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Maiwa's Revenge: The War of the Little Hand
Maiwa's Revenge: The War of the Little Hand
Maiwa's Revenge: The War of the Little Hand
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Maiwa's Revenge: The War of the Little Hand

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Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was born on June 22nd, 1856 at Bradenham in Norfolk, England. After his education he was pushed towards an Army career but failed the entrance exam. Next Haggard was positioned to work for the British Foreign Office but he seems not to have sat that exam. Using family connections, he was sent to Southern Africa by his father in search of a further opportunity of a career. Haggard spent six years there before a return to England and marriage. He had begun to write and publish some non-fiction in Africa but it was only after studying Law in the hope it might prove to be the proper career his father wanted for him that Haggard began to write fiction, using his African experiences as the basis. His first fiction was published in 1885 and the following year King Solomon’s Mines was published. It was a phenomenal success. His career was set. Haggard wrote well and wrote often. He managed to sympathise with the local populations even though they were exploited and manipulated by Europeans intent on amassing fortunes in money, people and resources. His writing career covered the great sprint to Empire of several European powers and both reflects and criticizes these events through his well-loved characters including Allan Quatermain and Ayesha. In his later years Haggard pursued much in the way social reform as well as standing for Parliament and writing a great many letters to The Times. Henry Rider Haggard died on May 14th, 1925 at the age of 68. His ashes were buried at Ditchingham Church.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 15, 2016
ISBN9781785438004
Maiwa's Revenge: The War of the Little Hand
Author

H. Rider Haggard

H. Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English adventure novelist. Haggard studied law, but rather than pursuing a legal career took a secretarial position in what is now South Africa. His time there provided the inspiration for some of his most popular novels, including She (1887), an early classic of the lost world fantasy genre and one of the bestselling books of all time.

