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Abstract
The Sexual Imperative in the Novels of Sir Henry Rider Haggard is a detailed study of the development of the theme of the sexual imperative primarily through the prism of ten of Haggard’s novels, a largely unexplored area of his fiction, and also through some of his contemporary romances. Filling an important gap in Haggard scholarship, which has traditionally tended to focus on his early romances and their political and psychological resonances, the book contributes to wider current debates on Victorian and turn-of-the-century literature. This volume explores the relationship between Haggard’s fictional rendition of the sexual imperative and aspects of his personal history, proposing that his preoccupation with the subject constitutes, in significant part, an outworking of deeply personal sexual and emotional issues. Relating Haggard’s fiction to the literary and social context in which he wrote, Richard Reeve contends that although Haggard’s treatment of this theme is not nearly as adventurous as that of some of his literary contemporaries, his repeated consideration of what he regarded as the most important human driver lends his fiction a strength and integrity which has not been fully recognized.
‘Combining biography with literary criticism, Reeve offers a compelling new look at H. Rider Haggard’s ideas about love and sexuality. Unlike previous studies that focus on She and King Solomon’s Mines, Reeve draws from Haggard’s complete oeuvre to identify and interpret previously unexamined aspects of this novelist’s thinking about romantic relationships.’
—Kate Holterhoff, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
The main focus of 'The Sexual Imperative in the Novels of Sir Henry Rider Haggard' is Haggard's preoccupation in his fiction with the theme of the sexual imperative and the relationship between his fictional representations and his personal emotional geography and experiences. It illuminates and explores aspects of this theme primarily by detailed examination of ten of his novels but it also demonstrates that identically evolving considerations of the theme are apparent in his contemporary romances. The book fills an important gap in Haggard scholarship which has traditionally tended to focus on his early romances and to centre on their political and psychological resonances. It also contributes to wider current debates on Victorian and turn of the century literature.
The book adopts a chronological framework which spans the entirety of Haggard’s writing career and considers the novels and corresponding romances which he wrote at each stage in his literary development. It considers Haggard’s literary representations in the context of contemporary sexual behaviours and attitudes, and of other contemporary literary representations of sexuality. It notes Haggard’s deployment in his novels of contemporary literary genres, notably those of the Sensation Novel, the New Woman, and later Modernism, and it examines what he contributed to these genres and how his interpretation of them compared to that of his literary contemporaries.
This book traces Haggard's emotional investment in his evolving depictions of the destructive potential for the male of female sexuality and demonstrates that his focus develops, as his writing career progresses, from deeply personal renditions of sexual betrayal towards a proposal that the seeds of moral destruction are an integral part of the sexual imperative. It examines his sustained consideration in his novels of the issues of the position of women and of the marriage question and documents his exploration of whether an unsatisfactory marriage legitimises extra-marital sexual relations. It notes, as a measure of Haggard’s moral progressiveness, that despite his formal need to criticise this behaviour, he is in fact clear that it is both natural and morally irreproachable. The book also examines Haggard’s exploration of the merits of a love which is predominantly spiritual rather than sexual and his consideration of the virtues of sexual renunciation. It relates his treatment of these themes to that of contemporary novelists and spiritualist writers. It documents his final fiction which depicts the inescapable imperatives of the human situation and celebrates the overwhelming validity of sexual passion in a committed relationship. It considers the extent of Haggard’s modernity and proposes that although he remains careful and caveated in his moral statements, and conservative by contemporary literary standards, he does unquestionably endorse self-fulfilment over social duty. The book’s conclusion argues that Haggard’s novels and many of his romances represent a consideration of issues which he saw as at the root of being and that the consistency, balance and open-mindedness with which he pursued them suggest a generally uncredited integrity and weight to his fiction.
Richard Reeve was educated in England at King Edward’s School, Bath, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English. He gained his doctorate from the University of Reading, England. He joined HM Diplomatic Service in 1971 and served in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Switzerland.
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Front Matter | i | ||
Half title | i | ||
Title page | iii | ||
Copyright information | iv | ||
Dedication | v | ||
Table of contents | vii | ||
Acknowledgments | ix | ||
Chapter Int-7 | 1 | ||
Introduction | 1 | ||
Chapter One The Sexual Imperative | 5 | ||
