"As I grow older, I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me."
Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE (22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925), English writer of adventure stories, often set in Africa (he had spent seven years in South Africa as a young man).
His two best-known novels are King Solomon's Mines, in which a group of Englishmen, guided by the hunter Allan Quatermain, go in search of the eponymous treasure chamber; and She, in which Leo Vincey and Horace Holly 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". Both have numerous prequels and sequels — including (perhaps inevitably) She and Allan, which is a prequel to both — and both have been filmed multiple times.
Works by H. Rider Haggard with their own trope page include:
- King Solomon's Mines and sequels
- She and sequels
H. Rider Haggard's other works include examples of:
- Couldn't Find a Pen: In Mr Meesons Will, a dying millionaire trapped on a desert island has his will tattooed on the back of a fellow castaway.
- Darkest Africa
- Death of the Hypotenuse: In Mary Of Marion Isle
- Embarrassing Tattoo: The heroine of Mr Meeson's Will has the eponymous will tattooed on her back after she and Meeson are stranded on a desert island with no writing materials. At the end of the novel, her new husband comments on what an immense sacrifice this was for a young Victorian lady, as it meant she could never be presented at court, where she would have to wear an off-the-shoulder gown.
- Human Notepad: The heroine of Mr Meeson's Will has the eponymous will tattooed on her back after she and Meeson are stranded on a desert island with no writing materials.
- Jungle Opera
- Lost World: Haggard was one of the trope makers.
- Mighty Whitey: In Montezumas Daughter, an Englishman leads Mexican natives in their struggle against Spanish colonizers.
- Raised by Wolves: Galazi the Wolf in Nada The Lily claims to have been raised by jackals , and everything we see in the novel bears out this claim. Rudyard Kipling acknowledged Galazi as one his inspirations for creating Mowgli in The Jungle Book.
- Secondary Character Title: Several of Haggard's novels, such as Nada the Lily, are titled after the hero's Love Interest, even if she is not not the main focus of the novel.
- Seductive Mummy: Ma-Mee from Smith And The Pharaohs.
