When the World Shook

By H. Rider Haggard

A fantastic tale of spirit travel, reincarnation, mystical powers, teleportation, subterranean city... and the elixir of life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Jun 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329573314

H. Rider Haggard

Sir Henry Rider Haggard, (1856-1925) commonly known as H. Rider Haggard was an English author active during the Victorian era. Considered a pioneer of the lost world genre, Haggard was known for his adventure fiction. His work often depicted African settings inspired by the seven years he lived in South Africa with his family. In 1880, Haggard married Marianna Louisa Margitson and together they had four children, one of which followed her father’s footsteps and became an author. Haggard is still widely read today, and is celebrated for his imaginative wit and impact on 19th century adventure literature.

Reviews for When the World Shook

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not going to claim that Haggard even at his best is the same order of classic as the best by Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. But like fellow Victorians Arthur Conan Doyle or Robert Louis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, Haggard really could spin a good yarn, and the fantasy genre in general owes him a great debt. Ten of his books are on my bookshelves. I gobbled those up in my teens and most I remember very, very well even decades later. My favorite of his novels involved Ayesha, known as She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, especially the book Wisdom's Daughter. I wouldn't consider this one of Haggard's best though. Of the ten Haggard books on my shelves, with the exception of She and Allan, this is my least favorite, the one I remember least vividly, and those aspects I do remember (reincarnated love, near immortals, lost civilizations) are the ones repeated in book after book by Haggard. That said, this is entertaining, and definitely even the lesser of Haggard books makes many a contemporary fantasy seem rather pallid.