Talk:H. Rider Haggard

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Links to articles?

The chronology features links to ebooks... why are there no links to wikipedia articles on specific novels? Applebizzy (talk) 20:35, 9 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

More?

I was hoping for a lot more from this article. Specifically, was HR Haggard successful as a novelist in his time? What was his relationship with his work? I am impressed by how he manages to create what feel like very real fictional places, but to what extent are his places based on real sites that he visited while in Africa? He describes lots of fever, did he suffer from malaria? Cherrywood (talk)

sf?

This author has been suggested for inclusion in Category:Science fiction writers: which of his books gave rise to this suggestion? --Phil | Talk 08:32, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)

The (relatively few, mind) Haggard novels I've read tend toward the mystical/magical - thousand-year-old sorceresses, lost civilisations in darkest Africa, that sort of thing; I can't think offhand of anything in any of them that qualifies as "science fiction", even under the relaxed contemporary standards that let things like Barsoom in. (Come to think of it, the lost civilisation in Ayesha had discovered how to turn base metal into gold - but I can't recall whether it was by mystical or technological means, nor whether they had other capabilities along those lines.) --Paul A 08:47, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"thousand-year-old sorceresses, lost civilisations in darkest Africa, that sort of thing", yes - therefore I think that Category:Fantasy_writers is more appropriate than Category:Science fiction writers - I added it. Gestumblindi 19:24, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think he is SF. Lost race stories are SF. Kdammers 10:19, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

ag

Haggard wrote a significant work on agriculture (agricultural economics). he was even knighted for his work on agriculture. In the Great Soviet Encyclopeida, this is what is covered in the article on him. Lenin mentioned his work. Something of this needs to be put into the article.Kdammers 10:19, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In the "Chronology of works", "Montezuma's Daughter" is listed twice with different years (1893, 1899). Is that correct?

H. Rider Haggard

There is no mention of the version this man is best known as - except under his portrait. And there "H. Rider Haggard" is called his pseudonym. If you look at the Wik discussion of that word, you'll see that it isn't really an appropriate label in this case. Let's fix this up. Kdammers 09:43, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. He seems to be credited invariably as "H. Rider Haggard" and the Rider Haggard Society even drops the H. This article needs to be moved to "H. Rider Haggard". --Tysto (talk) 23:29, 28 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Founder of lost-world genre??

HRH was important in popularizing lost worlds, but he was not the first to write of these, e.g., if I'm not mistaken, E. A. Poe preceded him. Kdammers 02:53, 12 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Schooling

The wording used for what school he went to as a child is sort of... Odd. Did he go to the private school or the public one? I can't tell. ElectricTurahk 20:38, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Haggard actually attended both and I have expanded on this in the biography section in an attempt to clarify. Although one of the wonderful idiosyncrasies of British English is that British private schools are referred to as public schools. Mutt 14:10, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Definition/Citation

This article claims that a contrary example to colonialism in Haggard's writing is: "Having developed an intense mutual friendship with the three Englishmen who help him regain his throne, [the African king] accepts their advice and abolishes witch-hunts and arbitrary capital punishment." But that is precisely a colonialist stereotype and goal: the "enlightened" white men to whom the "native" becomes sycophantic by adopting their Western mores. This appears to be using an idiosyncratic, personal definition of "colonialism" and/or one that selectively chooses particular Western mores as inherently positive and arbitrarily non-colonialist. "Heroic" is not an antonym of "colonialist stereotype." None of the discussion about colonialism has any inline citations. Such references are necessary to establish the validity of this analysis, which currently reads like a personal essay, original research and/or an apologia for someone's favorite author. 76.23.157.102 (talk) 17:52, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]