Chapter Two: The Origins Of Haggard’s Fictional Writing | 11 | ||
Romance and Realism | 11 | ||
The Attractions for Haggard of Romance Writing | 15 | ||
Haggard’s Perseverance with His Novels | 16 | ||
Doctor Therne | 17 | ||
Haggard’s Attitude towards Writing | 19 | ||
Haggard’s Early Life | 24 | ||
Haggard’s Relationship with His Father | 25 | ||
Haggard’s Relationship with His Mother | 25 | ||
Lilly Jackson | 29 | ||
Johanna Ford | 31 | ||
Haggard’s Wife, Louisa Margitson | 34 | ||
Agnes Barber | 36 | ||
Conclusion | 38 | ||
Chapter Three: The Early Novels (1884–95): Youthful Anger | 41 | ||
Haggard’s Contemporary Biographical Experiences | 41 | ||
Dawn and Its Biographical Resonances | 42 | ||
The Witch’s Head and Its Biographical Resonances | 43 | ||
Colonel Quaritch V. C. and Its Biographical Resonances | 45 | ||
Joan Haste and Its Biographical Resonances | 46 | ||
The Stereotypical Nature of Haggard’s Male and Female Characters | 47 | ||
Sexually Potent and Sexually Vulnerable Women, and Their Roots in Haggard’s Biography | 48 | ||
Feminine Sexual Vulnerability | 53 | ||
The Punishment of Disruptive Women | 54 | ||
The Destructive Impact upon Men of Desirable but Benign Women | 58 | ||
Men’s Share of the Blame for Their Sexual Excesses | 61 | ||
The Consequences of the Sexual Imperative: Sexual Jealousy, Moral Disintegration and Violence | 65 | ||
The Sins of the Father | 68 | ||
Consolatory and Redemptive Women | 69 | ||
Negative Depictions of Marriage | 70 | ||
Spiritual Love and Love in an Afterlife | 71 | ||
Conclusions | 73 | ||
Chapter Four: The New Woman, Female Self-Sacrifice And Spirituality (1887–1901) | 77 | ||
Jess and Its Biographical Resonances | 77 | ||
Beatrice and Its Biographical Overtones | 79 | ||
The New Woman | 81 | ||
Jess and Beatrice as Sexually Passionate and Sexually Potent Women | 84 | ||
The Sexually Passionate Women of Haggard’s Romances | 86 | ||
Jess and Beatrice’s Impact upon Their Lovers | 86 | ||
The Moral Dilemmas in Jess, Beatrice and Joan Haste | 87 | ||
What Happens Between the Lovers in Jess and Beatrice; Moral Judgements and the Drift of the Subtext | 90 | ||
The Spirituality of Jess and Beatrice | 96 | ||
Conclusion | 97 | ||
Chapter Five: Spiritual Love And Sexual Renunciation (1899–1908) | 99 | ||
Haggard’s Contemporary Biography | 99 | ||
The Contemporary Interest in Spiritualism | 100 | ||
Haggard’s Experience with Aspects of Spiritualism and His Fascination with the Concept of an Afterlife | 101 | ||
Stella Fregelius and Its Biographical Resonances | 103 | ||
The Way of the Spirit and Its Biographical Resonances | 105 | ||
The Question of Celibacy | 106 | ||
The Capacities and Limitations of Spirituality and Spiritual Intimacy | 110 | ||
Female Power and Female Divinity | 116 | ||
Spiritual Communication between Lovers | 118 | ||
The Reunion of Lovers in an Afterlife | 118 | ||
Communication with the Dead | 120 | ||
Conclusions | 121 | ||
Chapter Six: The Final Fiction: Spiritual Consolation And The Dictates Of The Sexual Imperative (1909–30) | 125 | ||
Haggard’s Contemporary Biography | 126 | ||
Love Eternal and Its Biographical Resonances | 127 | ||
Mary of Marion Isle and Its Biographical Resonances | 129 | ||
The Sexual Potency of Women: Representations of Female Sexuality in Haggard’s Late Fiction | 130 | ||
Female Self-Sacrifice | 132 | ||
The Influence of the Great War upon Love Eternal and Certain of Haggard’s Contemporary Romances | 133 | ||
Haggard’s Emphasis in His Fiction upon Spirituality and the Spiritual Union of Lovers | 135 | ||
Reticence about Sex but Subtle Assertions of the Pull of the Sexual Imperative | 136 | ||
Mutual Spirituality and the Divine and Eternal Aspects of Spiritual Love | 138 | ||
The Reunion of Lovers in an Afterlife | 139 | ||
The Dangers of Aspects of Spiritualism | 140 | ||
Attempts to Communicate with the Dead | 141 | ||
The Newness of Love Eternal | 142 | ||
Male Ability to Survive Emotional Betrayals by Females | 142 | ||
Criticism of the Established Church | 145 | ||
Scrutiny of Marital Relationships | 146 | ||
The Sexual Imperative and Sex Outside Marriage | 148 | ||
Haggard as Modernist | 150 | ||
Chapter Seven: Summation: A Personal Odyssey | 155 | ||
Identical Concerns in Haggard’s Romances | 156 | ||
Women in Haggard’s Fiction | 156 | ||
Men in Haggard’s Fiction | 157 | ||
Personal Issues in Haggard’s Fiction | 157 | ||
The Close Similarities between Haggard’s Novels and Romances | 161 | ||
The Integrity of Haggard’s Fiction | 162 | ||
Appendix: Plot Summaries | 165 | ||
Dawn (1884) | 165 | ||
The Witch’s Head (1884) | 165 | ||
Jess (1887) | 166 | ||
Colonel Quaritch V.C.: A Tale of Country Life (1888) | 167 | ||
Beatrice (1890) | 168 | ||
Joan Haste (1895) | 168 | ||
Dr Therne (1898) | 169 | ||
Stella Fregelius (1904) | 170 | ||
The Way of the Spirit (1906) | 170 | ||
Love Eternal (1918) | 171 | ||
Mary of Marion Isle (1929) | 172 | ||
Notes | 173 | ||
Introduction | 173 | ||
Chapter One The Sexual Imperative | 173 | ||
Chapter Two The Origins of Haggard’s Fictional Writing | 174 | ||
Chapter Three The Early Novels (1884–95): Youthful Anger | 178 | ||
Chapter Four The New Woman, Female Self-Sacrifice and Spirituality (1887–1901) | 180 | ||
Chapter Five Spiritual Love and Sexual Renunciation (1899–1908) | 181 | ||
Chapter Six The Final Fiction: Spiritual Consolation and the Dictates of the Sexual Imperative (1909–30) | 184 | ||
Chapter Seven Summation: A Personal Odyssey | 186 | ||
End Matter | 165 | ||
Bibliography | 189 | ||
Letters and Journals | 189 | ||
Primary Works and Editions Consulted | 189 | ||
Secondary Works | 192 | ||
Index | 195 |