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Rating: 3.9872340221276596 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I turned the last page of "No Name" my first thought was " Why did I take so long to read this book?, so much time wasted!"My only Collins experience had been some years ago with "The woman in white" and I wasn't disappointed. But I don't know why I kept postponing starting this novel, which had been in my shelves for quite a long time. Maybe its lenght, maybe (in my humble opinion) the too much simplified summary plot, maybe because I thought I knew what kind of book I was going to read...Well, wasn't I mistaken!I simply loved every single page of the 726 of the novel. Not for a single moment did I feel disconnected from the story or its characters, so varied and well developed. From the so different Vanstone Sisters to the sneaky Mr Wraggle or the cunning Mrs Lecount (what a clash of titans! I loved the psychological struggle between these two characters) to the knightly hero of Mr. Kirke.The novel is divided into 8 scenes, each one of them clearly separated, taking place in different settings and with several characters which cross the path of the brave Magdalen Vanstone. The story follows the unfair situation of two sisters left orphaned by the sudden death of their parents and how they take the fateful news that leave them destitute of her parents' fortune. Sweet and innocent Norah accepts her due and starts working as a governess but her younger and spirited sister Magdalen starts planning her revenge and schemes a trap to recover their fortune, no matter the cost.Not only the thriller in itself, but also the unconventional way of presenting the facts, the battle of Magdalen's conscience between good and evil and the outcome of the story teaches a lesson which is still useful nowadays.Maybe one of the best readings this year, I think this novel should be more valued and that it should be occupying the place it deserves, among the masterpieces to be read and reread over and over again.***SPOILER***Can't help writing the last sentences of the story...It was sublime!" "Tell me the truth!" she repeated. "With my own lips?" "Yes!" she answered eagerly. "Say what you think of me, with your own lips." He stooped, and kissed her. "
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It took me a while to get into this book, but the story picked up pace at about the 200 page mark and from that point onwards I was fairly well hooked. There were the usual outrageous coincidences which would be so frowned upon in novels written today, but it was good to read a Victorian novel with such a strong and resourceful female protagonist. Wilkie Collins hasn't got the 'brand awareness' of Dickens, but I think he was much more sympathetic to women.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When Magdalen and Norah's parents die in rapid succession, the Vanstone daughters suddednly discover that they were born out of wedlock, and left virtually penniless.Restoring herself and her sister to therir rightful place is Magdalen's one passionate desire. The relentless pursuit of her object may cost her dearly.What an excellent book! This is my favorite work of Collins that I've read to date.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got this book as a Christmas present and it turned out to be a real surprise, as I'd been vaguely under the impression that the only Collins books worth reading were Moonstone, Woman in White and (possibly) Armadale. As others have explained above, the plot revolves around the attempts by Magdalen Vanstone to put right the injustice done to herself and her sister Norah as a result of their father dying unexpectedly without having made a valid will.In his preface, Collins states (not altogether convincingly) that his primary objecitve is to study the psychology underlying Magdalen's vacillations between right and wrong. To this end, he intends to eschew his usual twists and turns and shock revelations. Well, up to a point .......The first thing to say is that the book is a real page-turner. Once past the initial scene-setting (itself very well done), it's hard to put the book down. This is helped by the fact that - unlike his friend and associate, Dickens - Collins does not really go in for copious sub-plots. As somebody else has mentioned here, the central section where Wragge and Lecounter go head to head with their rococo machinations is splendid, as well as being very funny at times.My one criticism would be that the book is fractionally too long. The cost of squeezing a couple more episodes out of the plot is that the coincidences pile up and plausibility takes a nose dive. But this is a minor quibble. This is a fine novel by a much overlooked writer.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A fairly run-of-the-mill Collins, though there is nothing wrong with that! Lifted out of the ordinary by the marvellous duel between Captain Wragge and Mrs Lecount.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Magdalen and Norah Vanstone lose their father in a train accident and their mother immediately afterwards in childbirth and then discover that, as their parents were not married at the time of their births, they are both illegitimate and disinherited. The uncle who inherits their father's fortune, does so in a vengeful spirit, in the full knowledge that his brother was about to make a will safeguarding their future, but died before being able to do so. Norah accepts her fate and becomes a governess; Magdalen (whose engagement is now in doubt) vows to recover their money, by whatever means necessary.I found this written in a very accessible style for a Victorian novel. There are several sections where the story is advanced by way of letters, but most of the narrative is from the viewpoint of Magdalen, her co-conspirator Captain Wragge, and her nemesis Mrs Lecount. The blurb on the back of my book says the novel was rejected as immoral by Victorian critics, and there is certainly a lot going on: illegitimacy, stage-acting, disguise, assumed identites, a con artist and thoughts of suicide.Magdalen's reaction to her plight are shown to be "masculine", as opposed to Norah's purely feminine response. We see little of the saintly Norah, and, although Magdalen commits atrocity after atrocity and fails to conform to Victorian ideals of feminine passivity and moral purity, she too gets her happy ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An impressive novel which, in common with many Victorian male writers, has strong women characters. It starts off a bit sub-Jane Austin but soon veers away into something more mysterious and dramatic. It has plenty of longheurs but also enough twists and turns to hold the interest. I know England is a small country but like other Victorian novels, it relies too often on incredible chance meetings between characters at crucial moments.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although a good read in that the characters were well drawn and the pace is good, it is really difficult to reconcile oneself to the plot. The fate of the sisters by the end of the book is totally unjust, as the passive and resigned sister is given all the good fortune and the artistic and rightfully angry sister is given all the punishment. Collins is basically saying that a woman's resourcefulness, ambitition and rightful indignation against injustice is a moral failing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This 1862 novel has interesting events powered by the law as it existed in 1846 in Britain, where bastards had no inheritance rights unless conferred by will. This leads to two fine young women being deprived of an part in their father's ample estate. One of the girls proceeds to try to get this money by marrying the guy who has it. This sets up a tortuous path as she strives to get the money, full of twists and turns and holding the reader, if a little incredulous o the liklihood of the events, reading on until the very last page. It is fun to think of what this novel does not tell and which a modern novel would tell. For instance, not a word of the sex lives of the couple after the woman, who despises the man, succeeds in marrying him. The story goes on and on, with some things inducing incredulity, and while not as good as the best Dickens novels, does have events which make one eager to see what happens. Actually, a lot better than some modern fiction
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is one of the lesser-known of Collins' novels, which surprises me, as this is a cracking good read in the best 'sensation novel' tradition.Sisters Magdalen and Norah Vanstone live an idyllic life with loving parents until tragedy strikes. Their father's death is followed quickly by the death of their mother. Not only are the sisters left orphans, but - because their parents weren't actually married when the girls were born - they are not entitled to inherit any of their parents' money or possessions. The entire fortune goes to their uncle, who has had no contact with his brother for years and has no love for his nieces.Norah takes this change in her circumstances philosophically, resigned to finding work as a governess. But Magdalen cannot accept her situation. A very active and independent heroine, she sets out to exact her revenge. When she discovers that her uncle is dead, she turns her attentions to his sickly, miserly son. Magdalen is aided in her plans by Captain Wragge, a distant relation. He is a self-confessed swindler, and is a great comic character - quite as memorable as many of Dickens' grotesques, but he is also likeable because, whatever his other faults, he has a strong streak of humanity running through him.It is difficult for a modern reader to disapprove of Magdalen too much, even though what she sets out to do is questionable in the extreme. Collins shows us how her character grows, and her humanity it shown in her fondness and consideration for Captain Wragge's tall, nervous wife. The other memorable character is Mrs Lecount, the possessive housekeeper of Noel Vanstone, the man who inherits the money Magdalen believes is rightfully hers. One of the great joys of the novels is the cat-and-mouse plotting and counter-plotting that goes on between Wragge and Lecount, each trying to keep one step ahead of the other.[May 2008]
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Two young women who are"bastards" lose their parents$to a greedy cousin. Magdalen, the younger sister, vows to get their dollars back.

