She by Rider Haggard

[KEV67]

I posted this in Classics because it is Victorian, but it might be science-fiction, fantasy or thriller. It is a bit weird. Three Englishmen follow a river into northern Africa somewhere on account of some centuries old family heirloom. After some fighting and killing they meet a beautiful queen who has been alive for millennia. I am about half way through. It is the book where the phrase "She who must be obeyed" comes from. I dare say a sensitivity reader would have a fit if it arrived on their desk.

[timebug]

Like a few of Rider Haggards books, it contains some very dark passages; whilst it is 'of it's time' it is still a thought provoking book worth the reading!

[lunababymoonchild]

The second one is worth reading too.

[KEV67]

I wonder whether this is the book the term 'shell like ear' came from. I used to know someone who used this term, or more accurately, 'A word in your shell like ear', when talking to another rather late middle-aged man with large lugs. Like other cliches I had never given it any thought. I suppose a beautiful, young woman's ear might resemble a sea shell.

 

Aleysha (I think that's her name) has some long speeches. I thought that would be a difficult part to act. I could imagine a young Diana Rigg delivering them.

[lunababymoonchild]

38 minutes ago, KEV67 said:

I wonder whether this is the book the term 'shell like ear' came from. I used to know someone who used this term, or more accurately, 'A word in your shell like ear', when talking to another rather late middle-aged man with large lugs. Like other cliches I had never given it any thought. I suppose a beautiful, young woman's ear might resemble a sea shell.

 

Aleysha (I think that's her name) has some long speeches. I thought that would be a difficult part to act. I could imagine a young Diana Rigg delivering them.

According to Literary Devices.net :

 

Its earliest use has been traced back to the year 1827 in a romantic poem of Thomas Hood titled as “Bianca’s Dream.” The poem has used the last part of the phrase.

 

“This, with more tender logic of the kind,
He pour’d into her small and shell-like ear,
That timidly against his lips inclin’d;
Meanwhile her eyes glanced on the silver sphere.”

 

Her name is Ayesha and she was played in the film, also called She, by Ursula Andress.

[KEV67]

1 hour ago, lunababymoonchild said:

According to Literary Devices.net :

 

Its earliest use has been traced back to the year 1827 in a romantic poem of Thomas Hood titled as “Bianca’s Dream.” The poem has used the last part of the phrase.

 

“This, with more tender logic of the kind,
He pour’d into her small and shell-like ear,
That timidly against his lips inclin’d;
Meanwhile her eyes glanced on the silver sphere.”

 

Her name is Ayesha and she was played in the film, also called She, by Ursula Andress.

I will have to look that film up.

[KEV67]

She (1965)

IMDb Parents' Guide

Sex & Nudity

• None 9 of 13 found this to have none
• Some belly dancing girls wearing pasties

Well it was filmed in 1965.

[KEV67]

I might try to watch that film, but I still cannot imagine Ursula Andress being as good as Diana Rigg would have been. Maybe Maria Callas could have played the part. I know she was an opera singer, but she acted Medea in the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. She had the striking looks and the intensity.

 

I have read King Solomon's Mines before. She is different to that. Ayesha philosophises at length. Some of her philosophy seems similar to that of Thomas Hobbes' and Thomas Malthus's. Maybe her views were affected by Charles Darwin's theories too. There was not much philosophising in King Solomon's Mines. That book reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tarzan, especially the 1930s films with Johnny Weisemuller. She does as well to be fair. In Tarzan some explorers would travel deep into Africa and discover a lost civilisation of white people, often with a beautiful queen. Meanwhile, all the poor pallbearers would be despatched in merciless and inventive ways; that is if they had not fallen into some ravine on the way. In early chapters of She, I worried about the safety of their Arab companion. I am somewhat concerned about the fate of Job, their English servant, but not as worried as I was about the Arab.

[lunababymoonchild]

I thought that Ursula Andress was very good but it's a long time since I've seen it and it was made in the sixties so might well be dated now.

[KEV67]

I watched the first half of the film. They updated it to just after the Second World War. It had Peter Cushing as Holly, and Bernard Cribbens as Job. I always like Peter Cushing, although physically he is not as described in the book. I did not imagine Job as being like Bernard Cribbens. I cannot remember seeing the actor who played Leo before.

 

I have only three more chapters to go. It is a weird book, almost like science fiction, with a strong Indiana Jones vibe. There's a nude scene in the book when Ayesha steps into the stream of life. A pity the film was made in 65 not 75.

[KEV67]

In the second-to-last chapter the survivors have to leap across a chasm. The gap was 11 to 12 foot across. 12' is 3.6m. That did not seem all that far, so I thought I would have a go. I tried about five times and I don't think I got within a yard. That is pretty pathetic. I am a 55-year-old with a dodgy knee and no great long jumping technique. However Horatio Holly was about 45, and they were jumping from an unstable rock in poor light and strong, swirling winds. So fair play to them.

[lunababymoonchild]

A life-threatening situation is great motivation 😉