H rider haggard biography book review

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born in Norfolk, England in 1856. His parents were wealthy landowners with both Jewish and Indian ancestors, a fact which may have contributed to Haggard’s own more liberal views toward racial and religious differences.

H rider haggard biography book review new york times

Alone among his brothers (Haggard was one of eight children), Haggard was not given a private school education. He took up the study of law, but soon dropped it in order to take a secretarial position for the governor of Natal in South Africa.

He remained in Africa over five years, an experience which shows in many of his novels set on that so-called “Dark Continent.”

Haggard returned to England and completed his studies, but still could not interest himself in the legal profession.

He married into a wealthy Norfolk family and planned to return to South Africa to live as a gentleman farmer, but the increasing chaos of the Zulu rebellion and Boer War made his wife unwil