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Henry Rider Haggard, Victorian writer of adventure fiction, is considered to be the father of Lost World Fiction. In his first Lost-World-novel “King Solomon’s Mines”, Rider Haggard sets the tone of what would later be called the “male novel” (Lawrence Millman) by having his protagonist Allan Quatermain proudly proclaim: “I can safely say there is not a petticoat in the whole history”. The almost complete lack of female characters gives us an interesting insight into the male self-image of the time. We will be discussing the late Victorian ideal of “muscular Christianity” and have a look at Rider Haggard’s use of female sexuality as colonial monster. We will focus on three of Rider Haggard’s novels, namely King Solomon’s Mines, She: A History of Adventure and Allan Quatermain. |