    I read Volume I, so there is more to come, and I am looking forward to it
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent plot, I enjoyed this much better than The Moonstone or The Woman in White. Like the latter, there is a legal backdrop revolving around marriage and inheritance, influenced by Wilkie Collins' training in the law.There are a couple of challenges for the modern reader. First, the repetitiveness, often in epistolary form. Not only do we see every connection and every communication, but we see it from all possible angles. Second, the ending is predictable. You have to be prepared to read this tome for the plot twists, character development and certain memorable scenes. The plot is carefully, some might say forcefully, constructed so that even minor characters repeatedly find a way back to the central story. The contrast between sisters Magdalen and Norah is moralistically painted, but you expect nothing less from a Victorian novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I heartily recommend this book to fans of Wilkie Collins! I really enjoyed it even though it wasn't quite as good as The Woman in White or The Moonstone. I think the dénouement could have been more dramatic, but I see why Collins ended the book the way he did.

Book preview

Maiwa's Revenge - H. Rider Haggard

Maiwa's Revenge by H. Rider Haggard

The War of the Little Hand

Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was born on June 22nd, 1856 at Bradenham in Norfolk, England.

After his education he was pushed towards an Army career but failed the entrance exam. Next Haggard was positioned to work for the British Foreign Office but he seems not to have sat that exam.  Using family connections, he was sent to Southern Africa by his father in search of a further opportunity of a career.

Haggard spent six years there before a return to England and marriage.  He had begun to write and publish some non-fiction in Africa but it was only after studying Law in the hope it might prove to be the proper career his father wanted for him that Haggard began to write fiction, using his African experiences as the basis.

His first fiction was published in 1885 and the following year King Solomon’s Mines was published. It was a phenomenal success. His career was set.

Haggard wrote well and wrote often. He managed to sympathise with the local populations even though they were exploited and manipulated by Europeans intent on amassing fortunes in money, people and resources.  His writing career covered the great sprint to Empire of several European powers and both reflects and criticizes these events through his well-loved characters including Allan Quatermain and Ayesha.

