She

A runaway bestseller on its publication in 1887 H. Rider Haggard&#146;s <i>She</i> is a Victorian thrill ride of a novel featuring a lost African kingdom ruled by a mysterious implacable queen; ferocious wildlife and yawning abysses; and an eerie love story that spans two thousand years. <i>She</i> has bewitched readers from Freud and Jung to C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien; in her Introduction to this Modern Library Paperback Classic&#151;which includes period illustrations by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr&#151;Margaret Atwood asserts that the awe-inspiring Ayesha &#147;She-who-must-be-obeyed&#148; is &#147;a permanent feature of the human imagination.&#148;