Publication of She in The Graphic and in Volume
"SHE:" A History of Adventure was first published as a weekly serial story in The Graphic, a large folio magazine printed in London, between 2 October 1886 and 8 January 1887. The serialisation was accompanied by the fourteen large-scale composite woodblock illustrations of Edward Killingworth Johnson. Since British and American copyright regimes would remain distinct for yet another decade, a separate American edition was published by Harper & Bros. in New York on 24 December 1886; surprisingly, this volume included reproductions of Johnson's engravings rather than illustrations by an American artist. On 1 January 1887 a new British edition was published by Longmans, Green, & Co., without any illustrations. It featured some significant textual revisions by Haggard that toned down the violence of the original serial text, particularly with respect to the death by "hot-potting" of the Arab helmsman, Mahomed. Haggard made further revisions for the British edition of 1888, which included a new series of volume-appropriate, smaller wood-engravings by Maurice Greiffenhagen and C. H. M. Kerr. The two most accessible editions are those published by Penguin (2001, using the revised text of the novel) and by Broadview (2006, using the serial version of the text).
The Death of Mahomed Revised, as seen in both American and British first editions (1887)
The two men with the pincers gave a heave, and, scattering the fire this way and that upon the rocky floor, lifted from it a large earthenware pot, heated to a white heat. In an instant, almost with a single movement, they had reached the spot where Mahomed was struggling. He fought like a fiend, shrieking in the abandonment of his despair, and notwithstanding the noose round him, and the efforts of the men who held his legs, the advancing wretches were for the moment unable to accomplish their purpose, which, horrible and incredible as it seems, was to put the red-hot pot upon his head.
I sprang to my feet with a yell of horror, and drawing my revolver fired it by a sort of instinct straight at the diabolical woman who had been caressing Mahommed, and was now gripping him in her arms. The bullet struck her in the back and killed her, and to this day I am glad that it did, for, as it afterwards transpired, she had availed herself of the anthropophagous customs of the Amahagger to organise the whole thing in revenge of the slight put upon her by Job. She sank down dead, and as she did so, to my terror and dismay, Mahomed, by a superhuman effort, burst from his tormenters, and, springing high into the air, fell dying upon her corpse. The heavy bullet from my pistol had driven through the bodies of both, at once striking down the murderess, and saving her victim from a death a hundred times more horrible. It was an awful and yet a most merciful accident.
For a moment there was a silence of astonishment. [Chapter VIII, “The Feast and After!” at the curtain of the 23 October 1886 instalment, p. 443; pp. 97-98 in the 1887 volume; pp. 104-105 in the Penguin edition (2001)]
The Original Version, as seen in the British serial (1886) and Broadview (2006) editions
The two men with the pincers gave a heave, and, scattering the fire this way and that upon the rocky floor, lifted from it a large earthenware pot, heated to a white heat. In an instant, almost with a single movement, they had reached the spot where Mahomed was struggling, and then — even now I can scarcely bear to write it — there was one awful, heartrending shriek, ending and smothered in a hissing sound, and the next thing that I saw was the poor wretch, broken loose from his captors, in the despairing effort of a hideous death, and rushing and rolling in the darkness beyond the lamps, the red hot pot jammed upon his head, completely covering it from view. He fought like a fiend, shrieking in the abandonment of his despair, and notwithstanding the noose round him, and the efforts of the men who held his legs, the advancing wretches were for the moment unable to accomplish their purpose, which, horrible and incredible as it seems, was to put the red-hot pot upon his head.
I sprang to my feet with a yell of horror, and drawing my revolver fired it by a sort of instinct straight at the diabolical woman who had been caressing Mahommed, and was now gripping him in her arms. The bullet struck her in the back and killed her, and to this day I am glad that it did, for, as it afterwards transpired, she had availed herself of the anthropophagous customs of the Amahagger to organise the whole thing in revenge of the slight put upon her by Job.
For a moment there was a silence of astonishment. [Chapter VIII, “The Feast and After!” at the curtain of the 23 October 1886 instalment, p. 443; pp. 97-98 in the 1887 volume; reading preserved in the Broadview edition, pp. 108-109]
Commentary: Making the Sensational Less Sensational? To Hotpot or Not....
The intended effect of Haggard's revision was probably not to detract from the sensationalism per se, but to have Mahommed die a less painful death, and to shift the focus to the agent of Nemesis, Holly. As Andrew Stauffer notes in the final appendix to the Broadview edition (2006), "major Revisions for the First English Edition (1887)," in Part 5 (pp. 108-109), Haggard changes the outcome of the shooting so that, by a single bullet, Holly despatches both the instigator of the attack and her victim: "The heavy bullet from my pistol had driven through the bodies of both" (Longman's, p. 109; Harper's, pp. 97-98, facing the fourth serial illustration “I drew my revolver, and fired it by a sort of instinct straight at the diabolical woman who had been caressing Mahommed.” (23 October 1886): Volume XXXIV, p. 441.
Most of the additions [that Haggard made for volume publication] involve transcriptions and elaborations of the material written upon or included with the Sherd of Amenartas. Haggard also added a number of editorial notes, indicated here by asterisks (*), that provide scholarly ballast to the narrative. [343]
In the 2001 Penguin edition's "Note on the Text," editor Patrick Brantlinger states that for the 1887 Longman's edition the author "changed the cause of Mahomed's death in Chapter 8 from 'hot-potting' to a bullet from Horace Holly's pistol" (xxxvii), although Haggard continued to effect minor changes in his prose for further editions up to 1896. The other changes, whether to written expression or to geographical and historical references in Chapters 4, 13, and 17, certainly lack the impact and significance of Haggard's attempts to make the death of the Arab helmsman less gruesome, and therefore more acceptable to tonier volume-readers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Significantly, the Broadview edition is based entirely upon the serial text, whereas the Penguin edition relies exclusively on Haggard's revised text, and offers just the textual note (343) and the occasional brief footnote to comment upon the changes that Haggard effected to his serial text.
Related Resources
Bibliography
Brantlinger, Patrick. Introduction. She: A History of Adventure. By H. Rider Haggard. London: Penguin, 2004. vii-xxviii.
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 E. K. Johnson. New York: Harper & Bros., 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. 1927.
Haggard, H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Ed. Andrew M. Stauffer. With illustrations by Ernest K. Johnson. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.
Haggard, H. Rider. She. Project Gutenberg EBook #3155 produced by John Bickers; Dagny; William Kyngesburye; David Kyngesburye; David Widger. 2016. Web. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Created 24 May 2025