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The Longman's, Green Title-page (1896) and gold-embossed cover for Henry Rider Haggard's SHE: A History of Adventure, 18.9 cm high by 12.1 cm wide (7 ½ by 4 ⅞ inches), facing frontispiece, with thirty-two illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen and engraved by Charles H. M. Kerr. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
The Novel's History as a Magazine Serial and Two First Editions
In his autobiography, Rider Haggard, young veteran of the Anglo-Zulu Wars, describes how he composed the fifteen-part magazine serial She in just six weeks, in February and March 1886, having just completed Jess, which was also published in volume form in 1887. Haggard has asserted that, for him, this period just after his South African adventure, that this was an intensely creative period in his life: supposedly, the text "was never rewritten, and the manuscript carries but few corrections" (although he certainly toned down the cannibalism for volume publication). Haggard went on to declare: "The fact is that it was written at white heat, almost without rest, and that is the best way to compose." He apparently had no clear plot-line in mind when he began writing: "I remember that when I sat down to the task my ideas as to its development were of the vaguest. The only clear notion that I had in my head was that of an immortal woman inspired by an immortal love."
Early Editions: 1886, 1887, and 1888
"SHE": A History of Adventure first appeared as a magazine serial in The Graphic, a large folio magazine printed weekly in London, between 2 October 1886 and 7 January 1887. The serialisation was accompanied by fourteen large-scale composite woodblock illustrations by Ernest Killingworth Johnson (1825-1896). An American edition was published by Harper & Bros. in New York on 24 December 1886; this small volume included Johnson's illustrations translated into much smaller lithographs. On 1 January 1887 a British edition was published by Longmans, Green, & Co., without any illustrations. It featured significant textual revisions by Haggard himself to make the cannibalism less sensational. He made further revisions for the British edition of 1888, which included eighteen entirely new, small-scale illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr (1858-1907). The 'New Edition' of 1888 in turn became the basis for The Annotated She, edited by Norman Etherington, who in conjunction with Haggard effected some four hundred minor stylistic changes that are reflected in the new 1896 edition.
A "New and Revised Edition" (London, New York, & Bombay: 1896)
Two features distinguish this 1896 edition from the previous three versions: the letterpress incorporates all four-hundred-odd editorial revisions made by Haggard after the initial serial run; and the volume itself contains thirteen additional lithographs, although only two of these are fully-captioned, full-size plates, and seven are mere vignettes. Published in three cities simultaneously, the volume would have enjoyed British, colonial, and American copyright protection under the terms of the new international copyright provisions, to which the United States had recently acceded.
Related Material: The Longman's, Green Title-Page (1927) & Dedication (1886)
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Brantlinger, Patrick. Introduction. She: A History of Adventure. By H. Rider Haggard. London: Penguin, 2004. vii-xxviii.
Haggard, H. Rider. The Days of My Life. (2 vols.) London: Longman's, Green, and Co., 1926.
Haggard, H. Rider. "SHE:" A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. The Graphic Magazine, Vols. XXXIV and XXXV. 2 October 1886 to 8 January 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888, rpt. 1896 with fourteen additional illustrations.
Created 4 June 2025