Ayesha (novel)

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Ayesha
First edition cover pub. by "Ward Lock"
First edition cover pub. by "Ward Lock"
Author H. Rider Haggard
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Ayesha Series
Genre(s) Gothic, Adventure novel
Publisher Ward Lock
Publication date 1905
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 384 pp
ISBN NA
Preceded by She
Followed by She and Allan

Ayesha, the Return of She is a gothic novel by the popular Victorian author H. Rider Haggard, published in 1905, as a sequel to his far more popular and well known novel, She.

Its significance was recognized by its republication by the Newcastle Publishing Company as the fourteenth volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in October, 1977.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

 The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

The preceding novel, She, ended with the escape of Leo Vincey and his companion, Horace Holly, from the interior of Africa after witnessing the death of Ayesha. Ayesha, a beautiful and apparently immortal woman born centuries ago in ancient Egypt, had waited thousands of years for the reincarnation of her lover Kallikrates, whom she believed she had found in the form of Leo. Attempting to persuade him to step into the strange volcanic flame that had granted her immortality, so that he too would live forever, she stepped into it herself; but the second time undid all the years that had been suspended for her and she grew old in an instant and died.

Ayesha: the Return of She is set sixteen years later. Horace and Leo are in Tibet, having spent the intervening years travelling the world attempting to find Ayesha, whom Leo believes is still alive in some form. After many adventures including avalanche, glaciers and cliffs, they arrive in the isolated city of Kaloon. Here the ancient roles begin to play out again with the Khania of Kaloon, Atene, cast as the reincarnation of Amenartas, while Holly is revealed to be the reincarnation of an ancient sage named Noot. They hear of a mysterious priestess and her retinue who inhabit the nearby mountain; Leo suspects this to be Ayesha though she is referred to as Hes.

Meanwhile Atene falls in love with Leo. Her insane husband looses the death hounds on their trail and they flee to the nearby mountain where they eventually find themselves in the presence of the heavily veiled Ayesha. Atene comes in force to the mountain and challenges Ayesha to unveil so that Leo may choose between the two of them. Ayesha does so and is revealed as the wizened ancient hag that Leo and Holly last saw in the fires in Africa. Leo (a gentleman to his core), chooses Ayesha, kissing the crone who regains all her beauty and enchantment. Ayesha also has new powers: she can see things happening far off and can turn iron into gold (using something very like irradiation). She talks to Holly of her plans, seeing in him her ancient mentor Noot, including a proposed relocation to Asia:

"I have chosen these Chinese because thou tellest me that their numbers are uncountable, that they are brave, subtle, and patient, and though now powerless because ill-ruled and untaught, able with their multitudes to flood the little western nations. Therefore among them we will begin our reign and for some few ages be at rest while they learn wisdom from us, and thou, my Holly, makest their armies unconquerable and givest their land good government, wealth, peace, and a new religion."

Leo is none too pleased with these plans and just wants to marry Ayesha. Ayesha is afraid to be intimate with Leo, believing that his mortal body could not bear the radiance of her immortality (even trying to kiss her nearly causes him to lose consciousness), so there is tension between them as she puts him off again and again. Both men sense that She is even less human than she was in the Caves of Kor, but she is at the same time wiser, more philosophical. "She spoke of her searchings after truth; of how, aching for wisdom, she had explored the religions of her day and refused them one by one." She also recounts their original story, the battle between herself and Amenartas for Kallikrates: "the struggle between us which had begun of old and afar was for centuries and generations, and that until the end should declare itself neither of us could harm the other, who both had sinned to win thee, that wast appointed by fate to be the lodestone of our souls."

First edition illustration of Ayesha
First edition illustration of Ayesha

Meanwhile, Atene and her people threaten to attack the mountain. Leo and Holly take a walk outside and Atene's soldiers kidnap Leo. Holly, Ayesha and her army march on Kaloon to rescue him and when they reach the defending forces, Ayesha unleashes all her powers: thunder, lightning, wind, torrential rain. The opposing forces are scattered like dust. Ayesha and Holly find Leo just in time to save him from being murdered by a henchman of Atene, who has poisoned herself and lies dead on the floor. In her joy at finding him alive and unharmed, Ayesha rashly promises Leo anything he desires -- crowns, cities, knowledge, immortality, power. Leo, impatient and in love, asks only for herself, that she marry him and be his.

Holly acts as officiant and joins them. Ayesha in her love grows, if possible, even more beautiful and Leo seems to share some of her ethereal radiance; they embrace, at last they kiss, they have a few moments of bliss, and then all Ayesha's fears come true and Leo falls to the floor dead. Ayesha is initially distraught but comes to terms with his death, believing that "with him I have re-wed my wandering soul divorced by sin from me, and that of our marriage kiss which burned his life away there shall still be born to us children of Forgiveness and eternal Grace and all things that are pure and fair."

Ayesha takes Leo's body to the mountain where after a brief ceremony a winged flame descends on her and she vanishes. Holly returns to his native Cumberland and ponders what it all might mean, until at last one night he too disappears.

"She never dies. She changes, that is all. As the wind blows now hence, now hither, so she comes and goes, and who can tell at what spot upon the earth, or beyond it, for a while that wind lies sleeping? But at sunset or at dawn, at noon or at midnight, it will begin to blow again, and then woe to those who stand across its path."

[edit] Freud

  • Ayesha is mentioned in Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams as well as by Jung

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 136.