H. Rider Haggard

Jess Croft lives with sister Bessie and old Silas, a farmer raising ostriches on the great Transvaal veldt. Jess is a reserved and aloof, with a quietness about her brought on by the misfortunes of her young childhood, when she and Bessie arrived motherless from England to South Africa. Then an Englishman, Captain John Niel, arrives to try his hand at the farming life.

Henry Rider Haggard was born at Bradenham, Norfolk, to Sir William Meybohm Rider Haggard, a barrister, and Ella Doveton, an author and poet. He was the eighth of ten children. He was initially sent to Garsington Rectory in Oxfordshire to study under the Reverend H.J. Graham but, unlike his older brothers who graduated from various Public Schools, he ended up attending Ipswich Grammar School. This was because his father, who regarded him as somebody who was not going to amount to much, could no longer afford to maintain his expensive private education. After failing his army entrance exam he was sent to a private 'crammer' in London to prepare for the entrance exam for the British Foreign Office, which in the end he never sat. Instead Haggard's father sent him to Africa in an unpaid position as assistant to the secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, Sir Henry Bulwer. It was in this role that Haggard was present in Pretoria for the official announcement of the British annexation of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal. In fact, Haggard raised the Union Flag and was forced to read out much of the proclamation following the loss of voice of the official originally entrusted with the duty. As a young man, Haggard fell deeply in love with Lilith Jackson, whom he intended to marry once he obtained paid employment in South Africa

Jess Croft is a frightened and closed in herself a girl. All this because of her misfortune that happened in childhood. She was forced to leave England without a mother in South Africa. Captain John Niel arrives at the farm where Jess and her sister live. He falls in love with Jess. But all this can turn into a love triangle.

Tom Shippey's new edition of H. Rider Haggard's saga-inspired Eric Brighteyes includes: - An introduction to the work's literary and historical context- Extensive annotations on its sources and influences- Discussions of medieval Scandinavia and J.R.R. Tolkien- 17 full-page illustrations by Lancelot SpeedEric Brighteyes, published in 1891, represented a new departure for Rider Haggard, best-known at the time for his novels set in nineteenth-century Africa, such as King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She (1887). Set for the most part in tenth-century Iceland, it was praised by Tolkien for its heroic quality, and remains the best example of what was once a large and popular genre, the Victorian Viking novel. Unlike other works of this kind, however, though not unusually for Haggard, it is driven by female characters, and combines scholarly authenticity with Haggard's own unique flair for the strange and supernatural. In this new edition, Tom Shippey supplies Eric Brighteyes with extensive explanatory notes and an introduction discussing Tolkien's admiration for Haggard and the Victorian fascination with Vikings.

Tom Shippey's new edition of H. Rider Haggard's saga-inspired Eric Brighteyes includes: - An introduction to the work's literary and historical context- Extensive annotations on its sources and influences- Discussions of medieval Scandinavia and J.R.R. Tolkien- 17 full-page illustrations by Lancelot SpeedEric Brighteyes, published in 1891, represented a new departure for Rider Haggard, best-known at the time for his novels set in nineteenth-century Africa, such as King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She (1887). Set for the most part in tenth-century Iceland, it was praised by Tolkien for its heroic quality, and remains the best example of what was once a large and popular genre, the Victorian Viking novel. Unlike other works of this kind, however, though not unusually for Haggard, it is driven by female characters, and combines scholarly authenticity with Haggard's own unique flair for the strange and supernatural. In this new edition, Tom Shippey supplies Eric Brighteyes with extensive explanatory notes and an introduction discussing Tolkien's admiration for Haggard and the Victorian fascination with Vikings.