In his later years Haggard pursued much in the way social reform as well as standing for Parliament and writing a great many letters to The Times.

Henry Rider Haggard died on May 14th, 1925 at the age of 68. His ashes were buried at Ditchingham Church.

Index of Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER I - GOBO STRIKES

CHAPTER II - A MORNING'S SPORT

CHAPTER III - THE FIRST ROUND

CHAPTER IV - THE LAST ROUND

CHAPTER V - THE MESSAGE OF MAIWA

CHAPTER VI - THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER VII - THE ATTACK

CHAPTER VIII - MAIWA IS AVENGED

H. RIDER HAGGARD – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

H. RIDER HAGGARD – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

PREFACE

It may be well to state that the incident of the Thing that bites recorded in this tale is not an effort of the imagination. On the contrary, it is plagiarized. Mandara, a well-known chief on the east coast of Africa, has such an article, and uses it. In the same way the wicked conduct attributed to Wambe is not without a precedent. T'Chaka, the Zulu Napoleon, never allowed a child of his to live. Indeed he went further, for on discovering that his mother, Unandi, was bringing up one of his sons in secret, like Nero he killed her, and with his own hand.

CHAPTER I

GOBO STRIKES

One day—it was about a week after Allan Quatermain told me his story of the Three Lions, and of the moving death of Jim-Jim—he and I were walking home together on the termination of a day's shooting. He owned about two thousand acres of shooting round the place he had bought in Yorkshire, over a hundred of which were wood. It was the second year of his occupation of the estate, and already he had reared a very fair head of pheasants, for he was an all-round sportsman, and as fond of shooting with a shot-gun as with an eight-bore rifle. We were three guns that day, Sir Henry Curtis, Old Quatermain, and myself; but Sir Henry was obliged to leave in the middle of the afternoon in order to meet his agent, and inspect an outlying farm where a new shed was wanted. However, he was coming back to dinner, and going to bring Captain Good with him, for Brayley Hall was not more than two miles from the Grange.

We had met with very fair sport, considering that we were only going through outlying cover for cocks. I think that we had killed twenty-seven, a woodcock and a leash of partridges which we secured out of a driven covey. On our way home there lay a long narrow spinney, which was a very favourite lie for woodcocks, and generally held a pheasant or two as well.

Well, what do you say? said old Quatermain, shall we beat through this for a finish?

I assented, and he called to the keeper who was following with a little knot of beaters, and told him to beat the spinney.

Very well, sir, answered the man, but it's getting wonderful dark, and the wind's rising a gale. It will take you all your time to hit a woodcock if the spinney holds one.

You show us the woodcocks, Jeffries, answered Quatermain quickly, for he never liked being crossed in anything to do with sport, and we will look after shooting them.

The man turned and went rather sulkily. I heard him say to the under-keeper, He's pretty good, the master is, I'm not saying he isn't, but if he kills a woodcock in this light and wind, I'm a Dutchman.

I think that Quatermain heard him too, though he said nothing. The wind was rising every minute, and by the time the beat begun it blew big guns. I stood at the right-hand corner of the spinney, which curved round somewhat, and Quatermain stood at the left, about forty paces from me. Presently an old cock pheasant came rocketing over me, looking as though the feathers were being blown out of his tail. I missed him clean with the first barrel, and was never more pleased with myself in my life than when I doubled him up with the second, for the shot was not an easy one. In the faint light I could see Quatermain nodding his head in approval, when through the groaning of the trees I heard the shouts of the beaters, Cock forward, cock to the right. Then came a whole volley of shouts, Woodcock to the right, Cock to the left, Cock over.

I looked up, and presently caught sight of one of the woodcocks coming down the wind upon me like a flash. In that dim light I could not follow all his movements as he zigzagged through the naked tree-tops; indeed I could see him when his wings flitted up. Now he was passing me—bang, and a flick of the wing, I had missed him; bang again. Surely he was down; no, there he went to my left.

