Productions movie]] starring Ursula Andress as Ayesha, Creator/PeterCushing as Holly, and Creator/ChristopherLee as Billali (one of the tribesmen who worship She).

!!Adaptations with their own pages include:

* ''Film/{{She 1965}}''

!!Other adaptations provide examples of:

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Horace Holly is described as being hopelessly ugly, even ape-like in appearance. He's never that bad in the films (in the 1935 film, for instance, he's played by Nigel Bruce).
* MysteriousAntarctica: The 1935 film adaptation changes the setting from Africa to the Arctic.
* SettingUpdate: In the 1935 film, the Arctic.

** Leo = lion. Leo's last name, Vincey, is a corruption of the Latin for "avenger".
** Holly = low but tough scrub tree.

* RapidAging: The ultimate fate of She.

* LockedIntoStrangeness: The shock of seeing She age 2000 years in a minute or two causes Leo's hair to instantly go white, though there are hints that it will eventually regain its color.

* ExactWords: The tribesmen who try to kill Mahomed defend themselves from She's wrath, saying that her orders were not to harm the ''white'' travelers. But since they immediately turned on the other three anyway, it doesn't work.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Leo's father is in the end stages of tuberculosis when he gets Holly to promise to be Leo's guardian. Symptoms include persistent coughing fits, one of which results in BloodFromTheMouth.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Ayesha has always wanted it '''ALL''', beauty, power and transcendent knowledge, as she makes clear in ''Wisdom's Daughter''.

** Kallikrates' body may have been this to Ayesha, since she keeps it whole and even sleeps in its tomb until she sees Leo.

* TragicKeepsake: Both Leo and Holly take a lock from Ayesha's hair before they leave. Kallikrates' body may have been this to Ayesha, since she keeps it whole and even sleeps in its tomb until she sees Leo.

* TragicKeepsake: Both Leo and Holly take a lock from Ayesha's hair before they leave.

''She'' was Haggard's second big success after ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'', and was followed by a sequel and two prequels, one the story of Ayesha's early life and the other an InevitableCrossover in which the protagonist of ''King Solomon's Mines'' visits the hidden valley. It has been filmed multiple times, including a 1965 [[Film/HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]] movie starring Ursula Andress as Ayesha, Creator/PeterCushing as Holly, and Creator/ChristopherLee as Billali (one of the tribesmen who worship She).

!!Various adaptations of the novel provide examples of:

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Horace Holly is described as being hopelessly ugly, even ape-like in appearance. He's never that bad in the films (in which he's been played by Nigel Bruce and Creator/PeterCushing, among others).
* AdaptationalVillainy: Bilali, a leader of the Amahaggers who in the novel is a friend and helper to Holly and Leo, is evil in the 1965 film, kidnapping Leo on Ayesha's orders and trying to kill Leo in order to gain immortality in the fire.
* BarBrawl: Holly and Job get into one in the 1965 film, which prevents them from noticing that Leo has been lured off to meet She.
* BedlahBabe: The opening scene of the 1965 film finds Leo, Holly, and Job in a Cairo bar taking in some [[BellyDancer Belly Dancers]].
* ContrivedCoincidence: Created in the 1965 film by the PragmaticAdaptation. In the novel, it was logical enough for Leo's father to leave the boy with his old friend who was a professor of antiquities. In the movie, the fact that Leo's army buddy Holly just happens to be a professor of antiquities comes in pretty handy when Leo gets an invite to find a lost world.
* CrossingTheDesert: The first part of Leo, Holly, and Job's trek to the lost city in the 1965 film. Made more difficult by tribesmen who steal their camels and water.
* DeathByAdaptation: Bilali, as a result of his AdaptationalVillainy.
* DownerEnding: The 1965 film. In this version, Leo goes into the flame along with She, unlike the novel where she enters first to show him it's safe. So he's left immortal while She shrivels up and dies. The film ends with Leo saying that he's going to wait for who knows how long (millenia?) for the blue flame to come again.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: Bilali wants to become immortal too.
* FanserviceExtra: One of the [[BellyDancer Belly Dancers]] in the Hammer film apparently decided to up the {{Fanservice}} factor by going with pasties over her nipples rather than any kind of bra. (In 1965!)
* HoneyTrap: In the 1965 film, Ustane leads Leo into a kidnapping.
* InTheBack: How Ayesha dispatches Bilali while he is struggling with Leo.
* LoveAtFirstSight: In the 1965 film, Ustane falls in love with Leo immediately--while leading him into a kidnapping--and tries to warn him off at the last second.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The 1965 film dumps all of the first part of the novel--Leo's dying father turns five-year-old Leo over to Holly, Holly raises Leo to adulthood, Leo and Holly later examine the ring and potsherd left behind by Leo's father, Leo and Holly set off for Africa. In this version Leo and Holly are war buddies who find themselves in Cairo in 1918 after the Armistice. Bilali and Ustane kidnap Leo on behalf of She, who pops up fifteen minutes in, much earlier than her first appearance in the book. And then it's She who gives Leo the ring and the map and sends Leo off on his quest.
* SettingUpdate: In the 1935 film, the Arctic. The 1965 film keeps the Africa locale but moves the time frame up from latter-19th century to 1918.

* OppositesAttract: She, who values her high intelligence as much as her beauty, loves Leo, who is handsome but not very bright. Lampshaded by Haggard, who offers the speculation that perhaps Leo had hidden depths which She could perceive and intended to help him develop.

* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: Leo's father passes his son and the family revenge quest onto Holly; Holly in turn passes his manuscript to Haggard after a chance meeting.