She is one of the most influential novels in modern literature. Several authors, including Rudyard Kipling, Henry Miller, Graham Greene, J.R.R. Tolkien and Margaret Atwood, have acknowledged its importance to their own and others' writing.[56] With more than 83 million copies sold, the novel is one of the best-selling fictional works of all time and has been translated into 44 languages.[98] According to Stauffer, "She has always been Rider Haggard's most popular and influential novel, challenged only by King Solomon's Mines in this regard".[99] The novel is cited in the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the latter describing the character of She as a manifestation of the anima figure.[100][101]
The novel has had a lasting impact on the fantasy genre in particular,[102] directly giving rise to the "lost civilisation" tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the creation of mythologised locations such as Shangri-la. Tolkien recognised the importance of She to his own fantasy works, especially in its foregrounding of a fictional history and narrative.[103] Some scholars have also argued that She may have had a formative influence on Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: Ayesha's reflecting pool seems to be a direct precursor of Galadriel's mirror. Other characters in Tolkien's Legendarium also seem to have been influenced, including Shelob (who is referred to as "She" and "Her" in the text), and the escape of the Fellowship of the Ring across the chasm in Moria may be reminiscent of the escape across the chasm near the end of She.[104][105] Similarly, the "hot pot" ritual of Haggard's Amahagger people appears to have been an inspiration or predecessor of the death of Viserys Targaryen in George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones; and Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, and especially Melisandre of Asshai, priestess of the god R'hllor, might be seen as characters in the tradition beginning with Ayesha. Indeed, Haggard's characterisation of Ayesha became the prototype of the female antagonist in modern fantasy literature,[41] most famously realised in the figure of the White Witch, Jadis, in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia.[106][107] Kor and Ayesha appear in Alan Moore's Nemo: Heart of Ice. The name Ayesha is used in Marvel comics for the female superheroine Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race, also known as Kismet. Her portrayal in the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 2017 as a beautiful, powerful yet ruthless and cold empress in a grand court recalls Haggard's characterisation of Ayesha.
At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 the H. Jay Smith Exploring Company presented an exhibit of artefacts from the American Southwest featuring objects and human remains of the Basketmaker and Cliff Dweller (Ancestral Puebloan) cultures. The exhibit featured a mummy that had been preserved naturally by the southwestern climate and that was given the name "She".
Adaptations
She has been adapted for the cinema at least eleven times, beginning with the 1899 short film The Pillar of Fire, directed by Georges Méliès,[108] followed by another short film directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1908. An American 1911 version starred Marguerite Snow, a British-produced version appeared in 1916, and in 1917 Valeska Suratt appeared in a production for Fox which is lost. In 1925 a silent film of She, starring Betty Blythe, was produced with the active participation of Rider Haggard, who wrote the intertitles. The film combines elements from all the books in the series.
A decade later, another cinematic version of the novel was released, featuring Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott and Nigel Bruce.[109] This 1935 adaptation was set in the Arctic, rather than Africa, and depicts the ancient civilisation of the story in an Art Deco style, with music by Max Steiner.
The 1965 film She was produced by Hammer Film Productions, and starred Ursula Andress as Ayesha and John Richardson as her reincarnated love, with Peter Cushing as Holly, Christopher Lee as Billali and Bernard Cribbins as Job.[110]
A post-apocalyptic film version of the same title, directed by Avi Nesher, was released in the United States in 1985.
In 2001, another adaption was released direct to video with Ian Duncan as Leo Vincey, Ophélie Winter as Ayesha and Marie Bäumer as Roxane.
Tim McInnerny starred as Holly (renamed Ludwig Holly) with Mia Soteriou as Ayesha and Oliver Chris as Leo in a two-part adaptation on BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial, originally broadcast on 2 July and 9 July 2006.[111]
In 2007, a rock-opera/musical version of She was recorded live at the Wyspianski Theatre, Katowice, Poland by Clive Nolan and was released on DVD. In February 2012, the Nolan version of She had its first UK performance at the Playhouse in Cheltenham.[112]
According to Financial Times reviewer James Lovegrove, Juliet E. McKenna's 2012 She-who-thinks-for-herself, is "a cunning, funny... feminist rewrite" of She.[113]
Sequel and prequels
- Ayesha, the Return of She, published in 1905
- She and Allan, published in 1921
- Wisdom's Daughter, published in 1923
