H. Rider Haggard - Black Heart and White Heart

[dem bones]

H. Rider Haggard - Black Heart and White Heart (Newnes, undated, c 1920's?; originally 1893)

The Wizard
Black Heart and White Heart

Black Heart and White Heart: Ex-public schoolboy Philip Hadden, emigrates to Natal under a cloud, his family having disowned him for his dishonourable ways. In 1878, now pushing forty, Hadden again finds it expedient to make a hasty disappearance and crosses into Zululand. There he persuades King Cetywayo to allow him to hunt buffalo in return for mending the tribe's rifles.

War is imminent, and Hadden is in a dangerous position.

"It will go hard if I cannot manage to give them the slip somehow. I don't intend to stay in this country if war is declared, to be pounded to a maiti (medicine), or have my eyes put out, or any little joke of that sort."

Hadden is in the care of a brave young warrior. Nahoon, son of Zomba, is pledged with returning the big game-hunter from the veldt at the end of the month so he may keep his end of the bargain. Loyal as he is, Nahoon is angry with King Cetywayo for denying him the hand of Nanea, his lover. Cetywayo reasons that, if the girl is beautiful as Nahoon claims, why not claim her as his own - a great king can never have too many wives.

En route to the veldt, Hadden insists they stop at the hut of Bee, the ancient witch-doctoress, famed for the deadly accuracy of her impenetrable prophesies. She who "gathers wisdom from the dead who grow in the forest." takes a fancy to the snake ring he wears, and requests it as her fee. Hadden refuses. Bee reads his fortune regardless, assuring him she'll claim it when he's dead.

Despite Hadden's treachery toward him, Nahoon saves the white man's life when he's leapt upon by a tiger. Hadden repays him by lusting after Nanea, who is indeed a looker fit to share any white man's bed until he's sick of her. Appalled when she rejects his advances, the conniving ingrate first persuades Nahoon to deny his King, lead Nanea and her father to safety in Nepal, then betrays them to Maputa, another of Nanea's rejected suitors. Hadden has chosen his confederate unwisely. Maputa is every bit as devious as himself. Before they are thrown into the Doom Pool, the Zulu cheerfully informs the trio who it was turned traitor.

Hadden is mortified at being exposed so - but, well, life goes on. Surely Maputa won't drive him over the cliff edge, too? “No, our orders are to take you to the king, but what he will do with you I do not know. There is to be war between your people and ours, so perhaps he means to pound you into medicine for the use of the witch-doctors, or to peg you over an ant-heap as a warning to other white men.” Still Rider-Haggard is not done. The final chapter includes a cannibal feast in a haunted forest, the massacre of the Queen's troops at Isandhlwana, and confirmation that the visions of the spider-like Bee are never wrong.

First read Black Heart and White Heart way, way back in Asimov, Waugh & Greenberg's Best Fantasy of the 19th Century (1982), loved it then, and, turns out, I still do. Found this fragile copy at last Sunday's market for 50p. If you like your jungle melodrama's "... and with one bound he/ she was free!" you've come to the right place.

[helrunar]

That's a wonderful review, Kev, and a beaut of a cover on that book. You and James find all the best stuff. 

I've never even heard of this novel by Haggard but it sounds like quite a yarn. I don't think this was the only tale he wrote in which the white "hero" is a complete scoundrel and waste of space, while the black guide or companion embodies all the "virtues" the missionaries always claimed for their "one true religion."

cheers, Steve

[cromagnonman]

That's a great find Kev. I accrue Rider Haggard editions at an alarming rate - [have taken receipt of a copy of MARY OF MARION ISLE only this morning] - but that's one I don't have. "The Wizard" has never appealed to me really, but that title story sounds great. And rather puts a different complexion on the erroneous notion of HRH's african adventures being full of good eggs and decent chaps. The indiginous heroes have always been the ones that made the biggest impressions in such for my money.

[dem bones]

Sept 5, 2020 13:16:48 GMT cromagnonman said:

The indiginous heroes have always been the ones that made the biggest impressions in such for my money.

They do in Black Heart and White Heart, that's for sure. Have added back cover ad to the scan. In truth, the copy is in terrible condition - but, had it skipped my notice, chances are it would now be in no condition at all unless someone else had bought it. There was also a raggedy The Saint magazine, but its condition was just too disgusting, even for me.

It's truly impressive how much Rider-Haggard packs into fifty pages - elements of adventure, jungle justice, horror, supernatural and, of course, a rousing love story. Incidentally, the introductory note in The Best Fantasy of the 19th Century concludes;

"It is a work of which Peter Haining has said 'I doubt if a better story has ever been written about these remarkable people.'"