She Who Must Be Obeyed

The title is a translation of the honorific used for Ayesha by Amahagger, a tribe whom SHE had subjugated. You must be thinking that what am I taking about.

Well, last few days I had been busy, enjoying the sudden change in Bangalore's weather (for the better), reading a fictional classic titled SHE by Sir Henry Rider Haggard. In this work Haggard developed the Lost World sub genre which many authors enumerated.

Horace Holly, a Cambridge professor along with his adopted son Leo Vincey and servant Jobs, travel to Africa in search for clues about the ancestors of Leo, by taking lead from the potsherd left by Leo's father. There they encounter a queen Ayesha and are enthralled by her beauty. She is apparently ageless and had survived for 2000 years by bathing in pillar of fire. She is breathtakingly beautiful and merciless. And would not hesitate for a moment in slaying anyone who disregards her or comes in front of her wishes. She shows this dark side of her character by killing Ulesha, the woman Leo loved and had vowed to be her husband by the customs of Amahagger. Later they realize that She believes that Leo is the reincarnation of Kallikrattes, her long lost love.

In the climax of the story, She takes the three English men to the pillar of fire. She wants Leo to bathe in the fire and become immortal and pure just like her. But Leo was uncertain about the idea. So She herself steps into the flames. However, with the second submergence she transforms into her actual age and withers and dies. But before she takes her last breath she tells Leo that it is a parting only for a little while (ironically little here refers to maybe another 2000 years :D). And says "I die not, I shall come again".

The story is a classical fiction and a creation of abstract thinking and observation. Throughout the novel Haggard explores the idea of love, solitude, power, reincarnation, death and fate. Overall an excellent novel to read.