She

A professor is entreated by a dying colleague to take custody of the colleague’s five-year old son, raise him to adulthood, and at that time pass on a chest to him. The professor does so, and when the child reaches adulthood and the chest is revealed, it leads them on an adventure to Africa. There they encounter a young queen of a lost race who says she’s over two thousand years old, with an equally startling claim about the young man.

        <p><a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/h-rider-haggard">H. Rider Haggard</a> invented the “lost world” genre of fiction with <i><a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/h-rider-haggard/king-solomons-mines">King Solomon’s Mines</a></i>, and he continued the theme, adding in a bit of romance, in <i>She</i>. Haggard wrote the book in six months “in a white heat,” and handed the manuscript to his agent with the remark, “There is what I shall be remembered by.” Haggard was right: with its setting in darkest Africa and a woman at its center described as the most beautiful in the world, <i>She</i> was a sensation at its release, has never been out of print, and has sold upwards of 100 million copies.</p>