Cock to you, I shouted, stepping forward so as to get Quatermain between me and the faint angry light of the dying day, for I wanted to see if he would wipe my eye. I knew him to be a wonderful shot, but I thought that cock would puzzle him.

I saw him raise his gun ever so little and bend forward, and at that moment out flashed two woodcocks into the open, the one I had missed to his right, and the other to his left.

At the same time a fresh shout arose of, Woodcock over, and looking down the spinney I saw a third bird high up in the air, being blown along like a brown and whirling leaf straight over Quatermain's head. And then followed the prettiest little bit of shooting that I ever saw. The bird to the right was flying low, not ten yards from the line of a hedgerow, and Quatermain took him first because he would become invisible the soonest of any. Indeed, nobody who had not his hawk's eyes could have seen to shoot at all. But he saw the bird well enough to kill it dead as a stone. Then turning sharply, he pulled on the second bird at about forty-five yards, and over he went. By this time the third woodcock was nearly over him, and flying very high, straight down the wind, a hundred feet up or more, I should say. I saw him glance at it as he opened his gun, threw out the right cartridge and slipped in another, turning round as he did so. By this time the cock was nearly fifty yards away from him, and travelling like a flash. Lifting his gun he fired after it, and, wonderful as the shot was, killed it dead. A tearing gust of wind caught the dead bird, and blew it away like a leaf torn from an oak, so that it fell a hundred and thirty yards off or more.

I say, Quatermain, I said to him when the beaters were up, do you often do this sort of thing?

Well, he answered, with a dry smile, the last time I had to load three shots as quickly as that was at rather larger game. It was at elephants. I killed them all three as dead as I killed those woodcocks; but it very nearly went the other way, I can tell you; I mean that they very nearly killed me.

Just at that moment the keeper came up, Did you happen to get one of them there cocks, sir? he said, with the air of a man who did not in the least expect an answer in the affirmative.

Well, yes, Jeffries, answered Quatermain; you will find one of them by the hedge, and another about fifty yards out by the plough there to the left—

The keeper had turned to go, looking a little astonished, when Quatermain called him back.

Stop a bit, Jeffries, he said. You see that pollard about one hundred and forty yards off? Well, there should be another woodcock down in a line with it, about sixty paces out in the field.

Well, if that bean't the very smartest bit of shooting, murmured Jeffries, and departed.

After that we went home, and in due course Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good arrived for dinner, the latter arrayed in the tightest and most ornamental dress-suit I ever saw. I remember that the waistcoat was adorned with five pink coral buttons.

It was a very pleasant dinner. Old Quatermain was in an excellent humour; induced, I think, by the recollection of his triumph over the doubting Jeffries. Good, too, was full of anecdotes. He told us a most miraculous story of how he once went shooting ibex in Kashmir. These ibex, according to Good, he stalked early and late for four entire days. At last on the morning of the fifth day he succeeded in getting within range of the flock, which consisted of a magnificent old ram with horns so long that I am afraid to mention their measure, and five or six females. Good crawled upon his stomach, painfully taking shelter behind rocks, till he was within two hundred yards; then he drew a fine bead upon the old ram. At this moment, however, a diversion occurred. Some wandering native of the hills appeared upon a distant mountain top. The females turned, and rushing over a rock vanished from Good's ken. But the old ram took a bolder course. In front of him stretched a mighty crevasse at least thirty feet in width. He went at it with a bound. Whilst he was in mid-air Good fired, and killed him dead. The ram turned a complete somersault in space, and fell in such fashion that his horns hooked themselves upon a big projection of the opposite cliffs. There he hung, till Good, after a long and painful détour, gracefully dropped a lasso over him and fished him up.

This moving tale of wild adventure was received with undeserved incredulity.

Well, said Good, if you fellows won't believe my story when I tell it—a perfectly true story mind—perhaps one of you will give us a better; I'm not particular if it is true or not. And he lapsed into a dignified silence.

Now, Quatermain,

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